Church Schools

Simon Barrow and Jonathan Bartley from Ekklesia are beginning to tread onto the hallowed turf of Church of England Church Schools and to ask some serious questions from a Christian perspective about their appropriateness and success.

This makes a pleasant change from the normally shrill  and frequently ill-informed criticisms of the small group of left-wing secularists who normally provide the only sustained critique- but they join a growing list of other groups within society prepared to ask questions.

The Church of England recently commissioned some independent research into the people's attitudes to Church schools which it has been widely spun as being "Church schools given top marks by people of all faiths" while quietly ignoring some very awkward results to other questions.

At the very least, it is clear that the Church has a continuing task to explain why it should enjoy the numerous advantages reserved for its schools and those of the Roman Catholic Church.

Internally and theologically there are questions to be asked about the motives and reasons for putting so much energy into Church schools - and whether in the mission of the Church they will deliver what some people are claiming for them.

At the very least we need a more developed understanding than simply that they are a good thing - or that they are right because they are popular. They are popular for reasons which may have nothing to do with the gospel.

In the current system it is plainly every parent's role to do the best for their child - but a Christian Church has other more widely seated values which cannot simply respond to these desires.

The "Christian Questions" ought to be about (for example) whether Church schools (severally across the nation and individually in each community) promote a real opportunity for young people to freely explore and discover faith, and whether they contribute to a more just education system and society.

The Church's own survey results would cause one to ask for more detail and further consideration about whether these and other aims are being achieved.

Missiologically are we endeavoring to sustain a Christendom model of church and society, or would our considerable resources and energies in education be put to better use (for example) in specialist roles such as ensuring that all children could read by the end of primary school - such an objective would honour those who founded many of the Church primary schools around the country with the focus on children most in need - and perhaps provide a more focused post-Christendom Kingdom model of education.

I write this very aware that I have personally benefited from the very same church schools but with increasing concern about that the conditions and contribution have changed since then.

Read Simon's latest article here in the Guardian and Jonathan's wider assessment here.