Church schools admissions policy open to abuse

We are a group of Anglican clergy and laypeople urging that the Church amends its school admissions guidance so that its schools no longer select pupils on grounds of church attendance. Currently many oversubscribed Church schools reject non-churchgoing families, even though the families may live near to the school, while this system is open to abuse.

A survey by the Sutton Trust in December 2013 showed that 6% of parents with a child at a state-funded school admitted to attending church services when they would have not otherwise so a child could go to a Church school. Considering that a quarter of pupil places in the state system are at faith schools and many faith schools do not reward Church attendance (many show preference to baptised or local children), the survey points to widespread abuse among those that do. Worryingly, among parents of socio-economic group A the level of false Church attendance rose to 10%.

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