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Title: Faith in Primary Education

Faith in Primary Education

Experiencing, Shaping and Researching Church Schools 1975-2025

by David W. Lankshear (Author)
©2026 Monographs XVI, 192 Pages
Theology & Philosophy
Series: Religion, Education and Values, Volume 20

Summary

The Church of England has the distinction of being the institution which took the first initiative to create a national system of schooling in England with the expressed intention of providing a school place for every child in the country. This book starts from that point to present a view of the steps taken to bring that into reality for all children between the ages of four and eleven, the primary stage of education and places particular emphasis on the 50 years between 1975 and 2025. The evidence is drawn from the law as it applies in England and Wales and the reports of national significance. It also draws on the personal experience of the author who served in a variety of roles within the primary school system during this period.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • List of Tables
  • Foreword
  • Prologue
  • Chapter 1 A View from the Beginning
  • Basic structures
  • Religious education
  • School entry and leaving age
  • Chapter 2 A View from College to Classroom (1962–1975)
  • A decade and a half of reports
  • The reports on the primary phase
  • A local illustration
  • Religious education
  • The Church reports
  • Reflections on this period
  • Chapter 3 A View from Canvey Island (1975–1980)
  • The school building and its grounds
  • The summer of 1975
  • The first year
  • Subsequent development
  • The children who came
  • The summer of 1975
  • The first year
  • Subsequent development
  • The general curriculum
  • The summer of 1975
  • The first year
  • Subsequent development
  • Religious education (that is religious instruction and school worship)
  • The summer of 1975
  • The first year
  • Subsequent development
  • The nature of the school community
  • The summer of 1975
  • The first year
  • Subsequent development
  • Spiritual, moral, social and cultural education
  • The summer of 1975
  • The first year
  • Subsequent development
  • The school staff structure
  • The summer of 1975
  • The first year
  • Subsequent development
  • Relationships with the local community
  • The summer of 1975
  • The first year
  • Subsequent development
  • Relationships with the education service as a whole
  • The summer of 1975
  • The first year
  • Subsequent development
  • Endnote
  • Chapter 4 A View from Chelmsford (1981–1987)
  • Admission to school
  • Appeals about decisions
  • The role of diocesan advisers during the 1980s
  • National network
  • Education Act No. 2 1986
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
  • Part 3
  • Part 4
  • Chapter 5 A View from Chester (1988–1990)
  • The Education Reform Act 1988
  • The consultation
  • The contents of the first pages of the Act
  • The content of the National Curriculum
  • School worship
  • Religious education
  • Local management of schools
  • Grant-maintained schools
  • General reflections on the Education Reform Act 1988
  • The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989
  • General school visiting
  • Chapter 6 A View from Church House – Part 1: 1990–1997
  • The Church of England Board of Education and The National Society
  • Church of England Diocesan Boards of Education Measure 1991
  • Education (Schools) Act 1992
  • The inspection of religious education and school worship
  • The approach adopted for the inspection of the secular curriculum
  • The approach to inspection adopted by The National Society
  • Primary schools and the preparation for the inspection process
  • Governor training
  • New statuses for schools
  • Church school studies
  • Other issues around church schools and the state-maintained system
  • School reorganisations
  • Pre-school provision
  • School worship
  • Sex and relationships education
  • Anti-racist policies
  • Small schools
  • The end of an era
  • Chapter 7 A View from Church House – Part 2: 1997–2003
  • The events of 1997
  • General Synod resolution
  • School inspection
  • Anglican schools in the private sector
  • Governor training
  • New statuses for church schools
  • Learning and Skills Act 2000
  • Review of church schools in England
  • Church school studies
  • The final report
  • Other issues
  • School re-organisation
  • Staffing issues in church schools
  • Matters of staff discipline
  • Child protection
  • Preference for Christian teachers
  • Sex and relationships education
  • School funding and school building
  • School funding
  • Vocation to teach
  • The role of the Anglican colleges
  • Relationships between schools and local churches
  • International work
  • Chapter 8 A View from the University Sector (2003–2025)
  • Government action and new legislation
  • The school building project
  • Education Act 2005
  • Education and Inspections Act 2006
  • Faith in the system
  • Education and Skills Act 2008
  • Education Act 2011
  • Statutory frameworks
  • Developments in the Church of England
  • SIAMS inspections
  • Celebration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of The National Society
  • Developments in the Church in Wales
  • The Church in Wales Review
  • Research in church school studies
  • The Vocation to teach
  • Church school policies related to admissions
  • Perspectives from the Church
  • The Church in Wales review
  • Listening to the children
  • International perspectives
  • Intereuropean Commission on Church and School (ICCS)
  • International Seminar on Religious Education and Values (ISREV)
  • Chapter 9 A Brief Personal Reflection (1975–2025)
  • References
  • Publications associated with the first round of consultations for the National Curriculum
  • Acts of Parliament and Statutory Instruments
  • Legal and Major Reports Index
  • Topic Index

List of Tables

Table 1.1: The Code of 1872

Table 4.1: The constitution of governing bodies of county primary schools by size and category of governor under the Education (No. 2) Act 1986

Table 4.2: The constitution of governing bodies of voluntary controlled primary schools by size and category of governor under the Education (No. 2) Act 1986

Table 4.3: The constitution of governing bodies of voluntary aided and special agreement schools by size and category of governor under the Education (No. 2) Act 1986

Table 5.1: Consideration of abilities at specific subject levels

Table 6.1: Framework for lesson observation

Foreword

I learned two important and interrelated things when I was researching the history of the Church of England’s involvement within the state-maintained sector of education for my two early books, Partnership in Rural Education (1986) and Religion in the Primary School (1987). The historical trajectory had not been as consistently documented as I would have preferred. Important decisions and changes in direction, both at diocesan and national levels, often depended on the strategic influence of individuals and too little was documented about the experience and factors that had shaped these individuals.

I first met David Lankshear at a conference in 1984 (when I was still struggling to make sense of the Church of England’s involvement in the state-maintained sector of education) and have worked closely with him ever since. During that period, I have observed with interest David’s capacity to make a significant difference to the way in which church schools are perceived and resourced. Early on I recognised that David’s motivation in the area was shaped by four core principles. David holds a key interest in the history of The National Society and the subsequent political negotiations between church and state in shaping the state-maintained system of education. David holds a high theology of the Christian vocation to teach; for him, the vocation to teach should be valued alongside other recognised ministries within the Church. David prioritises the early years as foundational for shaping future adult lives; Christian investment in the primary sector may be partly an accident of history, but nonetheless remains pivotal within the context of the Church of England’s commitment to serve and to shape society. David is interested in theories, but he is even more interested in empirical evidence that tests theories; alongside a busy life concerned with educational policy and practice, David has also made a significant contribution to the academic research that he sees as a priority in underpinning and testing policy and practice.

It is against this background that I have wanted to encourage David to write this book and to write it with two voices running through the text. The first voice is one of providing an objective record of events and documentation. This record goes back to the founding of The National Society in 1811. David was not around in those days; this is not a first-hand account, but the interpretation of this record is important for shaping the more recent narrative. By the time David took up his role as deputy general secretary of the National Society and School’s Officer for the Church of England, he was no longer a spectator of these events but an active agent in shaping them. The second voice is one of offering insight into the life narrative that motivated and shaped this engagement with national education policy and practice.

Hearing these two voices side by side may help us to understand how at certain points the dialogue between Church and state in reshaping educational provision may have turned out differently with a less clear recollection of how things had been shaped from 1811, with a less clear theological emphasis on the vocation to teach as a Christian ministry, with a less clear understanding of the importance of the early years and without commitment to valuing empirical research.

Leslie J. Francis
Feast of the Presentation, 2026

Prologue

There is a simple motive in writing this book. It sets out to present an account of the changes within the education system of England and Wales from the late 1960s, when I was just starting out as a young teacher, to the present day (1965–2025) and to do this from the perspectives of the primary school and of the oldest partner within the state-maintained system of education, the Church of England and the Church in Wales. This book is informed by personal experience and by personal involvement within the structures that either interpreted or negotiated some of those changes. Where some sections may be lightly referenced this is explained by my being unable to find references in academic literature that relate to or reflect my experience or perception of the period through which I have worked in the field. However, in the beginning the context needs to be set for those who may be less familiar with the narrative that has shaped the education system in England and Wales.

For those whose experience is outside England and Wales, in these two countries the primary stage is generally understood to begin at the age from which a child first enters the school system, which they must do by 5, but may do from 3 if the school includes nursery provision and the parents wish it. The primary stage finishes at the end of the school year in which they achieve their 11th birthday. The school year ends on 31 August each year.

Legislation for education begins with the government of the day laying out its ideas in consultation documents either labelled as such or sometimes labelled a ‘green paper’, in which case the government has specific ideas that it wishes to bring forward. The consultation process may be long or short and should include all interested parties. From this point the government usually publishes a ‘white paper’ laying out the overall plan and then follows this with a bill which encapsulates these ideas in parliamentary language. The bill is then debated and scrutinised through both Houses of Parliament and only when it is in an agreed form does it then receive the Royal Assent and become an act of Parliament – that is, part of the law of the land. The Secretary of State has some powers to issue Statutory Instruments which have the force of law but do not have to go through a full parliamentary process. These are limited to details in which agencies need direction in order to implement the wishes of Parliament expressed within acts that they have passed.

CHAPTER 1 A View from the Beginning

Basic structures

The roots of any attempt to provide a systematic education system for all children in England and Wales lie in the initiatives taken by the churches. Throughout the eighteenth century, individual clergy had taken initiatives to found elementary schools within their parishes with varying success in terms of continuity of the provision, but it was not until the early years of the nineteenth century that some members of the churches began to think more structurally about national provision. One of the contributory factors to this was the thinking of Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster, who were rivals but came up with very similar methods of organising an elementary school, which enabled charitable people to understand how a local school could be organised effectively, within the understanding of the times, to provide a basic education, which included a strong element of religious instruction. The education rivalry between the two men and their differences over religion created movements within the Anglican Church and the non-conformist Churches aimed at creating a national provision. A society crystallised around Lancaster’s ideas in 1807, which became The British and Foreign School Society in 1814, and a second society was created in 1811 by some well-placed Anglicans, based on Bell’s ideas, and established under the name The National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church throughout England and Wales, its aim being:

To communicate to the poor generally, by means of a summary mode of education lately brought into practice, such knowledge and habits as are sufficient to guide them through life in their proper stations, especially to teach them the doctrine of Religion according to the principles of the Established Church and to train them to the performance of their religious duties by an early discipline. (Burgess and Welsby, 1966)

Details

Pages
XVI, 192
Publication Year
2026
ISBN (PDF)
9781805845584
ISBN (ePUB)
9781805845591
ISBN (Softcover)
9781805845577
DOI
10.3726/b23836
Language
English
Publication date
2026 (October)
Keywords
Education Primary History Law Church Theology Inspiration Inspection
Published
Oxford, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, 2026. xvi, 192 pp., 6 tables.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

David W. Lankshear (Author)

Since 1975, David W. Lankshear has held many post within the Church of England sector of Education, including Headteacher of a Primary school, Diocesan Education Adviser, Diocesan Director of Education and Deputy General Secretary of the Church of England’s National Education Department, before moving into the university sector in research positions focused on ‘The Church in Education’. David has published widely in academic and professional fields related to the work he has undertaken.

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Title: Faith in Primary Education