SDHTA Annual Conference 2014 Lead Enable Serve Lead

SDHTA Annual Conference 2014: Lead, Enable, Serve “Lead, Enable, Serve” What’s beneath the iceberg? Collective Worship and School Ethos The Rt Revd Dr Richard Cheetham Bishop of Kingston Chair of Southwark Diocesan Board of Education and Chair of SDBE

Southwark Diocesan Board of Education Our Vision To promote Christian education and enable church schools and education chaplaincy to be at the heart of the mission and ministry of the Diocese of Southwark in the 21 st Century

Some current challenges in Education • Funding and control of education Academies, Free Schools, LEAs, DBEs, Df. ES • Aim of good education • British values • C of E / Muslim / Jewish etc schools in the state system • RE for a plural world / National Society report • Place of collective worship

Collective worship. SDHTA - the tip of the iceberg? Annual Conference 2014: “Lead, Enable, Serve” Philosophy of education Common values Beliefs The Rt Revd Dr Richard Cheetham Individualism Plural Bishop of Kingston society Chair of Southwark Diocesan Board of Education

Church & Education in 21 st Century UK Sociological perspectives: the changing place of religion • Religion as private, individual choice • Religion as contested (multiple world views) • Religion as controversial (especially post 9/11) • Pervasive vague spirituality • Young people – Generation Y

Church & Education in 21 st Century UK Philosophy of Education • Traditional – education as induction into “truth” / transmission of tradition • Liberal – education to produce free thinking people. Knowledge based entirely on experience and reason • Post-Liberal – challenges ideas of an overarching rationality, and exclusion of religion to a private, subjective domain

Church & Education in 21 st Century UK Theological issues • Knowledge and belief distinction • Relativism and absolutism • “Truth” claims • Common moral values – source?

Collective worship Freedom of the individual Pluralism Individualism & community Common Privatisation values of belief Religious “Truth” Multi-faith society Nature of education Tolerance

4 major themes in the data • Inclusivity: “that unity thing” • Freedom of choice and personal integrity: “this individual thing” • The heart of an act of collective worship: moral, spiritual or religious • Influence of the teacher: “an awesome responsibility”

The understanding of religious belief which underlies collective worship • Individual • Freely chosen • Relative • Pragmatic • Religious belief as “an individually chosen, private, practical guide to living”

What’s beneath your iceberg? What is your collective worship saying about the deep beliefs, values and ethos of your School? Explicitly? Implicitly?