News that the spiritual welfare of young children is being neglected somewhere will not surprise anyone, but the evidence adduced by a British researcher produced an eye-catching headline in the London Telegraph. “Angel sightings ‘should not be dismissed’”, it read.

Kate Adams, who lectures at an Anglican university college, interviewed 94 children who believed they had a dream with a religious connection but one third never confided in anyone. Exploring children’s belief in the unseen, Dr Adams was told by a seven-year-old girl that her parents paid no attention when she told them she saw an angel at her bedside every night.

Dr Adams said such testimonies were a saddening indictment of adults’ misunderstanding of children. She was presenting her findings to an educational research conference in the hope of encouraging teachers to take more interest in the spiritual life of children.

(It is one of the charming things about Britain that, despite being the home of atheist poster-boy Richard Dawkins, it still has legislation requiring schools to give religious education and to attend to children’s spiritual development.)

Another study to be presented to the conference, based on interview with 166 trainee teachers at eight English universities, showed that 44 per cent felt their course barely covered spiritual development.

No doubt some Britons would like to see an end to religion in schools, and yet growing numbers of religious (faith) schools are being opened across the country and more students are opting to take senior exams in religious studies.