‘Whose responsibility is it to draw up a school’s ethos statement?’

School of thought: Chris Culpin has opportunities for all

'There are nearly 21,000 primary schools and over 4,000 secondary schools in the UK, and they are all different.' | Photo: Chris Liverani / Unsplash.

True godliness don’t turn [people] out of the world, but enables them to live better in it, and excites their endeavours to mend it. (William Penn, 1682)

It would be easy to get a picture of education in our state schools as one of gloom and disillusion. Rapid change, under-funding, teachers quitting, unfair inspections, over- emphasis on testing, financial jiggery-pokery by leaders for personal gain, too many young people left in limbo by excessive use of exclusions… No wonder Quakers seeking to pick up William Penn’s injunction to endeavour to mend the world might look elsewhere.

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