Why I started Bradford Christian School

We start a new item to our facebook and website communication…a blog!
Welcome to the first of The Headteacher’s Blog. Every day it is an incredible privilege to
lead our school. I want to share with you some of the things I see. Mine is not the only
voice the blog will feature. I will commission other stakeholders; parents, teachers,
students, governors and wider voices…so get ready for an invite!
Can these blogs add value to what we are doing together in educating our children? Well
let’s see.

Why I started Bradford Christian School. Written on the last ‘snow day’

Today I walked to school and shovelled snow until the Vice Chair of Governors arrived
with his children and asked if he could help. I gave him my shovel, “you can!” I said, “And
I’ll go and do my job; making sure education runs at school today”. He nodded his
approval and I entered the building…and thats the last I saw of the snow. I walked past
Fantastic Mr Fox in the hall, he smiled wickedly and we both glimpsed Toad of Toad Hall
sneaking into his classroom. Dennis the Menace informed me that the school gate was
open and asked was I going to close it? Fearing Nasher would nip at my heals I said I
would. “Give me the keys,” (‘Dennis’ was a member of staff -interesting juxtaposition-
enjoying World Book Day) “and I’ll do it.” I passed the keys over. Today I was surrounded
by helpful people and school was fun. Business as usual then: apart from the unexpected
snow.

This year Bradford Christian School is 25 years old. As its co-founder, I am still its Head
teacher, an incredible privilege. It is my life’s call and I have given myself to it.
I was 34 in 1993 when we opened the school. I had worked with a group of people for two
years, some of them became the first teachers, (and Mrs Moon and Mr
Walker are still at it.) Some the first governors and others produced the first cohort of 37
children. In our twenties we were excited to discover that God had plans for our lives and
that wherever we had passion for serving Him, God was changing lives of the people we
lived and worked with. Those families at Church on the Way in the eighties and nineties
spent time thinking about bringing our children up to know and enjoy God and to make
him known responsibly in the world.

What if school could reflect and support the aspirations of young Christian parents? What
if school were a place where our children could encounter God naturally and easily? What
if we could do a really good job of educating children to use their God -given abilities in
God-given opportunities? What if they left school seeing the world and its problems and
opportunities with God’s eyes? In May of 1993 someone had to to make the step to start
such a school of possibilities. That was me. So I resigned as Deputy Headteacher at
Drummond Middle School in Manningham. The chair of Governors had appointed me to
my leadership role the year before, and I told him I was planning on starting a Christian
school,. A fierce Shi’ite, he looked at me with real wisdom, “ok” he said, “you might, but in
the meantime will you serve our families as a man of faith?” When I left, he kissed me on
both cheeks…but thats another story.

So we started out with a cohort of eager children and very brave parents. God had begun
to provide. A few weeks before I had received money in two envelopes; the first was a
cheque for £10,000, very helpful when you are on your way home to tell your parents that
you are giving up your well paid job to start a school of your own;and an envelope with a

50 pence coin in and a little note from a 6 year old girl who explained, “I am coming to
your school in September. This is my pocket money but you can have all of it to help get
ready.” Imagine what I learned from these two envelopes!

And the past 25 years have been full of astounding stories of God’s provision, unexpected
blessing, a lot of fun and the experience that God has been pleased to work in our small
community and shape young people through simple daily encounters.

So we, staff and students, enjoyed coming to school today. I am looking forward to
tomorrow. I hope you are looking forward not just to tomorrow, but to all our tomorrows.
Keep you eyes open for our ONE initiative, which is an opportunity for you to tell us your
hopes and dreams for your children and where they are beginning to be realised through
your partnership with our school. We sense that now is the time to start recruiting and
engaging with a new set of parents to enhance and enrich our school community.
We need to do it together.

You are our best ambassadors. You are the current generation of parents who sacrifice
to have their children at the school. We need you to help us tell other parents why our
school is worth investing in. We all get just one opportunity to give our child a formative
education. We aim to provide the best christian school in Bradford. As parents, we
worked together in 1993, and we need to work together in 2018.

P.Moon
Headteacher
13th March 2018

 

Wingspan lite is the magazine of the Christian school trust, read the latest here.