Do you have to be a christian to apply to a church of england school?

[sweetnsuga123]

I'm a PGCE trainee. A job has come up in a church of england school. I am agnostic really I have no faith but I'm not opposed to the christian faith, I just don't personally support it but I admire some of the values.

Am I allowed to apply to this school and will they be more inclined to choose those who are more religious?

You just need to uphold the Christian ethos. There will likely be a question on this at interview.

You can apply- I'm sure they vary but from the experience of people we know in an area with a ridiculously high number of CofE schools you may be at a disadvantage. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, no harm in giving it a shot.

It's totally fine. As long as you would be ok to deliver an assembly/prayer potentially. Put something in your application about understanding the importance of faith to the ethos of the school.

Go by the person spec, our c of e school’s say something like ‘you must be prepared to support our faith ethos’. Legally they then have to select on that criteria.

It will depend on the school, and I would guess, how many actively Christian staff they already have. And schools vary in how active they are in their practise of their faith. In my daughters' C of E secondary school every staff meeting and large parents' meeting starts with a prayer. A chaplain is part of the staff team too and there are regular services at the cathedral and local churches. It was the same at their (Catholic) primary school, and in the Catholic primary that I used to teach in. If you're comfortable with that, then go for it.

My friend is a Hindu and is head of a c of e school. It varies but most just require you to be sympathetic