Talk about Creationism to most Brits and you might as well be talking about little green men from Mars or declaring that the Moon is made of cheese. I thought that Darwinism was prevalent in the US. Over here they don�t even bother to call evolution a theory. That there could be any explanation to the origins of the universe and all it contains other than an atheistic one is considered absolutely batty � almost grounds for institutionalisation.

That�s why the local and national governments don�t know what to do with Emmanuel College in Gateshead. It is not a college in the American sense of the word, but rather a secondary school. Just the fact that some of the staff at Emmanuel believe in the creationism caused a huge uproar last year. The school had to deny that it was teaching biblical literalism.

But the Brits are now finding out what the American educational establishment found out years ago. For decades now, schools in the States that teach that Creation is not just a load of spiritual symbolism have excelled academically far, far beyond their secular counterparts.

In England and Wales, all students at 16 finish their secondary education with exams in both compulsory and elective subjects. Rather than getting a single high school diploma, the results of each one of these exams is a separate academic qualification. The qualification is called the General Certificate in Secondary Education or GCSE. Students are required to sits GCSEs in English, Math, and Science and then take others as they choose. For example, Mrs Holford has 9 GCSEs. Unlike the grading system common in the US, the range is from A*-G. Schools are judged by the percentage of their students that receive grades A* (called �A-star�) through C.

The national average for schools is 52% of students achieving five GCSEs at grades of A*-C. This calculation includes posh private schools with exorbitant fees and state schools in nice middle-class suburban areas. It would also include Emmanuel, where last year 98% of student accomplished this. Did I forget to mention that Emmanuel is non-fee-paying, non-selective, and in a deprived catchment area?

You would think with results like this that local governments would do everything they could to promote similar schools and draw the same organisation to their localities, especially in the depressed conurbation of the Northeast. Middlesbrough and Doncaster have. Others are less welcoming.

The schools are sponsored by a foundation set up by Sir Peter Vardy, who built his fortune in car dealerships. Sir Peter is said to have been frustrated by an initial reluctance by some Labour education authorities to accept his plans for a stable of Vardy academies in the North East, each modelled on Emmanuel.

As the Vardy Foundation�s chief academic adviser noted, Sir Peter �saw the success of Emmanuel and was very keen to replicate that. When he was approached by the Labour Government and asked to become more involved, he offered six schools but it has been a slow process because dogma keeps getting in the way of young people�s development.�

And now something scary for younger children�

Ofsted is the governments inspector of schools � everything from nursery to secondary. Now Members of Parliament want to know why Ofsted inspectors are banned from telling parents anything about investigations into standards of safety at nurseries and playgroups.

According to The Times, �Parents who complain to the inspection service about nurseries are never told what action, if any, is taken to improve safety, even when children are injured. Nor can they be told how many complaints have been made in the past.

�Ofsted has said that the situation is frustrating, but that it has no legal power to make the information available. In fact, the law compels it to keep the information secret to protect the privacy of nurseries.�

Further Ofsted said that it was �not the purpose of complaints investigations to provide information about outcomes to complainants�.

And if you are one of the good people working with children �

Need to prove you have no criminal record? That�ll be �30, please.

That�s right � under Home Office proposals, it will cost �30 just to produce a document with no information. Apparently, the �30 charge will ease the backlog of applications to the Criminal Records Bureau. I suppose this will pay for more incompetent bureaucrats.

Not Killing Them Fast Enough

Concerned with the teenage pregnancy rate in the UK, the Government started pushing the �morning-after� pill, which kills newly conceived babies. Fortunately not enough girls are buying to make the Government happy. They are not willing to fork out �24.
Yes, that�s right � kill you baby for �24 and all you have to do is take a pill. Couldn�t be easier.

Oh, yes it could. All you have to do to qualify was be under 16 years old. Yes, that�s right, as long as you were under 16 � thus having sex illegally � the Government makes sure you kill your baby for free. For while Tesco, the largest supermarket chain in the UK, was a part of the scheme, but they pulled out after public backlash. We were among those who boycotted Tesco while they were participating.

Here in Herefordshire, the rate of morning-after pill prescribing went up by 17 per cent from 1999 to 2000 and the under-age pregnancy rate shot up 75 per cent.