Ten years ago, Nigel Genders says, the consensus was that collective worship in schools was a bizarre anachronism.

Times, he believes, have changed.

“Ten years ago, people might have thought, ‘let’s get rid of it,’” the chief education officer for the Church of England says.

“Now I think people realise that, in the business of life, having time to pause and reflect is really important. And so the rise of collective worship - rather than the demise of it - is something that people are seeing as an important thing.”

In his role at the CofE, Genders is the head of the country’s second-biggest provider of state education. At the moment, the Church operates 4,700 schools. And it plans to open an additional 125 free schools by 2020 - more than a quarter of the total number planned for that period.

Humanists have described the CofE’s move as “entirely out of step with the beliefs of the population”.

‘We’re underselling ourselves’

Unsurprisingly, Genders disagrees. “I don’t think it’s a straight numbers game,” he says. “Even if you took the worst-case scenario in the country - that 50 per cent say they would self-identify as Christian - we’re still only running a quarter of the schools. So we’re underselling, rather than overselling.”

Genders is sitting in the boardroom at Church House, in central London. Nearby, pupils at Westminster School file into lessons, while the Abbey bells toll.

Spiritual development is fundamental to the development of the child

He leans forwards in his seat. Church attendance and religious faith are beside the point, anyway, he says. “Just because someone doesn’t go to church, it doesn’t mean that they want to shut down that part of their lives. Spiritual development is fundamental to the development of the child, whether or not they are practising Christians in a church.

“A sense of the other, which - whether you want to call it God or a sense of other - is still part of the spiritual dimension of people’s lives.”

At the moment, Genders believes, this is something that secular schools simply do not prioritise. “I think sometimes we need to be more honest about what the different drivers are,” he says.

“One of the biggest drivers in the education world at the moment is economic prosperity. So everything is seen through the lens of, ‘Is this going to help this child become a viable unit of economic prosperity?’

“That’s important. But it’s not the only thing that’s important. We say, ‘They also need to learn how to love their neighbour, and how to serve their community, and how to develop those dimensions of their character.’ And that’s our driver.”

For this reason, he says, the CofE is uninterested in opening any grammar schools, despite Theresa May’s plans to reintroduce selection. “We’ve been very clear that, because we think every child is important, we want to develop more schools that are meeting the needs of all pupils, irrespective of whether they’ve got high academic ability or not,” he says. “It’s about serving the needs of the many, not just the few.”

Instead, Genders plans to extend church schools’ involvement in special educational needs, setting up special schools and alternative-provision units. And he is looking into opening schools with technical specialisms.

“How do we provide a school where there isn’t currently enough education for the children in the area, and meet the pupils’ needs?” he says. “That’s our priority. And that means opening schools for the whole community.”

Genders attended a CofE primary, followed by the local comprehensive, before being ordained as a minister in 1992. After that, he assumed that he would follow the usual parish minister’s career trajectory: curacies, followed by an appointment as vicar.

But then he was made vicar of a large village, complete with a CofE primary. “I discovered that parents, church and school, all working together, can be a really dynamic and effective thing,” he says.

“So that was - I wouldn’t say it was an epiphany, but it was a transformational moment in my ministry. I realised that the connection of Church and school was something that was a really dynamic, powerful good, in terms of the whole life of the community.”

As a result, he ended up spending part of his working week as chaplain in local - non-faith - secondary schools. He taught RE lessons, but also acted as pastoral adviser, providing support and guidance for pupils, regardless of their religious beliefs.

In fact, Genders maintains that there is space in all schools - church or otherwise - for a chaplain on the staff.

“The provision of pastoral support for school communities is really important,” he says. “Chaplaincy’s a good approach to that support. And our evidence is that schools that have got chaplains, they play a really vital role.

“I wouldn’t want to draw a straight line between counselling service and chaplain, because it’s a different approach. But the students talking to me knew that it wasn’t part of their report, that it wasn’t going to go back to their head of year. That feels important in this area of work - that you’re a neutral voice. You aren’t there as someone who’s going to tell the teacher.”

You’re a neutral voice. You aren’t there as someone who’s going to tell the teacher.”

The more he worked with pupils, the more focused he became on education. Eventually, he was appointed director of education for his diocese, and then the national head of school policy.

“We’re not a campaigning group or a lobby organisation,” he says. “We’re a statutory partner in education, running a quarter of the nation’s schools. So we want to play our role in that partnership.”

The government’s view of this partnership is that CofE schools - many of which educate Muslim pupils - play a valuable role in encouraging integration. Genders, however, phrases this slightly differently.

“Post-Brexit referendum, post Donald Trump being elected, there seems to be a rising tendency towards nationalism, and people bunkering down.

“We feel a responsibility to open people’s horizons, not close them down. We want to enable an education which puts people in contact with people from different cultures - to show that there are different lenses through which to see the world.”

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