Faith Central - Times Online - WBLG

Faith school U-turn - and the junior God team

In a striking U-turn from the Blair/Kelly policy,  Ed Balls the schools minister has said "It is not the policy of the Government nor my department to expand the number of faith schools. We're not leading a drive for more faith schools."  Meanwhile, however,  pupils' enthusiasm for RE classes and exams appears to be booming - more GCSEs and A levels in the subject every year,  and evidence of better teaching.  The two phenomena are not contradictory:  a faith school majors on one creed, some more narrowly than others;  good RE ranges over the whole landscape of human faith and belief down the ages, and makes you think.   Nice quote from one boy of 13 - "you don't have to support God to be interested."

Faith schools - the great debate, or no debate?

The UK Government's passionate commitment to 'faith' schools grows ever stronger, despite protests from main teachers' unions such as the NASUWT  and the ATL - whose conference last year called the policy "an assault on tolerance" and called for state funding to end in 2020 for newly created religious schools.   Today we learn that there will be more funding particularly for Hindu , Muslim and Sikh schools to level the playing field (most UK state faith schools are Christian).  The requirement for such schools to take a large percentage from outside the faiths seems to have faded.
   

Faith school row in France ends as term begins...

Back in May , a French official in Lyon was fired for persistently opposing the opening of a Muslim school, the Al-Kindi.  Now the school opens its doors to its first 170 pupils, at 1200 euros per child per year, in a move seen by many as a defiance against the strict French  rule banning all religious symbols in schools. The school follows the national French curriculum but adds two hours  - optional - on Islamic culture. It is the third in the country.
    As a matter of interest I was in a Catholic faith school, a convent, in Lille in the 1950s and we had a lot more than two hours RE a week...