Religious values should be applied to all teaching including maths, says Bishop

The Rt Rev Paul Butler said yesterday that Christian values should affect all areas of teaching and not be restricted to simply religious education in Church of England schools.

The Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham explained: “The way maths is taught is by and large assuming a capitalist economics which we may have questions of.

“We need to explore different models from a Christian perspective of how we approach all the curriculum, not just RE.”

He added he had been “deeply disturbed” recently by his own 17-year-old daughter’s drama lessons.

“She is great at it, it has been fantastic to watch but the moral content has been deeply dubious and there are plenty of choices that could have been made which were different,” Bishop Butler added.

He was speaking yesterday at a meeting of the Church of England’s General Synod.

Bishop Butler’s call was backed by Kenneth Shorey, a General Synod member from Hook, Hampshire, who said: “I began my life as a maths teacher.

“I think if I was going back now I would be choosing a different set of examples, not simply teaching percentages of profit and loss or earning – and if it was saving it might be for some overseas project rather than a new dress or a new bike.

“I might mean talking about percentages in relation to giving and gift aid... you can challenge the materialism and consumerism that underpins the values of society.”

The call came as the Church of England held a debate on education to mark the 200th anniversary of the National Society, a charity set up by the Church to promote education for the poor.

The Rt Rev John Pritchard, chairman of the Church of England board of education, said that Government reforms including the introduction of academies represented a “tremendous opportunity” as well as dangers for Church schools.

He added that only a “very small” number of nearly 5,000 Church of England schools allocate more than half their places to Christian families.