The Department for Education has issued a new code for school
admissions aimed at stopping "covert selection" based
on social class, aptitude, interviews etc. It does not, of course,
apply to religious schools, which retain the right to pick and choose
their intake.
The Church of England has now issued its own voluntary guidelines to local dioceses with advice on how they can make intake into Church schools match the requirements of the new Code.
There are about 4,620 Church of England schools. Some 4,400 primary, equivalent to 25 per cent of all state primary schools, and 220 secondary, or 6 per cent. Nineteen per cent of all primary pupils and six per cent of all secondary pupils attend these schools, and both proportions are growing.
The Church of England said that new schools (i.e. none of the existing 4,620) should normally have at least 25 per cent of their pupils from other faiths or none, while all schools should aim to have non-Christian pupils make up at least 15 per cent of their school population. The Church of England has said that schools can even give up to 100 per cent "local priority" where this is judged appropriate by the school and advises ways in which these twin aims can be achieved in very differing local circumstances. The 15% minimum of "free places" would be almost entirely crowded out by the many Christians who would not commit to the twice monthly church attendance proposed as a religious entry criterion by the Church late last year.
However, in schools that are over-subscribed there will still be a harsh "faith priority" requirement. Parents will have to prove that they belong in one of three categories: "known to the church"; "attached to the church"; or "at the heart of the church". Needless to say which category would get priority in an oversubscribed, taxpayer funded school.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "These guidelines are nothing more than church flim-flam to try to hide the injustice of the religious entry criteria. They will make absolutely no difference to the way children are admitted (or more likely turned away) from Church schools. The CofE is trying to convince us that they have opened up their schools to the whole community. Nothing could be further from the truth. Popular schools will simply disregard it. It will further encourage non-believing parents to lie and cheat to get their children into what, in effect, are private schools on the rates. In other words, it becomes selection by hypocrisy."
Read the guidelines here: http://www.natsoc.org.uk/downloads/admissionsguidancejan07.doc
NSS January 2007