Thanks for the congrats all
Astrophe, sorry I've taken so long to answer your queries! Our faith was certainly a factor in our choice to HE - it's a factor in where we live, what we do with our spare time, our general parenting beliefs and so on, so it only makes sense that it would be part of the HE too, I suppose. We just believe that God gave us our kids, and we have the primary responsibility to educate them - just like any other parent. Most delegate academic teaching to the school system, we've just decided to retain direct responsibility.
My dad isn't a Christian, and he's been really supportive (which was a big surprise, tbh) He fought long and hard to get his kids into a school he was happy with, so I know he's not that happy with much of the mainstream system, so maybe that's helped him.
My PIL are Christians, and really very sweet about it. Their main concerns have always been the academic side of things, which is an oft raised objection that I really don't mind answering.
It's the other rellies - brothers and sisters in law that are Christians that have been the most pernickety, for the most ephemeral reasons - like how on earth can we possibly be a witness to the local community if we're not able to pester other parents at the schoolgate to come to Tearfund events, and who will save all the other 6 year olds if we don't send our 6 year old to do it.
My response is generally, why on earth would I want to put that kind of pressure on my children, when we're mainly talking about their education?
"Yes, dear, I'm really pleased you passed your times table test, but you do know that if you don't tell your friends about Jesus it would be very bad..."
Erm, pass.
Anyway, ours are a bit young for anything particularly distinctive in terms of science curriculum. We'll probably leave controversies to when they're a bit older. And mostly we'll present things from a 'here is the data, some people think it means this, some people think it means that' perspective.
Anyway, I'm going to wind this up before someones head explodes with the length of it - if I've missed anything out, just ask me again and I'll try to be less rambling.