ABSTRACT
In considering the topic of Religious Education in Church schools, this chapter will be restricted in the main to Roman Catholic schools and Church of England schools. Some years ago the National Society published guidance for Church of England schools entitled Mission, Management, Appraisal, which suggested that in considering its mission statement a Church school should consider where the school stood on the continuum of ‘serving members of the Church’, at one end of the spectrum, to ‘serving the local community’ at the other end of the spectrum. By and large, Roman Catholic schools, virtually all of which are voluntary aided, are at the ‘serving members of the Church’ end of the spectrum. By contrast Church of England schools, a majority of which are Voluntary Controlled, tend to be at the ‘serving the local community’ end of the spectrum. There is also a marked difference between voluntary aided and voluntary controlled Anglican schools; Voluntary Aided schools follow a syllabus for religious education which is determined by the governors of the school and which often involves using a diocesan syllabus or guidelines, whereas Voluntary Controlled schools will normally follow the local authority’s agreed syllabus for Religious Education (which is dealt with elsewhere in this volume).
