Bishop urges wider access to Church of England schools

PLANS for the Church of England to cut the number of places offered to children of practising Anglicans to just one in 10 in every class have been welcomed by religious and secular groups campaigning to end religious discrimination. 

However they face opposition from parents determined to get high-quality education for their children.

Under the changes proposed by the head of the church’s board of education, Bishop of Oxford the Right Rev John Pritchard, a limited number of places would be reserved for children of churchgoers but this should be “minimised because our primary function and our privilege is to serve the wider community.

“Ultimately, I hope we can get the number of reserved places right down to 10 per cent. It goes back to what we see the mission of the church as being. I don’t think the mission generally is about collecting nice Christians into safe places,” he said.

The church is due to publish guidelines on admissions during the summer.

Anglican and Catholic church members in the United Kingdom often increase the frequency of their church attendance when they become parents in an attempt to secure places for their children in religious schools, believing them – often correctly – to provide a far higher quality of education than nearby state schools.

During Tony Blair’s time in 10 Downing Street, the Labour government tried to ensure that only a quarter of places at new faith schools were kept for non-religious pupils but this was blocked following vigorous opposition led by the Catholic church, which insists on its right to offer denominational teaching.

Currently, the Anglican church teaches nearly one million pupils, mostly in primary schools, although about half the 4,800 Church of England schools are free to set their entry rules, so are less likely to agree to the bishop’s proposal.

Anne West, professor of education policy at the London School of Economics, said the proposed changes, if implemented, could have the biggest impact on admissions to Church of England schools in a generation.

However, the proposal was welcomed by Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, who said Bishop Pritchard was the first leading Anglican to admit the high performance of Church of England schools was due to selection of the brightest pupils rather than quality of education.

Rabbi Jonathan Romain, chair of Accord, which campaigns to promote inclusive schools, said the current rules meant religion and discrimination in schools had “become almost synonymous”.

“Schools should be inclusive and tolerant and no state-funded school should be allowed to discriminate on the grounds of religion for any of their teacher posts or any pupil places,” he said.

There are already signs of emerging division within the Church of England.

The Rev Clive Sedgewick, director of education for the dioceses of Bradford and Ripon and Leeds, said the church may “be shooting itself in the foot” and that some parents would see the proposed moves as retrograde. 

“Personally, I might suggest a third of places being reserved,” he said.

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