Church of England urged to unite communities and support the less advantaged by opening its schools to all 

October 29, 2014

Inclusive-schools-logo-version-3-300x202The Accord Coalition has urged the Church of England to issue fresh guidance to its schools that recommends they move away from selecting pupils by faith, so the Church can better advance its mission to society. The call follows the publication earlier this month of a new survey, undertaken by YouGov and commissioned by the University of Lancaster, which shows the importance that Anglican clergy place on the Church of England’s contribution in bringing together local communities and supporting those in need.

Accord Coalition Steering Group member and co-Director of the Christian think tank, Ekklesia, Jonathan Bartley, said ‘Religiously selective admission policies are widely misused, leading to Church Schools segregating on socio-economic lines and serving the children of the more affluent. As the largest provider of faith schools, the Church could make an immediate and enormous impact in better uniting communities and supporting the less advantaged by encouraging its schools to be open to all local families, regardless of religious background.

‘Many Church Schools were originally created to provide education for the poorest. Now they take fewer children from poorer backgrounds than other schools. Rather than persisting with the current system, which incentivises parents to be insincere about how they manifest their religion or beliefs, moving away from selection by faith would much better advance the Church’s caring mission.’

The University of Lancaster’s YovGov poll surveyed 1,509 Anglican clergy and asked them to list the three most important ways (from a choice of eleven) the Church of England was a positive force in society. The most popular choice, carrying 68% support, was the Church being at the ‘heart of local communities’. The third most popular choice was it offering ‘support for those in need’, selected by 46% of respondents.

Research published in the last year has revealed widespread abuse of religiously selective admission policies. A December 2013 survey commissioned by The Sutton Trust showed that 6% of parents with a child currently at a state school admitted to attending church services that they would have not otherwise, so that a child could go to a Church School. Among parents of socio-economic group A this figure rose to 10%.

In the same month the Fair Admissions Campaign released research showing a strong correlation between how socio-economically exclusive a faith school was and the extent to which it selected pupils by faith. For Church of England secondary schools it found those that were willing to select all pupils by faith if sufficiently oversubscribed admitted 31.10% fewer pupils entitled to free school meals than if they admitted local children. In contrast, those Church of England schools that did not select by faith at all admitted 3.84% more pupils entitled to free school meals than if the schools admitted local children.

The Church of England last revised its school admissions guidance in 2011. It leaves the door open to schools wishing to admit children without resource to faith, but makes no encouragement that they should do so.

Notes
The full data tables from the University of Lancaster’s survey can be found at http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/5f5s31fk47/Results-for-Anglican-Clergy-Survey-08092014.pdf

The extent to which the Sutton Trust’s survey suggests enormous abuse of the religiously selective admissions system is made starker when it is considered how few pupil places parents are chasing. Only 25% of state funded school places are at faith schools, and many of the schools do not reward Church attendance – some because they are not oversubscribed, some do not select by faith in principle, whereas others reward baptism, rather than Church worship.

Entitlement to free school meals is key indicator of deprivation used by government. Further details on the Fair Admissions Campaign’s findings can be found under the drop down table in the ‘How socio-economically selective are different types of secondary school?’ section under the ‘Overall averages’ tab at http://fairadmissions.org.uk/map/.

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