I took a break from my teaching at one point to pursue further studies. While studying, I worked part-time as a waiter. I missed many things about the teaching environment: interacting with colleagues, watching students learn, preparing for class, and sometimes even grading. Yet, there was one thing I did not miss at all: I NEVER had to take work home!

Faith is not the declining force that some secularists believe or indeed desire it to be. Even here in the UK, we have our growing and vibrant black-led churches; increasingly present mosques, temples and gurudwaras; and believers arriving from Eastern and Central Europe.

The Government has tried to work hard to lift FE into the political spotlight – as the Education Secretary said last year in a stern voice “FE is not Forgotten Education. It is Further Education“.  The sentiment is commendable, but the reality remains that most of the UK population have no real idea of the incredible depth and range of FE provision in the community and this stands equally true for our churches.

Mainstream culture, including that of many schools, has moved from being indifferent to Christianity – seeing it as outdated or irrelevant – to now seeing aspects of it as damaging and even dangerous. Admitting to being a Bible believing Christian is hard for an educator, especially when accusations of holding ‘ideologies that want to close minds or narrow opportunity’ abound, and ‘muscular liberalism’ is promoted by Ofsted. 

Almost 18 years ago, I set out on a long (and winding) drive to West Wales. It was a trip that would come to be the most profoundly important journey in my life as a young adult.

The subject of transgenderism, especially with respect to children, has frequently been in the news over the past few months. It is a subject which invokes a variety of emotional responses and needs to be addressed wisely and with compassion. I will attempt to give a brief overview of the subject and suggest some further reading.

So many of us need to connect with others who understand the challenges we face as Christian teachers. Sometimes even those in our churches struggle to comprehend the unique pressures Christians face in our schools. In our recent enforced isolation, the opportunities for divine connection could be reduced. But we know the Lord wants us to find vital, inspiring connections, which supply our souls, and help us to do our work joyfully and courageously as his body.

Failures. Setbacks. Obstacles

When we read these words, feelings of sadness, defeat, and pain may rush to the surface as we recall challenging situations. They aren’t always easy to think about, are they?

Graham Coyle, EurECA Chairman

Amy Ward

Teachers are a passionate and resourceful bunch. If there’s a challenge, we can be guaranteed to find a solution. But this year has been different. If you’re anything like me, the usual weariness that sets in as the winter approaches has only been amplified by the arrival of Covid-19, and its often devastating effects on school communities and the lives of the families it serves. Masks, social distancing, spraying desks, live-streaming lessons, tearful pupils uncertain of their future, cold open-windowed classrooms: if this is the ‘new normal’, I hope to never get used to it.

By Sarah-Jane Bentley, ACT director.

Our souls seek rest. Anxiety is restlessness and restlessness is a lack of faith. The only place to find true rest is in the Truth. And the Truth is not an abstract concept: He is the Word incarnate, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28). If our teaching does not challenge our students’ suppression of the truth in unrighteousness, we are contributing to their state of anxiety.

By Alun Ebenezer, Headmaster of Fulham Boys School

We are living through strange days: COVID-19; lockdowns; the rule of six; two metres for fifteen minutes, one metre for one minute; hands, face, space; no Christmas to really look forward to.

And of course, the constant worry about loo roll!

By Becky Hunsberger

How can we help our students to learn? According to educational research, two of the strongest factors in student learning relate back to the teacher-student relationship. This shouldn’t surprise us, since we know that we are created as relational beings in the image of a relational God.