The society’s president, Terry Sanderson, said: ‘Our schools are becoming playgrounds for religious interests who are exploiting their opportunities to the full. The targeting of our schools in this way by such dubious organisations must be tackled by the Department for Education.’
Many well-known Christian organisations were named in the report including Youth for Christ, Youth Alpha and Scripture Union. (Youthwork was also incorrectly named.) Dave Newton, YFC’s ministry director told Premier Christian Radio: ‘Any Christian group going into a school is only ever doing so at the invitation of the school.
The school has got a responsibility to educate and we see our role as enhancing and supporting that education. Good education looks at learning from primary sources, so if someone wants to know what a Christian believes about baptism or healing or prayer then it makes sense to ask a Christian what they believe about it. Equally if you want to find out what a humanist thinks about their world view then invite someone in to do that. Education is about a young person’s discovery; young people make their own decisions.’
A statement on the Scottish Evangelical Alliance ’s website said: ‘We defend freedom and the rights of all groups to be heard in a plural public space – including faith groups. We welcome the discussion of worldview, vision and values and believe that our children should have the right to engage with all the pluralistic worldviews.’ Prayer Spaces in Schools, another group named in the report, said: ‘Prayer Spaces in Schools offers a resource to schools that assists them in their statutory responsibility to support the spiritual and moral development of pupils. The spaces give pupils an opportunity to develop skills of personal reflection and to explore Christian prayer in a creative, inclusive and safe environment. The approach does not proselytise and purposely allows pupils to make their own response and to draw their own conclusions. Prayer spaces have been welcomed and praised by head teachers, teachers and parents of all faiths and none as a valuable contribution to the RE and PSE syllabus in line with government requirements.’
A youth worker, who regularly works in schools but who wished to remain anonymous, gave Youthwork this comment: ‘The report is rude and condescending to teachers. When was the last time they were in a school assembly? Did they talk to any teachers when drawing up this report? All the heads and teachers we deal with are really responsible. They are very aware of the challenges and dangers, especially the Christian teachers - they don’t want to be seen as partisan so they are probably more careful in general than those of no faith! Here’s NSS’ problem: they are totally one sided and not really facing the debate. Because if they faced the debate they might actually find that the vast majority of teachers, head teachers and parents appreciate churches being involved in schools. I have parents who aren’t Christians asking me at the school gate how they should respond to children who ask, ‘What happens after you die?’ or ‘Is there a God?’ I’d also want to ask the NSS how many complaints they’ve had about it. We just recounted our number of complaints in the 225,000 opportunities to complain. We reckon we have had four. Three were about issues of style rather than substance. Only one was a question about the content of what we had taught. Some of the issues that the NSS has raised are very fair points. If Christian groups are going into school assemblies with the intention of attempting to convert people to Christianity then that is not the right attitude. That is not allowed, nor is it in fact appropriate.’ For this youth worker’s top-ten tips for doing assemblies, visit the Youthwork website.
When asked, the NSS said that the ‘marked increase’ is an extra 20-30 complaints over the last six months.
