The inspection criteria for schools with a religious character within the state-maintained system in England and Wales require the sponsoring body to report on aspects of the distinctiveness of the school ethos and on school worship. This article argues that taking into account the student voice in these areas could enhance the inspection process.…

Northern Ireland has been and remains a religiously divided community. This study sets out to examine outgroup prejudice among a sample of 1799 13-15-year-old students attending Catholic or Protestant schools and employs both bivariate analyses and hierarchical modelling to chart the associations between outgroup prejudice and personal factors…

From the late 1960s independent Christian schools have emerged in England and Wales, initiated either by churches or by parents. Many of these new independent schools are linked through the Christian Schools Trust. The impact that these schools are exerting on their students may be of interest for the churches with which they are associated and of…

A sample of 10,851 pupils (5493 males and 5358 females) attending Year 9 classes (13- to 14-year-olds) and a sample of 9494 pupils (4787 males and 4707 females) attending Year 10 classes (14- to 15-year-olds) in non-denominational state-maintained secondary schools in England and Wales completed questions concerned with conventional Christian…

The Outgroup Prejudice Index is a six-item scale that uses social distance to assess prejudice towards ethnic and religious out groups among Asians and whites. It was developed among a sample of 2,982 teenagers attending schools in northern England who indicated their religion as "Muslim", "Christian" or "No…

Survey data provided by 361 headteachers regarding religious education provision at Key Stages one and two within schools in Wales are modelled to distinguish between three main approaches to religious education, characterised as concerned with spiritual development, world religions, and Christian nurture. No differences in emphasis on these three…

Self-esteem (SE) is widely regarded as an indicator of positive psychological functioning. The empirical evidence for an association between SE and religiosity, although extensive, is ambiguous; some studies have reported a positive association, yet others have failed to detect any significant relationship. The aim of the present paper was to…

A sample of 279 12- to 16-year-old pupils completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity and the short-form Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised. Contrary to the findings of research using earlier junior versions of the Eysenck scales, the data demonstrate that introverts have ceased to be more religious. (Contains 1…

Nineteen independent Christian schools participated in the teenage religion and values survey, contributing to the overall database of nearly 34,000 Year 9 and Year 10 pupils. The present analysis demonstrates that 13-15-year-old boys educated within independent Christian schools display a distinctive values profile, in comparison with pupils…