ABSTRACT
Expectations of security in childhood vary from anticipating little to hoping for much. Joe Orton’s cynicism lies behind his observation that ‘It is all any reasonable child can expect if the dad is present at the conception’. The morality of protecting childhood faith informs Blake’s thought that, ‘He who shall teach the child to doubt/The rotting grave shall ne’er get out’. Children who are injured, neglected or abused learn to doubt and to fear, and protection is essential for them. Child protection is a vital and difficult whole-school issue.
