Church of England school headteacher brands Crossteach educational charity ‘extremist’
by Archbishop Cranmer:
Dan Turvey B.Ed (Hons) NPQH is headteacher of St John’s Church of England Primary School in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent. “Christian values are at the heart of all we do and our Christian ethos is very strong,” he writes in his website welcome. Looking at their vibrant Gallery page, they appear to do lots of edifying Christian things, like ‘Easter Prayer Stations’, ‘Tudor Day’ (jolly good), carol concerts and Harvest Festival in St John’s Church, with which the school has strong links.
For 16 years, the school has been graciously assisted by Crossteach, a Christian charitable organisation which seeks to represent the historical Christian faith in a school setting. They are “Christian Schools Workers, partnering with local Christian communities to enable young people in schools to critically engage with the Christian faith in a fun and relevant way”…
So they do things like taking assemblies (the statutory ‘Daily Act of Collective Worship’) and helping out with RE lessons (because, frankly, it is a woefully neglected subject in the curriculum, very often palmed off to under-employed geography or PE teachers who just happen to be Christian/Muslim/Jedi-inclined). Crossteach is exactly the sort of professional and ethical charitable outfit with which a lot of schools would love to work, particularly with that (often) awkward Daily Act of Collective Mind-Numbing Banality Which Passes for Worship.
But a group of parents at St John’s Church of England Primary School weren’t happy with Christians coming in and talking about sin and Jesus and judgment and men and women getting married – you know, some of that basic Christian stuff which Dan Turvey says is at the heart of all they do because their Christian ethos is very strong. These parents objected to such “extremist beliefs”, and say Crossteach had been “upsetting children with a fundamentalist approach”.
Mr Turvey was a bit irritated by this, responding: “I do not believe CrossTeach has done anything wrong.” He added: “They do not deserve the tarnishing of their good name and allegations of extremism that have taken place over the last few months.”
So what does he do?
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