14 - The Church and Education

Summary

This chapter provides a history of Church in Wales schools since disestablishment in 1920, using as its starting point the impact of landmark parliamentary statutes on education in Wales in general and on the church and its schools in particular. What emerges is the church's longstanding commitment to the value of education and its desire for education in its schools to be freely available. These themes have persisted across the century amid the changing social and economic conditions of Wales. The century is also characterised by partnership between Church and State in the field of education. Yet the Christian distinctiveness of a church school has throughout been predicated on a foundation of Christian values. Across the century, the Church in Wales invested, at provincial and diocesan levels, in education, in the training of teachers, in physical buildings, and in the infrastructure of the syllabus and standards. As an active stakeholder in education and a strong partner with civil government, before and after devolution, the Church in Wales has collaborated in making seminal legislation, policy and practice. Church Schools are not simply for worshipping Anglicans, nor do they seek to proselytise. Rather, they offer an education to all, of the highest standards based on Christian values at the heart of Welsh communities.