God moves in mysterious ways... and it is beginning to look as though education researchers can prove it. The recent phenomenon of parents swapping the aisles of BQ for those of their local church on Sundays in an attempt to get their child into a favoured faith school has attracted much derision.
Now, it turns out that those hours on knees could have been wasted as children do no better at church schools than ordinary comprehensives. But - and this is where irony piles on - earlier research shows that coming from a family of regular churchgoers does raise the number of GCSEs a pupil passes.
In other words, churchgoing for a school place is a waste of time, but churchgoing for its own sake helps your kids. If there is a God, He clearly has a sense of humour.
