This thesis is written in the context of a Church of England secondary school with highly selective admissions criteria for religious faith that sought to expand its provision by establishing a multi-academy trust and opening a second school. The Trust’s ambition was for the new school to operate with open admissions with respect to religious faith to serve a geographic area with a population that identified in roughly equal proportions as Muslim, Hindu or Christian.
The Trust needed to take account of the range of stakeholders’ needs and be authentic to a Christian educational foundation arising from the historical revelation of God in Jesus Christ. I was the new school’s chaplain and therefore a participant-observer; my role was key in formulating the ethos model for the school. I give an account of the process which emerged, analysing the development of the new school’s ethos from conception to its early reception.
The paucity of existing Christian pedagogical models and the ostensibly secular political setting of the U.K. lead me to formulate a Trinitarian paideia as a framework for the examination of historical sources and appraisal of the school’s early life with respect to its religious identity. The Trinitarian paideia I formulate as being apposite to a contemporary setting arises from classical Greek educational ideals, as these evolved with the emergence of Christianity to provide the early framework for Christian formation.
The research undertaken to write the history generates a distinctive Critical Pedagogy that entails explicit acknowledgment of worldviews in an education setting. As well as enabling a liberal education in the context described, the approach has wider potential for enhancing provision in both religious and secular settings
