Emmanuel Schools Foundation

From EvoWiki

The Emmanuel Schools Foundation, formerly the Vardy Foundation, is a UK charity run by millionaire christian fundamentalist, Sir Peter Vardy. The charity is notorious for controversially funding three schools in the north of England: Emmanuel College, Gateshead, King's Academy, Middlesborough, and Trinity Academy at Thorne near Doncaster. Plans are also underway to construct or convert several more schools.

Contents 1 How the organisation and schools work 2 Creationism 3 See also 4 External Links 4.1 Discussions 4.2 News articles

How the organisation and schools work

The schools fall under two categories of UK part state-funded independently controlled secondary schools, and the Vardy Foundation, which pays £2million of the school's costs (new school buildings cost around £20 million, and schools cost £5 million a year to run), has a high level of influence over what the schools teach, and staff they employ.

The foundation has plans to open more schools, including at Conisbrough near Doncaster, which has sparked protests from parents and teachers. Foul play has been suggested as the existing school, Northcliffe School, was improving and in 2003 achieved average exam results when it the government decided it was a failing school and is now planning to sell it to the foundation [1] [2]. In October 2004 the local education authority, the government organisation that runs state schools in the area, was forced to abandon its deal with the Emmanuel Foundation due to the level of protest [3]

Creationism

Under the influence of Vardy both schools have been accused of introducing creationism in biology lessons. In 2005 Vardy claimed that the schools do not teach creationism [4], and implied that they never had, though in an interview in 2003 he made it clear that the schools do teach creationism. It is unclear whether Vardy made a mistake in one of the interviews, whether the schools have changed their policies since 2003, or whether Vardy's definition of "Creationism" has changed over time. The Emmanuel Schools website states that Creationism is taught in religious education classes, but carefully avoids denying or confirming whether it is taught in science classes[5].

In the UK schools must teach a national curriculum which prepares students for the national examinations. However, unless strictly forbidden, local education authorities (who run state schools) or independent school governers may choose to teach additional material. Few topics are forbidden by law, and creationism is not one of these, nor does it fall into a banned category, as in the US where separation of church and state forbids public schools teaching organised religion.

This issue was raised in parliament in April 2006:

Miss Julie Kirkbride (Bromsgrove) (Con): Does the Secretary of State agree that creation as an alternative to evolution should be taught in academy schools if the sponsors so wish?

Ruth Kelly: I do not, and there is no evidence whatever that that is happening. That allegation is most frequently made against the Emmanuel schools run by Sir Peter Vardy. Ofsted has inspected those schools on numerous occasions and one of them was yesterday given its third outstanding report. Ofsted has looked specifically at their science curriculum and at whether creationism was being taught in those schools, and it has concluded that it is not. [6]

John Burn and Nigel McQuoid, the former and current principals of Emmanuel College write in "Christianity and the School Curriculum":

There are those who argue that Science and Christianity can be harmoniously reconciled and that no significant tension remains. We cannot subscribe to this view. It seems to us that attempts to reconcile evolutionary theory with the Biblical account of creation strain and distort scripture and that they introduce a symbolic reading of Genesis which cannot logically deny the symbolic reading of the Virgin Birth, physical Resurrection of Christ or the Second Coming.[7]

Further, it has emerged that King's College have banned Harry Potter from the school library over fears of "satanic undertones" [8].

See also

• Peter Vardy Today interview, in which Vardy repeats a number of long debunked claims.
• Public Education

External Links

• Creationism, a UK anticreationism site
• Conisbrough And Denaby Parents Action Group, a group opposed to the Vardy Foundation taking over a local school
• Petition: "Science and just science in UK science classrooms
• The Teaching of Science:A Biblical Perspective, a lecture given by Steven Layfield, science teacher at Emmanuel College [9].
• Wikipedia, "Emmanuel Schools Foundation"
• Official site

Discussions

• Search Talk.Origins for "Vardy Foundation", "Emmanuel Foundation"
• A transcript of a discussion between a parent and Vardy that took place on BBC. [10]

News articles

• Search the Education section of The Guardian for "Vardy Foundation", "Emmanuel Foundation"

• Answers in Genesis hyping the Vardy Foundation's projects
• "Creationism in the UK" FAQ, in The Guardian [11]
• Robin McKie, "Bishop warns Blair over danger of creationism" in The Guardian 2002/04/27. [12]
• Tania Branigan, "Dawkins attacks 'educational debauchery' of creationist schools" in The Guardian, 2003/04/29. [13]
• Francis Elliott, "Blair adviser sent to settle school creationism row" in The Daily Telegraph, 2002/03/31. [14]
• British Humanist Association, 2003. "State-funded 'Academies' - are they democratic?" [15]
• BBC News, 2004, "Protest over new academy". [16]
• Independent, October 2004, "'Creationist' school blocked over fears of indoctrination"[17]
• John Harris, 2005, "What a Creation" in The Guardian [18]
• Joe Dunckley, 2005, "Government attempts suspicious sale of school to creationist": summary of Northcliffe School episode (weblog) [19]