Spiritual, moral and cultural development is being harmed by misunderstanding, school governor says

This article was first published here by The Leaders Council and has been reproduced for ACT with kind permission.

John Kirk is a school governor with many years of experience in education. He is responsible for the development of partnerships with schools for Good News for Everyone, which serves to introduce others to Christian teachings by placing, presenting, or distributing Scripture in different areas of life. It works closely with the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education [NATRE] to produce curriculum-based material for schools and train its own members to deliver talks, assemblies and lessons in academic settings.

However, sitting down on The Leaders Council Podcast, John shared his view that Good News for Everyone’s work engaging with academic institutions is currently being impeded by misunderstanding and an unfounded fear of offending religious minorities. The consequence, he warned, could be harmful to both the development of children who are being deprived of learning, and the schools themselves.

John told host Scott Challinor: “Ofsted’s 2019 inspection framework, which sets the parameters for how they’re going to grade a school and what they’re looking for in their inspections, places a much higher emphasis on RE than in previous years.

“In doing so, something known as ‘spiritual, moral and cultural development [SMC]’ has become a ‘critical grade’, alongside aspects of school life such as teaching, learning, leadership, management, safeguarding and wellbeing. So, even if a school is rated ‘Outstanding’ in all areas except SMC, the maximum grading the school can receive will only be ‘Good’. It is therefore in the interest of schools to help pupils develop in this way.”

This, as John explained, is where Good News for Everyone comes in.

“Our view is that we are adding a huge amount of cultural capital to students by offering them a free copy of the Bible. Certainly, when our organisation first started in the UK some 70 years ago, it was almost taken as a given that every secondary school would invite us in. A couple of our representatives would go and deliver a talk about the Bible, then present a free copy to each child.

“However, the country has changed a lot since then. Schools are very much a pluralistic environment now, and I would use the word ‘pluralistic’ over how some teachers may describe it as ‘secular’, because spirituality remains an important aspect of the life of every individual.”

With school populations across the UK now comprised of followers of various different religions and the UK having introduced the Equality Act 2010 to ensure equality in representation, John believes that the manner in which certain schools and institutions have responded to these changes has begun to impede the valuable work that Good News for Everyone does.

John said: “We find that a number of schools do tend to misinterpret the Equality Act. This creates what has been referred to as a ‘hierarchy of rights’, meaning that when it comes to discussing a particular faith, there’s this fear that it may somehow offend people and therefore the discussion is avoided completely. As a result of this, many schools no longer invite us in to deliver talks.”

However, John is determined to spread the message that the fear of offending is unfounded.

Sharing his personal experiences to support his perspective, John recalled: “I worked as a clerk for 10 years in an Islamic faith school and was asked to help with giving lessons on Christianity in their RE lessons. The children were all perfectly safe in and sure of their own beliefs and all I was there to do was explain the Christian view on topics such as justice, charity and so on.

“Every child took a copy of the Bible as a textbook. There was no attempt to convert them or tell them what to believe. It was simply understood to be important to help these children get the best possible marks in their RE exam. However, in schools where there is less certainty about faith and religion, it’s unfortunate that sometimes school leaders worry that if they let organisations like ours in to talk about faith, then we could upset or offend people of other religions or denominations. We don't think there's any basis for that.”

To illustrate his point further, John highlighted that much of the Scripture that Good News for Everyone delivers talks and presentations on comes from the Psalms, a religious text which is prevalent in the teachings of the three major world religions.

“Often the same Scripture features in the Judaic, Christian and Islamic traditions and if you take all those three religions and their respective followers, it equates to well over two-thirds of the global population. So, to think that talking about those Scriptures may be offensive to someone strikes me as a little odd.”