Weekly Prayer Points
Week commencing Sunday 14th July 2024
Bridget Phillipson, the new Secretary of State for Education, has spoken to the DfE about her priorities, bullet-pointed below. Our prayers this week focus on several of her key priorities which carry clear implications for Christians:
- giving all of our children the best start in their early years
Lord, we pray for the strengthening of families with young children, the encouragement for parents to be actively involved in the raising and caring for their children, the blessing of Christian parents especially, and a resistance to schools and others who seek to keep information about children confidential from their parents;
- more teachers, stronger training for staff and leaders alike
Lord, we pray that Christians would enter and remain within the teaching profession, and that conditions would improve in which we can have our freedom of religion and freedom of speech fully respected within our places of work;
Lord, whilst the Government aims to fund an increase in teacher numbers through charging VAT on school fees, we pray for those parents who chose the Christian independent sector because their local state school are unsympathetic and even hostile towards Christian values and beliefs;
- a comprehensive review of curriculum and assessment
Lord, we pray that the place of RE within the curriculum would be retained and secured in such a way that the unique Truth claims of Christ can be clearly presented to all of our nation's youth;
- a reformed Ofsted alongside regional improvement teams in the Department
Lord, we pray that schools with clear faith designations will be respected by OfSTED in relation to the teaching of Christian belief, morality, sexual ethics and diversity in ways which are consistent with their faith and with the wishes of their children's parents;
- a new skills landscape and reforms to the existing Levy
Lord, may our education system find better ways of reflecting the equal value of all children in Your sight, regardless of their different abilities, and so come to see them as individuals made in Your image and not simply as mere cogs in an economic machine;
- and improving mental health support for all of our children
Lord, may we see a growing hunger for spiritual peace in our younger generations, found only through peace with You through Christ. AMEN