Reacting to yesterday’s primary school league tables, the Chair of the Accord Coalition, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, said ‘The strong exam performances at faith schools remains entirely predictable given the large body of research showing that it is explained by the different social and ability profile of pupils admitted. However, the fact that faith schools are becoming so elitist, combined with recent research casting light on widespread manipulation of religiously selective admission arrangements, will appal many people of faith. Most Church Schools were set up to educate the disadvantaged, not select the elite.’
‘If society is going to offer social privilege, then let it do so in a manner that is upfront and which does not taint religion or faith based schools. If people want selection, then be honest and call for Grammar Schools – but do not use religion as a mask for it.’
The Department for Education has today released new primary school league tables showing that faith schools remain over represented among those schools whose pupils obtain the highest exam scores. The Department’s data shows that of the 693 primary schools in England whose pupils all reached level 4 in reading, writing and maths, 62% were designated as having a religious character, despite faith schools only comprising of 37% of state funded schools at the primary stage. In 2013 only 60% of schools that reached this level were faith schools.
Notes
In December 2013 the Fair Admissions Campaign (which was co-founded by Accord in June 2013) published findings of research looking at how religiously selective all secondary schools in England were and the social profile of their pupils (please find under the drop down tab ‘Show table’ at the ‘Overall averages’ page at http://fairadmissions.org.uk/map/). The Campaign found schools without a religious character admitted, in proportional terms, 10.66% more pupils entitled to free school meals than if they admitted those children living nearest to them (this group of schools included almost all grammar schools). In contrast, faith schools admitted 18.44% fewer. This rose to 26.71% fewer at those faith schools that permitted all their places to be allotted by faith.
In September 2014 Accord revealed further findings from the Fair Admissions Campaign’s research, including that:
- grammar schools were found on average twice as socio-economically selective as religiously selective schools, but that because religiously selective schools were more numerous they make a greater overall contribution in making the state funded school system more socio-economically segregated at the secondary level
- that the combined impact of socio-economic segregation by religious selection at the primary and secondary phases is twice that caused at grammar schools
- there are more places that can be allotted by faith at state funded schools in England as there are places allocated by academic ability, aptitude or gender, or at private schools, combined
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%. Considering that only 25% of pupil places in the state system are at faith schools and that many of these schools do not reward Church attendance (many instead show preference to baptised or local children), the survey points to widespread abuse.
In January 2014 the Pastoral Research Centre released data suggesting that baptism may also be being manipulated. The Centre showed that while the number of baptisms of children under the age of one in England and Wales was in long term decline, the number of baptisms of those aged over one had risen dramatically over the previous decade. The change is consistent with parents having children baptised as the child gets nearer to school age, as part of a strategy to increase their chance of being admitted to a popular Church School (and educated school alongside more aspirational families).
Research has long indicated that stronger exam performance at faith schools can be explained by the social and ability profile of their pupils:
- Can Competition Improve School Standards? The Case of Faith Schools in England (2009) by Dr Rebecca Allen and Dr Anna Vignoles found ‘… significant evidence that religious schools are associated with higher levels of pupil sorting across schools, but no evidence that competition from faith schools raises area-wide pupil attainment’.
- Faith Schools: Admissions and Performance (2009) by the House of Commons Library reviewed evidence on the relationship between admissions and performance in faith schools and found that ‘recent research on primary schools suggests that performance difference can largely be explained by prior attainment and background. The remaining differences are due to parental self-selection and selection methods used by some faith schools’.
- Faith Primary Schools: Better Schools or Better Pupils?(2009) by Stephen Gibbons and Olmo Sliva argued that ‘it appears that most of the apparent advantage of faith school education in England can be explained by differences between the pupils who attend these schools and those who do not’.
- Faith primary schools: Better schools or better pupils, by Stephen Gibbons and Olmo Silva (2011) ‘results show that pupils progress faster in Faith primary schools, but all of this advantage is explained by sorting into Faith schools according to preexisting characteristics and preferences.’
