The relationship between ethos, learning habits and educational outcomes of English Church of England secondary schools and academies

This thesis represents my reflective journey to explore the relationship between ethos, learning habits and educational outcomes of Church of England secondary schools and academies. Leaders of Church schools often suggest that their Christian ethoses contribute to their favourable outcomes although they offer limited evidence to support this. Using published inspection reports for Church schools I argue that it is possible to find a statistically significant relationship between an aggregated score for ethos and an aggregated score for educational outcomes. Focusing on one school with a particularly strong match as a case-study, and drawing on the work of Jeynes (2003) in the United States, I argue that there is a perception amongst the stakeholders of this school that its Christian ethos contributes to success through cultivating the learning habits of diligence, resilience and compliance. Further, I argue that the values, theology and actions of the headteacher have contributed significantly to this ethos and these related learning habits. In proposing these findings I argue that my role as a self-professing Christian and serving Church school headteacher provided me with a unique experience to obtain this data grounded in my own story. Through personal biographies and further enquiry, I suggest that these learning habits may be applicable not only to the case-study school but to all successful Church schools. Finally, in arriving at all these findings, I maintain that the employment of a range of methodologies throughout this thesis enabled me to illuminate the different dimensions of the relationship between ethos, learning habits and outcomes in Church schools.

In an age when there is evidence of growing opposition to all ‘faith’ schools, I suggest that the findings from this study provide important insights into the relationship between ethos, learning habits and outcomes, not only of Church schools but other schools too.