The School: Organisation, Ethos and Curriculum

The views expressed in this publication are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of either The Christian Institute or the authors employer.

The School: Organisation, Ethos and Curriculum
A Biblical Perspective

©2000 The Christian Institute

A lecture given by John Burn on 13 April 2000 at Emmanuel College, Gateshead

Contents

Introduction

The Biblical View

The Schooling Crisis

Organisation and Structure

Ethos

Curriculum

Conclusion

Introduction

This is a huge subject and I know that you will recognise that I will be unable to answer all of the issues that may occur to you in relation to this subject. I would want to say that this is the start of what I hope will be an ongoing discussion.

I hope that what I want to say will be of assistance to those schools which already have a distinctive Christian basis and those schools in the state sector who are meant to work in a manner consistent with the legislative requirements in terms of worship, religious education and spiritual and moral education but which for a variety of reasons have found themselves unable to do so.

I am making certain assumptions in giving this lecture. The main one, which I hope that we share, is that for Christians our ultimate frame of reference is the Bible -God's word given to us, which is utterly reliable and true for all time and all circumstances. If we have no ultimate frame of reference, then we will be adrift not only in our educational thinking but also in our thinking about everything else.

It is to the Bible, therefore, that we look for the truths about God, the world, and human beings. These truths are crucial if we are concerned about young people and their education.
Top

The Biblical View

God has chosen to reveal these truths in scripture and in his Son Jesus Christ who is both fully God and fully man.

God is thus all knowing, all present, all- powerful. He is the creator and sustainer of everything in the natural world. He is a God of Judgement, Righteousness and Love who has created men and women special and separate from all of the rest of creation that they might enjoy a life of eternal fellowship with Him. Within His providence he has given to human beings a freedom which He respects.

Human beings are made in his image, but they are fallen and flawed and are born with an inherent bias to sin and to fall far short of the life God intended for them. They are, therefore, not essentially good and are incapable of life and fellowship with God except they find salvation through faith in God's unique Son Jesus Christ -the one and final Saviour.

Human beings are indeed as Augustine described them -restless and rootless unless they find their rest and roots in the living God who made them.

The Bible speaks both of Saving Grace and Common Grace. Despite their fallen nature, men and women are capable of reaching great heights through music, art, poetry, drama, science, acts of bravery and courage, deeds of humanitarian selflessness and in many other ways. Sadly too they are capable of great cruelty and acts of unspeakable degradation. That is the great human paradox and only the Bible is both honest about it and points us to the remedy.

The Bible is also clear that we can only make sense of life if we see it from the perspective of eternity. It says that God has set eternity in the hearts of men and women (Ecclesiastes 3:11) and that there are two ultimate destinies facing all of us -eternity with God or the eternity of hell outside of God. This too has educational significance.
The Bible also speaks of accountability in terms of the God to whom all human beings must one day give account.

It also speaks of structures and authority. Families are, for example, authority structures and we must think of the school in terms of acting for part of each day in "loco parentis".
John Milton believed that the task of education was to repair the damage done by our first parents in the Garden of Eden. Education has certainly a part to play in making he consequences of human self- centredness less disastrous. Like the state, schools have a role to play in restraining the forces of evil.

The Bible does not speak of schools but it does speak of training, instructions, and education with respect to fathers, parents and Christian leaders.

There is also the issue of time. During the 12 years of statutory education the average child and young person will have been exposed to something like 15,000 hours in secular schools, also at least that amount of time in front of a television and/or down loading from the internet and for the majority of young people no time under the influence of a church.

We are familiar perhaps with the sad statistic that during the 20th century the proportion of children in Sunday schools fell from about 60% to 4%. Almost the entire age group are out of reach of Christian things save what they might encounter in school.

Our concern is not just for the children of Christians but for all children although increasingly Christian parents must ask themselves for how long they can continue to expose their own children in their formative years to an increasingly secular humanistic education which seeks to eliminate all thoughts of God and Christ.

The host culture in our society is still nominally Christian and the majority of people in Britain when polled on the issue continue to describe themselves as Christian. This explains why a majority still wants their children to learn about Christianity and the Bible and also experience worship and prayers in schools.

One of the most important commandments in the Bible is found in the Book of Deuteronomy. The Jews have always known the importance of this scripture and regarded it as a pivotal passage:

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your fore heads. Write them on the door- frames of your houses and on your gates" (Deuteronomy 6:4- 9)

Nothing that God commands is without promise. He tells the people that they are to fear the Lord and pass on his instructions to their children and children's children. The promise is that the keeping of these commandments will bring blessings for each generation.

This is true for an individual, the church and the nation. We must keep and obey the Word of God. The Bible teaches us that "Righteousness exalts a nation"(Proverbs 14:34). For a nation to be blessed in all aspects of its national life it must keep and obey the Word of God. We have seen in recent years an increasing abandonment of God and His Word by both church and state with tragic consequences. The moral decline in our nation is now steep and rapid.

The Bible and the principles and values within the Bible must be restored to their rightful place in the sociological and educational basis of national life.

God stresses in his Word that the educational process is to be continuous and diligent. God's word is to be bound and hidden in the heart and written on the hand. The importance of building biblical principles into the lives of children is crucial

The education of children is the prime responsibility of parents, not the state. It is important that society's schools conform more to the wishes of the majority of parents. The precepts of God's word are the only precepts that produce real life and lead to godliness. The human mind without God becomes futile and human thinking dark (Romans 1:21).

We are now at a very crucial historical point in schooling.

Many Christian parents are deeply concerned about the secularisation of our schools. Sadly, however, too many Christians still believe that the school and the classroom are both neutral. We cannot have a neutral school or classroom -neither can we have a neutral home. Homes, schools and the media are the principal carriers of values and the promoters of virtues. In a peculiar way sometimes non-Christian parents are more concerned about the quality of schooling than Christian parents.

Many parents, Christian and non-Christian alike, are concerned about poor discipline; low expectations; low or indifferent standards of achievement; a sex education programme which seems to endorse if not promote promiscuity and promote all life styles as morally equivalent: multi-faith teaching which suggests that all faiths in essence are the same; the possibility of homosexuality being taught as a morally equivalent alternative to marriage and family life and many other issues.
Top

The Schooling Crisis

There is a crisis in schooling. The fundamental issue is not one of resources, although these are important. The fundamental issue is a spiritual and moral one.

There are a number of movements in the educational world whose outcomes are as yet uncertain. The consensus about the desirability of Local Education Authorities being the sole providers of publicly funded education is breaking down across the political divide. OFSTED has been very critical of many LEAS, particularly those in the urban areas. It may be that we are moving to a situation in which there will be free- standing schools and the opportunity for parents, again especially in urban areas, to choose between schools of differing specialisms and ethos.

There may be the possibility of increasing numbers of publicly funded faith schools -Christian, Muslim, Sikh. The Church of England is anxious to increase the number of Church Schools especially in the secondary sector.

There are now real opportunities for Christians alongside sympathetic businessmen and women to create new schools along the lines of the publicly funded independent schools - the City Technology Colleges.

In March 2000 came the news that some of us had been hoping and praying for the announcement of the Secretary of State for Education and Employment of the possibility of the creation in the very near future of City Academies, virtually identical to City Technology Colleges. Government and sponsors from the business world with Churches would fund them. They will be like the CTCs, independent of LEAs and the way is now open for some of these to have a distinct Christian basis just like Emmanuel College, Gateshead. The challenge is to find the sponsors and the right Heads and Senior staff. The latter will be a more difficult task than the former.

These lectures and further Christian Institute initiatives will be particularly important in this regard in the identifying and training of Christian leaders. As Christians we need to be alert to and ready for such possibilities. We also need to be training a new generation of head teachers, senior staff and heads of department who are informed by scripture and who seek to live their whole lives - personal, family and public - under the influence of God's word.

One of our hopes is that this series of lectures will play an initial part in the fleshing out of this bold vision.

In the past Christians have often stepped aside from responsibility and challenge in this crucial area of schooling and education. I want to suggest to you that now is the time for Christians, who take scripture seriously, to rise to the challenges and opportunities opening to us. When God opens doors of opportunity, He looks to His people to faithfully walk through them in response.

What might a school which is informed by the truths of scripture look like in terms of its structure, organisation, ethos and curriculum?
Top

Organisation and Structure

The focus of the organisation - that is the school - will be on each individual developing child and young person fulfilling their maximum potential.

Most schools would claim to do this, but the reality is often different.

The prime task of the school is to create conditions so that each individual child develops as fully as possible physically, mentally, morally and spiritually.

The school must be concerned to know as accurately as possible the level of attainment of each child in each subject of the curriculum. Accurate assessment is not the enemy but rather is it a necessary condition for growth and development. Annual assessment is necessary for each child in each subject and I believe that an annual system of setting benchmarks and targets for each child in every subject is a helpful way of doing this.

Alongside this there must be an annual system of reporting to and for parents which is clear, jargon free and honest and which gives clear indication to each child how they may improve and develop further.

Honesty is important. It is neither caring nor loving to hide reality from children in respect of their current achievement although this must be done in a sensitive manner.
The quality of learning for every single child must be a priority.

Related to this is, of course, the quality of teaching provided by each individual teacher. No real learning takes place without a measure of pain and struggle emanating from the interaction between the mature mind of the teacher and the maturing and developing mind of the child and young person.

Again in the interests of every young person, a regular, and I would say annual, system of comprehensive appraisal of staff is essential. A component of this appraisal will be a thorough analysis of the effectiveness of every teacher in raising the attainment of every child. If the head of the school does nothing else this must be an absolute priority to ensure the maximum learning and development of every child in his or her care.
Teachers must be accountable to the head for the quality of what they do. Accountability is built in to the order of things. We are all going to be held to account to the God who made us for the use we have put to our God given talents and abilities.

It is important that teachers' responsibilities are defined in order that they may know what it expected of them. Without this they cannot be properly accountable for what they do. That accountability, of course, reaches through the head to the child and the parents.
Accountability, then is an important biblical concept and principle.

Authority too is an important biblical principle.

There must be a proper authority vested in the head teacher and every teacher in the school, There is a distinction to be drawn between adults and children and children are not to be seen as adults in miniature.

That is why teachers should be teachers. Secular thinking would have it that teaching is bad and learning is good. We do not like to talk about teachers any more. We prefer to think in terms of coaches, mentors and learning facilitators. The teacher has a huge role in introducing a child to something that he would not otherwise know. There is nothing wrong in the transmission of facts and didactic teaching does not have to be tedious although much so called practical group work and research smacks of incredible tedium.

We must ensure that teaching remains central to the school and that the discrete subject specific knowledge and skills are taught. God has given human beings minds which teachers must develop. If thinking involves anything it surely is the ability to resist the cliché, the sound bite, the hype and the rhetoric of the flimsy, superficial and shallow new age culture of these times. Teaching children to think has never been more necessary.

The teacher takes on the role of "loco parentis" during the school day and must be concerned for the disciplining of those children and young people in his care. Order and discipline must be a feature of a school as well as a family. The biblical maxim "Spare the rod and spoil the child" still holds even though it cannot be applied in all of its intended fullness at the present time. Corporal punishment is now forbidden in all kinds of schools in this Country. Teachers are required to abide by this.

Scripture teaches us that sometimes the Lord disciplines Christians that they may grow in holiness and be purified and refined.

These are important words from the book of Hebrews:
"Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it"
(Hebrews 12: 9.10,11)

Without discipline, order and respect there can be no genuine learning and development and a biblically based school will have order at its heart.

An important role for the head of a school must the creation of order and discipline and the wholehearted and consistent support of the staff as they seek to maintain it. Equally it is incumbent upon the headteacher to recognise the pressures of the modern classroom and give wholehearted support to their staff as they collectively seek to uphold high standards of behaviour. Too many Christian teachers in my experience seem to shy away from the idea of discipline and are too afraid of upsetting children and thus contribute to the creation of pampered and indulged children who are unable to cope with words such as "No" and "Not Yet".

Biblical discipline is not the enemy of children's creativity and imagination. On the contrary it is the soil in which true creativity can flourish.

God gives authority to parents and teachers who represent parents. This authority must not be exercised harshly or unreasonably. God's commands for all contains
"Honour you father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land you God is giving you"(Exodus 20:12)

This respect is to extend to teachers also.

Equally well should we note the injunction,
"Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord"(Ephesians 6:4)

The school must also be such that those who teach in it see their work and professionalism as something done in the service of and for the glory of God. There is no place for part time Christians. All Christians are to be full time Christian workers in the sense that all they do and are in family, neighbourhood work and in church do is to be of the highest as a total response of thanksgiving for what God has done for us through the substitutionary death of His Son at Calvary.

In school terms this means teachers will be hard working, well prepared, scrupulous in their regular marking of children's work and in their feed back to them. They will be wholly professional and totally Christian professionals.
Top

Ethos

What will distinguish the ethos of a school run on biblical principles?

It will seek to show to young people through ethos, curriculum and by the personal example of those who teach and work there something of the nature of the living God who made them. He is a God of Truth, Justice, Mercy and Love.

Truth, Justice, Mercy and Love will characterise the ethos of the school. There will be practical love and care shown for every single individual. This is not to be seen as something soft and sentimental. The school will be characterised by high expectation of all and a wish for all children to develop their potential to the very full. Love and care will include discipline and rules and an in- built system of consistent and fairly applied punishment when rules are broken. There will also be opportunities for restoration for those who have broken rules and are genuinely sorry and resolved to try to do better.

Human beings have an innate system of justice because God put it there when he made us in his image. They also have a God implanted conscience and know right from wrong. Children expect justice in their schools and will accept punishment if properly and fairly applied.

If we truly love children, then we will want them to know what is true and right and what is false and wrong.

Positive moral teaching will, therefore, lie at the heart of schooling. Relativism and subjectivism - the view that there are no moral absolutes and that if it is true for me it is true and if it feels right then it must be right - have no place in a school which is trying to be consistent with biblical truth.

Those absolutes are enshrined in the Old Testament and reinforced by the Lord Jesus Christ. They affirm the need for the worship of the one and true living God to be central to our lives, the need for a day a week to be set apart in a special way and for honour and respect to be shown to parents and those who, by implication, are in loco parentis.

These absolutes reject idolatry in any shape or form, blasphemy, murder, theft, lying and false testimony and covetousness.

The ethos of the school should, therefore, place true worship at the heart of its life; ensure that Sundays spent on school organised holidays and weekends are special; uphold respect towards staff by children and young people and ensure that blasphemy, theft, lying and covetousness are justly dealt with by the school community

We should not forget that the expectation is that every school in the land should have each day acts of worship that are broadly and mainly Christian.

What will this mean in reality on a day to day basis?

The daily act of worship will be seen to be a high priority for the staff and pupils alike. It will be given a proper time and place and prayer and bible exposition will be significant features of it. Schools that are unable to provide this from within their own staff should make strenuous efforts to enlist the services of Christian men and women from the surrounding community.

Sometimes there are practical difficulties about doing this and a shortage of people willing and able to do it -but where there is a will there is a way.

Staff taking children away for a weekend will try to arrange either to take the children to church or perhaps organise a simple form of worship for themselves.

Respect, courtesy and politeness will be fostered amongst the children and staff.

Children will show their respect by standing up for staff and visitors.

Children will hold doors open for others and staff should lead by example.

Children will put their hands up before being asked to answer a question.

The teacher's right to insist on good behaviour, no chewing in lessons, ensuring that children sit where they are asked to sit rather than where they want to sit, children taking off outdoor clothing in classrooms and many similar activities will be upheld.

There must be consistency in these matters applied by all staff who must, of course, be backed by the head.

Blasphemy and other foul language will not be accepted.

Theft and lying will be tackled seriously and appropriate punishments meted out. It is unjust to leave wrongdoing unpunished. We need to fight to reinstate the concept that punishment is morally right. As an aside, although I trust an important one, unless children develop a sense of the moral rightness of punishment for wrong doing they will never understand the Christian gospel with its emphasis on God's moral right to punish sin and of our status as creatures made in the image of God but deserving outside of life in Christ nothing but his wrath and eternal judgement.

Respectful relationships between children and children and children and adults within a structured and orderly environment will characterise the school. The ethos will be affirming and encouraging and be demanding in terms of good behaviour and attitude to work.

I would argue that children educated in such an environment and within such an ethos will do well academically and in many other ways and will develop into moral and responsible citizens and acceptable employees.
Top

Curriculum

When we come to think about the curriculum we are brought face to face with the question, "What are schools for?".

In my view, schools are important for a host of reasons. Education has a part to play in developing an economically prosperous future and allowing the possibility of the good stewardship of resources. Through education human beings can gain the skills and knowledge to participate fully in human society. Through interaction with knowledgeable teachers schooling is a transaction between the generations in which the young are initiated into the knowledge and understanding they must possess if they are to participate in a civilised world.

Schools should also, through the schemes of work they provide, give an opportunity to help young people appreciate what is true and right and also what is false and wrong.
The overt and stated curriculum and the so- called hidden curriculum are the means by which a coherent, or in many cases an incoherent, learning environment is placed before children and young people.

We must return again to the Bible and understand what it says to us about the true nature of human beings. This will give us guidelines for the school curriculum. These truths must be the foundational principles for curriculum construction.

This is what the Bible tells us about the true nature of human beings: -

We are made in the image of a good, holy, just and living God.

We were created perfect at one time in human history but as a result of the catastrophic fall and rebellion of Adam and Eve we are now fallen creatures who are wholly depraved in the sense that we sin in all aspects of what we do.

God's image in us is not eliminated, of course, but is marred and can only be restored through the progressive and regenerating power of God's Holy Spirit.

Being made in God's image then we reflect something of God's nature.

He is Creator. He is a moral being -wholly perfect and righteous.

He is a perfect relationship of three persons in one Godhead -Father, Son and Holy Spirit

He is eternal.

He is a communicating being. He is there and he has spoken through his Son and through His written word in the scriptures.

He is a thinking God -
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways. Declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways. And my thoughts than your thoughts".
(Isaiah 55:8,9)

As a result of this human beings reflecting something of their Creator have:

The ability to create in many different ways through art, music, literature, poetry, drama, poetry, sports, games, craft and technology.

A conscience and are capable of knowing right from wrong. Although flawed and fallen they remain moral beings created by a supreme and wholly moral being.

A capacity and need for relationships because they reflect something of the perfect relationships that exist within the Trinity.

Eternal longings because they are made special by the eternal and living God for eternity. God has planted eternity into our hears and in the memorable words of Augustine to which we have already referred but are worth repeating.
"O Lord you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you."

Spiritual longings that are in need of fulfilment and satisfaction.

The ability to communicate in language and in number, reflecting something of their Creator who is a communicating God.

Unique status because, as the crown of God's creation, they are thinking beings. They can look back on history and in part anticipate the future. They can apply their intelligence to an attempt to understand the wonders and complexities of God's creation.

Human beings are far above all other creatures in the created order. We must never allow sentimental new age fuzziness about the rights of animals to undermine our belief in this.

Made in the image of a communicating God. God is not silent. He has spoken. Human beings, therefore, have the potential to communicate with clarity and meaning though language and number and one of the roles of parents and teachers is to translate that potential into a reality.

That is why basic mathematics and the ability to read fluently and with meaning and to write and speak with grammatical accuracy are so important. These are not the enemy of creativity and self-expression but rather are they essential tools in the advance of creativity and self-expression.

If we think about it like this we have a rationale for the school curriculum
It will include, therefore, all those familiar subjects such as:

Art, Literature, Poetry, Drama, Music, Dance, Technology and Physical Education,

Religious and Moral Education

English Language, Modern Foreign Languages and Mathematics.

History

Geography and the Sciences

Within those we see, of course, the statutory basic curriculum for all publicly funded schools - Art, Music, Physical Education, Technology, Religious Education, English, Mathematics, History, Geography and Science.

For the rest of this year and in the two following years we will be looking at how these subjects might be taught from a biblical perspective and in this general lecture I do not propose to get into the details of what we will look forward to hearing about in the months ahead.

In respect of the curriculum what I have so far said would win the assent of many secularists although the biblical rationale for them would probably not have been thought about.

In publicly funded schools there is a requirement that the curriculum in all of its aspects should be so taught that it contributes to the spiritual and moral development of children and young people. This allows great scope to teachers who have a grasp of biblical Christianity.

There is, however, another aspect of the Biblical revelation that would not win universal assent. This is the fact that man is fallen and an understanding of the Biblical doctrine of original sin and the total depravity of human beings.

The biblical doctrine of common grace affirms the fact that we are God's creation and explains why human beings can and do produce glorious works of art and wonderful literary creations, develop complex scientific and mathematical theories, are capable of fulfilling relationships, create wonderful technological achievements and are capable of great bravery and heroism.

Children must be taught about these things and given an introduction to the best of what has been thought, written said and done down the ages This doctrine does not contradict or stand opposed to the doctrine of original sin. The truth is that we all fall short and often wilfully do things that we should not do.

However, as well as great art there is pornography. As well as fine speech and thought there is blasphemy and foulness. Technology can be used and developed for both ignoble and noble ends. Scientific theories can be flawed and man's idolatrous urges reach beyond true science to scientism, with its attempt to exclude God and divine purpose from the universe. Music can descend to the discordant and destructive.

The whole curriculum must help children to see this and also help young people recognise the eternal dimension and purpose to human life.

That is why worship and religious education must have a significant place in the education of all children.

Children must be helped to understand the cause and the remedy of that "divine discontent" which lies inside all human beings.

Children must be helped to see that great truth that the natural human mind finds so offensive and so wounding to human pride.

I refer of course to our need to be right with God and to the fact that we cannot earn that relationship or achieve it by our own merit, struggle or works. They must be helped to understand the uniqueness of Christianity and of Jesus Christ. They must helped to see the unique significance of Christ's substitutionary death on the Cross -of Calvary and of the need of human response to it.

Children should not be manipulated into commitment and belief. Just as God respects the freedom that He has given us, so we must respect the freedom of others.

In an age of universalism, inclusiveness, subjectivism and relativism it is very important that children are introduced to a moral framework which has substance and is not built on shifting sand.

Children have a right to hear God's words on the many issues that confront them. The Bible has clear and discernible principles on these matters. There is no moral equivalence between marriage and other so-called lasting relationships, however much the latter are endorsed by Bishops or other Christian leaders. Marriage is to be understood as a life commitment to a monogamous and heterosexual relationship.

Abortion and euthanasia are a breaking of God's commandment to cherish life. God expects sexual relationships to be confined to marriage and for there to be constancy and fidelity in marriage and celibacy outwith it. It is right for children to hear in a positive way what God expects of us as creatures with the potential to enjoy fellowship with Him.

In terms of art, music, literature, poetry and drama I would expect all schools to introduce children to the positive, wholesome and uplifting. They have enough exposure to the meretricious, ugly, obscene, degrading and blasphemous in the outside world and especially from the media and the world of teenage magazines.

There is such a wealth of wholesome literature, art. music, drama and poetry to choose from and in promoting creative work in writing, music and art I believe we should be encouraging positive and good thoughts and impulses rather than the opposite.

This verse from scripture could well be placed on our desks and ingrained in our hearts:
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

When curricular matters are being discussed I am well aware that the National Curriculum and is so called restricting influence is often brought into the discussion. There are of course matters related to time constraints. Schools are required to teach the National Curriculum in the context that it should promote the moral spiritual development of young people. This affords us enormous opportunities and I am convinced that in the years ahead schools will increasingly be able to sit lightly on what will be a minimal basic curriculum for all schools.

We shall be looking at the curriculum in more detail in succeeding lectures. I trust that this has given you a flavour of what is possible.

It is I suggest well within the bounds of possibility to provide a learning experience more in line with God's truth than that which passes for education in many schools today and at the same time give children and young people an education which is enriching, moral and challenging.
Top

Conclusion

You may be thinking that what I am suggesting is far removed from what is possible in today's situation. I fully understand that.

There of course in existence in Britain today a considerable number of independent Christian schools. Some of these are for children of Christian parents. Some of them are attached to a specific church or denomination. Most of them are fee paying but the fees tend to be as modest as they can be. There is great virtue in independence and there is great virtue for some children in being brought up in a small family atmosphere. One of the most exciting developments in the north east of England is the growth and relocation of an independent Christian school in Sunderland, soon to be called Grindon Hall Christian school.

This will open its doors in June 2000. It is a 3-16 all age school and personally I would like to see the emergence of more schools which offer a continuum of education across the primary/secondary divide. Grindon Hall hopes to expand to at least 300 pupils over the next few years and I would like to encourage Christian throughout the country to consider the development of all age independent Christian schools offering bible Based high quality education at a modest fee to children from both Christian and non-Christian homes.

The Church of England has also set up a review committee and is hoping to expand the number of Church schools throughout the country especially the number of Church Secondary Schools in those areas where there are none. This again offers the hope of giving opportunity for more children of all faiths and none the benefits of an education rooted and rounded in Christian truth.

Perhaps because the situation spiritually is so bleak in many schools, God is opening up new possibilities and the challenge to his people is to walk through and grasp the opportunities. A new opportunity has only recently come to light. One of the successes of the educational system in the last ten years has been the publicly funded but independent City Technology Colleges one of which is Emmanuel College, Gateshead which has a clear biblical basis to all that it seeks to do. The government has announced that it will now consider more of such institutions based on the City Technology College model, to be called City Academies.

God is opening up doors of opportunity with the possibility of new independent and publicly funded Christian based Academies, initially in inner city and urban areas.

If they are to succeed they will need to be led and staffed by people who are obedient to God's truth as revealed in the scriptures. I trust that many Christians will catch the vision that God is calling us to recapture our culture and education system for Him a variety of ways.

This will require great obedience, much hard work and great faithfulness.

It may be also that we can look to changes in the tax structure and the creation of a system of education passports for all parents to choose either independent or state provided schooling and from schools with a variety of styles and ethos.

The Christian Institute is playing its part in organising these lectures which are part of an in service training of teachers, governors, and parents as a step in what promises to be an exciting challenge ahead.

There may well be people here tonight, or listening to the tapes or down loading from our web site that feel called by God to respond to the challenge of the hour. If you do please let us know.

The Apostle Paul felt constrained to stay on at Ephesus because
"a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me (1 Corinthians 16:9)

Equally for us today, in the world of schools God has opened up and is opening up a great door for effective work for us, and there many who oppose us.

Let me encourage you to attempt to discern the times. I trust that by God's grace and help we may walk through those doors of opportunity with humility but with confidence.

Top