February 23, 2015

BBC’s The Big Questions isn’t my sort of programme, but because I very nearly made it onto this week’s show (I was dropped in the final editorial cut) I thought I’d better watch it, just to see what I might have said. The question was whether faith should be allowed in schools. As I expected, the debate was woefully free of evidence, except where said evidence could be manipulated into the frame to support a particular point. It was full... Read more

February 21, 2015

I blogged recently about the future of our faith schools and the likelihood that they will remain as faith schools, but not as we know them. Today comes a new challenge to their existence, this time from the European Commission, after complaints from the British Humanist Association (BHA). The plan has been long in the making – the BHA tried to provoke an investigation last year, which was placed on hold after the Commission ruled that no evidence had been... Read more

February 13, 2015

Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) is a very current topic. There have been regular calls from a range of groups for an overhaul of SRE education programmes and on 21 October, a Ten Minute Rule Bill was introduced to Parliament outlining proposed changes to the current law. As the current law stands, SRE provision beyond the requirement to teach about reproduction and growth in science is at the discretion of each school. This is decided by governors, in consultation with... Read more

February 9, 2015

Do we value education? a report by a Christian organisation published in 2013, presented a detailed snapshot of the beliefs of 1377 Christians about education  – their own, their children’s and their views of the role of faith in education. The National Secular Society’s sound bite headline? ‘Evangelicals put indoctrination ahead of education’. So, do faith schools educate, or indoctrinate? I’ve some experience of this. I went to a Church of England primary school, not because faith education was particularly... Read more

February 4, 2015

Excellent news. Faith schools are going to remain a permanent part of the English education system. It must be true, because a politician said so – Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt, during a Progress event in Westminster last October. Oh, wait. He said something else as well. OFSTED should inspect religious teaching in faith schools to ensure that a broad and balanced curriculum is being delivered (under current regulations, provision of religious education in faith schools is subject to a... Read more

February 2, 2015

According to the law, all pupils in attendance at a maintained school in the UK have to take part in a daily act of collective worship which is wholly, or mainly, of a broadly Christian character. What does that actually mean? And is it time, 70 years on and living in a very different society, to bring this practice to a dignified end? The idea of corporate meeting is clearly important – but how should that time be used? For... Read more

January 28, 2015

Occasionally, when clicking through the many links on my Twitter stream, I find something that makes me stop. I find something that makes me read and which compels me to think. One such blog is ‘Learning to Say “Maybe”‘, written by Matt Zandee and posted on The Biologos Forum  a masters student at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids,  researching cellular and molecular biology. He attends Crossroads Church in Grand Rapids. What struck me was the transparent honesty of the writer in... Read more

January 23, 2015

What would you expect a workshop on avoiding conflict in our classrooms to look like? One that I attended recently wasn’t quite the standard reflection on conflict resolution that I expected – it was much, much more. It looked at some of the causes of conflict and how, as Christian teachers, we can address them. Lazlo Demeter, a Hungarian presenter who works as a trainer with ACSI  (Association of Christian Schools International) Europe, suggested a range of reasons why conflict arise, many... Read more

January 22, 2015

On Rock or Sand is a series of essays analysing the state of our political system, bookended with Christian perspectives  from John Sentamu (Archbishop of York) which inform a powerful call to action. The weight of the argument rests on the view that contemporary society is built ‘on shifting sands of self-service’. So how, the book asks, is that reflected in the body politic?  And what constitutes the rock on which Britain’s future should be built? Firstly what this book... Read more

January 19, 2015

This is the first in a series of blogs on the life of Nehemiah – a man whose  approach to work, motivation and leadership fascinate me. Not only was he a Jew living in an alien culture, but he had also worked his way to the very top of his career. Throughout, he walked closely with God. Nehemiah had an important job. He was cupbearer to King Artaxerxes of Syria, responsible for ensuring the king’s safety, and a trusted servant. But... Read more


Browse Our Archives