The government is proposing to allow new free schools to select up to 100% of pupils according to their parents’ religion, and has a public consultation open until 12 December. Since 2007, in a bid to increase diversity, no new academy or free school has been permitted to admit more than 50% of its pupils based on faith. The Catholic church, however, has refused to open any new schools on this basis, saying it needs to be able to select up to 100% of pupils on their faith.
Guy Shirley, parent and founder of the Kingston Fair Admissions Group
“I moved to an area with very good schools, only to find our house was in a triangle between two Catholic schools that were 100% selective by faith, and a Church of England school that at the time was the same. It’s important to remember that at least half the population no longer has a faith. The admissions criteria of some faith schools – church attendance, participation in church events – encourage parents to act dishonestly: a register kept by the local vicar showed that 80% of parents stopped going to church after their child got a place at the local CofE school. These are state schools and for me, religion is a matter for home. The cap was introduced in the interests of fairness. At a time when as a society we are increasingly isolationist, is this a good idea to remove it? It also compounds religious – often middle-class, often white – privilege. Parents who can, make the time to get to a church on a Sunday morning. People have to engage in church activities for a year before they apply for a place – harder to do if you’re pushed to make ends meet or you’re a single parent. What is desperately needed is lots more schools, not lots more schools reserved for Catholics or any other faith group.”
Ghulam Abbas, spokesperson, Association of Muslim Schools
“The 50% cap has not stopped new Muslim, CofE, Jewish, Hindu, and Sikh schools from opening, so this could be a move to get outstanding and good Catholic schools to open more schools. That would be a positive move. The charge is that it will promote segregation but, actually, the proposals put a number of responsibilities on schools: to promote British values, have people of other faith on your governing body, and to work with other schools. These should go a long way to allay concerns. If you look at existing faith schools, a lot of Church of England and Catholic schools, which make up the majority of faith schools, have a high proportion of Muslims and children from other faiths or none. Removal of the cap will make no difference to Muslim schools. I’m not aware of any Muslim groups that have held off applying to open a school because of the admissions cap.
Brian Conway, headteacher, Notre Dame High School, Norwich
“I’m in favour of removing the cap because I’m in favour of more Catholic schools. The reason new Catholic schools have not opened is there is canon law that says you can’t have a Catholic school that turns Catholics away. But I’m also in favour of schools that are diverse, inclusive and serve as wide a range of people as possible. There are some schools in London that are virtually 100% Catholic, and I’d be unhappy to work in a sector like that. As the Catholic population in this area increases, it really worries me that a new Catholic school might end up being full of only Catholic children – I’d want a school to be big enough for Catholics and for others who wanted to come.”
Lucy Elgood, parent and teaching assistant, London
“Educating a child in a ghetto of any sort is a bad thing and a religious ghetto is as bad as any other. Getting rid of the cap would be wrong because we should be trying to be more inclusive, not less, particularly as the world is becoming more polarised. We know that selection isn’t fair, and faith schools disproportionately disfavour the poor. Children who won’t get into their local school if this cap on faith admissions disappears will have to travel further to school, their friends won’t live nearby, and it makes it harder to form a community. Transition to secondary is a very anxious time, and selecting by faith adds another layer of someone telling you you’re not good enough, and you don’t really know why.”
John Adams, school governor and board member, British Humanist Association
“How can people educated apart live harmoniously together? Do we, or do we not, want diversity in our schools? There is evidence that the 50% cap has had a real impact on improving diversity, and the idea we might want more separation – getting close to segregation – in the 21st century is shocking. The supposedly mitigating factors in the green paper – that a school might consider having an independent governor from a different religion or none – just gives tokenism a bad name. A governing body that is 100% from a single faith … who will they appoint, who will determine the degree of independence that person will have, and most of all, who on earth would want to do it? It’s a wholly retrograde step.”
