MP Letter: Faith school admissions

Keep the 50% cap on faith school admissions

To appease demands from religious elites, the Government plans to open a new wave of faith schools which can select 100% of their pupils based on religion.

We need your help to make sure it doesn't.

Under the '50% cap' rule, new academies and free schools with a religious character in England may only select up to 50% of pupils based on religion when they are oversubscribed.

But following lobbying from the Catholic Church, senior officials at Downing Street are reportedly planning to remove the 50% cap.

Abolishing the cap would result in a new wave of religiously exclusive, segregated schools that disadvantage children most in need.

Please write to your MP TODAY to ensure our Government doesn't scrap the cap.

Tips:

Personalising your letter will make it more likely to have an impact.
MPs will respond to casework even if they disagree on policy, so remember to tell them if you are being personally affected by this issue.
Keep your thoughts brief. MPs are busy and get a lot of correspondence.
If you are not happy with an initial result, make sure you follow this up with them.
Use clear and simple language.

Name*:

Email*:

Postcode*:

Address:

Message*:

Dear {{name}}

I’m writing as a constituent to urge you to call on the Government to keep the 50% cap on faith-based admissions at academies and free schools.

Senior officials from the personal office of the Prime Minister are reportedly planning to remove this cap. This would be disastrous: removing the cap would undermine the promotion of inclusion, cohesion and tolerance in our communities at a time when the need for these values has seldom been greater.

As the Schools Minister rightly said in 2018, there are “good community and integration reasons” for limiting the extent of faith-based admissions. Those arguments still hold true, as does the broad consensus that removing the cap would be harmful to social cohesion, resulting in even more of our children being separated and segregated by their religion.

There is substantial evidence that faith-based admissions cause ethnic segregation, exclude poorer families, disadvantage pupils with special educational needs, and perpetuate unfairness against looked-after children. Removing the cap would therefore inevitably increase the extent of these injustices and social harms.

The needs, wellbeing, and fundamental rights of our children to be educated without discrimination must be prioritised over the demands and interests of religious institutions. Removing the cap on faith-based admissions would expand a system which already divides and discriminates against children and their families based on religion. It would be a deeply damaging and regressive step, extending the injustice already present in our education system at a moment in time when its effects would be most harmful. That’s why the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has recently called for end the use of religious selection in England’s schools.

As I hope you agree, our education system should exemplify principles of equality and fairness, not encourage social fragmentation and isolation. I therefore urge you to call on the Government to maintain the cap on faith-based admissions at new academies and free schools, and to support progress towards a school system in which children of all faiths and none are educated together in inclusive schools.

Yours sincerely,

* Required Field

MP Letter: Faith school admissions

Keep the 50% cap on faith school admissions

Sign up for our newsletter