The General Teaching Council for England is developing a new code of conduct for teachers that threatens to prevent teachers from talking about their faith and could be used to compel teachers to promote viewpoints with which they disagree.

The GTCE is currently conducting a public consultation on a draft code, at the heart of which are the following eight principles:

Registered teachers:
1. Place the wellbeing, development and progress of children and young people at the heart of their professional practice
2. Reflect on their own teaching to ensure that it meets the high professional standards required to help children and young people achieve their full potential
3. Strive to awaken a passion for learning and achievement among children and young people and equip them with the skills to become lifelong learners
4. Promote equality and value diversity
5. Take proactive steps to establish partnerships with parents and carers
6. Work as part of a whole-school team
7. Cooperate with other professional colleagues who have a role in enabling children and young people to thrive and succeed
8. Demonstrate high standards of honesty and integrity and uphold public trust and confidence in the teaching profession

Although I would like to have seen a little more in principles five and seven acknowledging the key roles and responsibilities played by parents and carers and by others in society in the development of the next generation in our communities, most of these principles are clearly well intentioned. However, in view of how 'rights' language has been used in recent years to undermine the traditional values and principles that are fundamental to our nation's legal and religious heritage, principle four raises serious concerns. For instance, all schools that have a religious character are required to have an ethos statement. Church schools usually adopt a variant of the following model ethos statement:

'Recognising its historic foundation, the school will preserve and develop its religious character in accordance with the principles of the Church of England and in partnership with the Churches at parish and diocesan level. The school aims to serve its community by providing an education of the highest quality within the context of Christian belief and practice. It encourages an understanding of the meaning and significance of faith, and promotes Christian values through the experience it offers to all its pupils.'

The GTCE's fourth principle would appear to be framed in a way that almost guarantees future conflict with all such schools.

Theoretically, human rights legislation guarantees the fundamental right of everyone to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Yet, one doesn't need to reflect for long on recent cases to understand how a 'seeming intolerance and illiberality about faith in God ... in the higher echelons of our public services' (to quote the Archbishop of York) might soon result in abuse of the equality and diversity principle.

Of course, as we explored in Human Rights - A Christian Conception?, it is the Christian belief that all humans are made in the image of God that inspires a true respect for and belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. However, it is one thing to require teachers (or anybody else) to 'act respectfully towards all children and young people, parents, carers and colleagues, regardless of their socio-economic background, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, race, religion or beliefs' (GTCE draft Code of Conduct, p.14); quite another to require them (us) to 'promote equality and value diversity in all their professional relationships and interactions' (ibid) even when that stands in opposition to their own freedom of thought, conscience or religion.

Take, for instance, reports earlier this month about the case of Caroline Petrie, the community nurse who was suspended for an alleged breach of her code of conduct on equality and diversity after she offered to pray for a patient. Would a teacher be investigated for offering to pray for a colleague or with a pupil? Would a teacher be prevented from answering questions about their faith? And what consequences would such a secularist interpretation have for the statutory requirement for all schools to engage in a corporate act of worship?

Already we have Jennie Cain, the receptionist from Landscore Primary School in Crediton, being investigated for alleged professional misconduct after she sent a private email to friends asking for prayer, in connection with an incident in which her five-year-old daughter Jasmine upset another pupil by expressing what amounts to the Church's traditional position on damnation and hell. According to the headteacher, Mrs Cain's email contained a false allegation about the school. You and I will most likely never know the full facts of the affair. Nevertheless, it is clear that concerns over this case echo those surrounding others where so-called 'equality' and 'diversity' guidelines have resulted in Christians (such as Lillian Ladele) being suspended or public funding being withdrawn from Christian organisations (such as Pilgrim Homes, who refused Brighton Council's demand that it question its elderly residents four times a year about their sexual orientation).

Be sure to have your say on the GTCE draft code before the consultation closes, on Friday 27 February.

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