Introducing the landmark study: Faith in the Nexus
The Faith in the Nexus project focussed on how the collaboration between home, school, and church can support children's spiritual development. This article summarizes the work.
Key Downloads:
The 2000 Faith in the Nexus report
The 2003 Follow up Study
Navigate to other related articles:
(new) Listening to children’s spiritual expression
Introducing the landmark study: Faith in the Nexus
Animating children’s voices: bring faith talk alive for adults and children at school and at home.
Nexus Research in Church Toddler Groups
Transforming Research into Practice
Academic Articles
The Faith in the Nexus project focussed on how the collaboration between home, school, and church can support children's spiritual development. It arose out from a 2016 study published by Theos and written by Alwyn Mark which explored the passing on of faith from parents to their children. Passing on Faith offers a background and context to the Faith in the Nexus project and can be download here.
The Faith in the Nexus project was an extensive empirical mixed methods study, including a large survey and many focus groups in school settings. It was undertaken by National Institute of Christian Education Research, (NICER), an educational research centre at Canterbury Christ Church University. Throughout this research, the research team took a child-centred approach by attentively listening to the voices of Year 5 and Year 6 children speaking across 27 Roman Catholic and Church of England = primary schools in England and Wales and an inclusive approach to the idea of spiritual flourishing.
The project has gone on to be highly influential informing both EU funded research initiatives focussed on anti-religious bullying (see here) and also the Church of England’s Growing Faith initiatives which seeks to engaged young people (see here).
Faith in the Nexus has transformed our understanding of children’s spiritual flourishing with implications for organized religion, education settings and the sustaining of religion-cultural identity at home:
· Children are the initiators and drivers of their spiritual development, actively seeking out places of reflection, times to pray, and space to talk about faith and encounters with God.
· Children value opportunities to ask open-ended questions about things of deep importance to them and things they wonder about, and for others to listen to their opinions.
· Children’s responses revealed how they navigate the diversity of religious beliefs within their homes and schools to craft their spiritual journey
· Church primary schools can provide safe spaces to talk about faith, spiritual matters, and ask challenging questions; pupils identified RE lessons as such a space.
· Children value the support of family, school and parish church and appreciate adult engagement in their spiritual questing
· Responding to children’s talk about faith is challenging; adults may struggle with how to respond, avoid, or close down such conversations
· Flourishing connections between school, home and parish church, nurtures relationships between individuals and these institutions
· The value of having a sense of belonging to a vibrant community was apparent in both children’s and adults’ responses.
Summary of findings
A flourishing Nexus of school, church, and home:
Nurtures relationships between individuals & institutions
Encourages spiritual leadership
Offers time and space for reflection
Provides a safe space to talk of faith & spiritual matters or ask challenging questions
Gives a sense of belonging to a local Christian community
In the home:
Children are often the dynamic initiators of conversations about faith or spirituality
The stimulus for these conversations includes activities, curriculum, and worship in school
Parental attitudes to these conversations varied: some parents struggled with how to respond to these initiatives; others avoided or closed conversations down through lack of knowledge, confidence, or fear of indoctrination
Church primary schools encouraged more faith interactions in the home when:
Active connections between church and school were sustained
Opportunities for spiritual leadership roles for pupils were provided
Space and time for reflection were available
The RE curriculum focused on questions and Christian concepts
Parents’ confidence is increased when the church primary school:
Encourages talk about spiritual matters
Offers encounters with faith & beliefs, and visits to church
Explicitly communicates Christian values, beliefs, and practices through a variety of media – newsletters, websites, signage, and displays
Characteristics of positive relationships between church and school:
Invitational worship
Celebration of festivals
The presence of the minister in the school
A sense of belonging and connection to the church community and building
What needs to change?
We now have more knowledge about the relationship between multiple factors, such as faith-based admissions criteria, school, church, and diocesan strategies, and the presence of fruitful faith conversations, prayer, and other practices in the home environment.
There is a need for:
Greater awareness and understanding of the value of the church school relationship and school approaches that encourage children to explore faith in the home
All Christian educators and ministers to prioritise facilitation of faith exploration in the home
We believe that changes can be made by targeted and effective dissemination of the key findings to significant influencers and animators through a sustained campaign that is integrated with stakeholder activities and strategies, in particular Growing Faith in the Church of England.
Why did we use the term Nexus?
A NEXUS is a focus for connection, where multiple lines from different places come into relationship around a point of focus. In this project, the Nexus refers to the connections between church school, the parish church, and the home. The Faith in the Nexus project aimed to reveal the influence of these connections in children’s developing spiritual life, and, specifically, how what happens in school (collaboration with church and others) impacts on children’s faith and spiritual life at home.
Communicating findings through animation
We made animations coming out of the project with accompanying pdf guides to help translate the findings for professional, adult and child audiences. Three core animations support the first research phase. The first animation draws attention to the key findings of the report whilst the second animation has an empowering message for parents nurturing their child’s spiritual journey. The third animation is aimed at encouraging children to consider their own spirituality.
Click here to download the Parents Guide to use with this animation
Click here for the Children’s questions sheet on the Teachers’ Action Pack.
Project details
Date:From 2017 - 2023
Institute:Canterbury Christ Church University
Researchers:Dr. Ann Casson, Ann Pittaway, Dr Sabrina Hulbert, Professor Bob Bowie
Funding body: Douglas Trust Grant £420,000