A Christian school in Louth, Lincolnshire, has denied claims of its curriculum being fundamentalist as well as its teaching of Christian radicalism. Locksley Christian School, located in Manby Park, was mentioned in several letters that were sent to the media after an investigative report revealed objectionable inclusions in the school’s curriculum under the widely followed Accelerated Christian Education (ACE).

While Locksley is the only school to have been exposed as yet, many other schools across the country teach elements of the ACE curriculum. The curriculum has been under the scanner for a while for focusing on biblical literalism, negating the theory of evolution and promoting the idea of homosexuality being unnatural and a sinful personal choice.

Amanda Franklin, head teacher at Locksley, said that the school excludes some parts of the ACE curriculum where, traditional ideas clearly contradict British values of the 21st century.

“At Locksley Christian School, we teach our students to love and respect everyone, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation. We focus more on love rather than morality, and we supplement the ACE curriculum with parts of the national curriculum, such as in PSHE. We are sensible and very aware of these issues, but our overall ethos is a message of love, and love for God. We are different from almost every other ACE Christian school in the country, in that we have pupils from both Christian and non-Christian backgrounds. There are 60 Christian character traits that are presented to our students throughout their school careers through the curriculum and, without doubt, any parent - Humanist,

Atheist, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist - would agree that they would want these traits inculcated into their children’s lives,” she said.

Franklin also said that the school’s staff includes non-believers as well as believers, while pointing out that one of the teachers even has a degree in human evolutionary biology.