Many church schools seem to do an exceptionally good job, so I wouldn't want to see them scrapped, particularly in the context of a system that generally seems to be struggling. I would however very much like to see them having to abide by the same admission criteria as other schools. They should not be allowed to exclude children of people with other/no faith - it quite obviously is unfair and divisive.
But I am not a proper Christian. One of my earliest memories involves doubts about religion. I remember being at church one Sunday and being immensely troubled by the words of the priest who was saying something like "whatever you do is worth nothing unless you love God". "Love God?" I thought. "I love my cat and my mum and dad, but God?" The concept of God, although ever present, was just too abstract for me to have any emotional response. My journey into atheism continued gradually over the years and more or less concluded during a lesson about ancient Greek theatre at my (convent) school. I suddenly had an epiphany about just how local, temporally and geographically, Catholicism/Christianity was, so that it simply couldn't be "true" in the sense that I had been led to understand. I soon found a thoroughly satisfying account of how society and morality function without God in The Selfish Gene and that was that, subject to some fairly tortuous realignment of my own moral values.
However, whether it is a product of my infantine crisis of faith at the priest's sermon, or of exposure to too much Romantic literature, I am now generally of the belief that the experience and practice of love - in the widest sense - is all that makes life meaningful and valuable. And I find I am increasingly bored with reminding myself that our consciousness of love is nothing more than a tool for conferring genetic advantage (whether in the context of reproduction or social cooperation).
It seems to me now that mythology and religion provide a far more direct way of understanding our consciousness of love than evolutionary psychology, and although operating in a metaphysical sphere, and through symbol and metaphor, need be no less ?true?.
As fate would have it, I now find myself employed by various churches, so am in church on a fairly regular basis and am impressed by Christianity?s central, unarguable message of love and peace, however peculiar or anachronistic I may find some of the terms in which that message is couched. I want my children to learn that love and peace are supremely important, and would love them to go to a church school where this would be emphasised and explored. However, unless the admission policies change, or one of you can convert me back to proper Catholicism asap, it sadly is not going to happen.