Prioritizing Children's Spirituality in the Context of Church of England Schools: Understanding the Tensions

Abstract

In the UK, inspectors are asked to judge how far schools support children's spiritual development. Church schools are subject to the differing expectations of a dual inspection system which introduces a tension between the Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) prioritization of control and performativity and the SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools) prioritization of creativity and spirituality. This paper derives from a year-long study in a Church of England Primary School where meeting the requirements of these inspection systems to maintain high academic standards and provide space for children to explore spirituality created tensions and complexities. The paper presents a Bernsteinian analysis of the school's learning environment which elucidates the tensions within which headteachers and their staff operate and indicates the kind of support that church school leaders require if they are to respond to the demands of this ‘double tension’.