NSS urges Parliament to prevent increase in selective faith schools

The National Secular Society has urged a parliamentary committee to ensure a new bill will not lead to a new wave of highly selective faith schools in England.

Responding to a call for evidence by the committee for the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill, the NSS said proposed changes to how new schools are opened must safeguard against the proliferation of faith schools which can select all pupils based on religion.

The new bill will end the presumption that new schools should be 'free school' academies. Free schools with a religious character can select up to 50% of pupils based on religion if they are oversubscribed.

But no longer requiring new schools to be free schools would make it easier for voluntary aided (VA) faith schools to open. Unlike free schools, VA schools can select 100% of pupils based on religion when oversubscribed.

Recent research has revealed that as well as fostering religious and ethnic segregation, faith schools are more socially selective, create barriers for looked-after and previously looked-after children, and admit fewer pupils with special educational needs and disabilities.

NSS urges committee to back amendment to extend 50% cap

The NSS urged the committee to support an amendment tabled by Liberal Democrat MP Munira Wilson, which states any new school "must, where the school is oversubscribed, provide that no more than half of all places are allocated" based on faith. This would mean the 50% cap on faith based places at free schools is extended to VA schools.

The NSS also called for measures to ensure local authorities prioritise opening community schools without a religious character or ethos, which "treat children and families of all religion and belief backgrounds equally and therefore help to bring communities together".

It said it agreed with views expressed by the Department for Education on a recent BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme that fully selective faith schools would be "highly unlikely" to "meet local authority need for places".

But it added that without safeguards in place, local authorities would likely face "mounting pressure from religious groups" to open such faith schools.

It highlighted the Catholic Church's aggressive lobbying to remove the 50% cap on faith-based admissions at free schools, contributing to the previous Conservative government's decision to initiate plans to abolish the cap.

Representatives of the Catholic Church and the Church of England gave evidence to the bill committee yesterday. Director of the Catholic Education Service Paul Barber confirmed the Catholic Church would "wish to continue to give priority to Catholic families" in oversubscribed Catholic schools.

Chief education officer for the Church of England Nigel Genders said "a Church school is for the whole community" and the CofE would "seek to deliver that under the 50% cap".

But in its evidence to the committee, the NSS highlighted that many Church of England schools do operate discriminatory admissions policies. A quarter of Church of England state secondary schools select 100% of pupils based on religion.

The NSS has also written to Secretary of State for Education Bridget Phillipson and met with DfE officials to raise concerns about the bill's potential to allow fully selective faith schools to open with ease. The bill will also introduce measures to protect children not in school. The NSS welcomed these measures, saying they will help protect children from "being trapped in unregistered, unsafe and unsuitable" illegal faith 'schools'.

NSS: Local authorities must prioritise "inclusivity, equality and social cohesion" when opening schools

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: "It is essential this bill, which aims to improve education, does not inadvertently become a vehicle for greater religious discrimination and segregation in our schools.

"We therefore urge the Government to ensure local authorities can put inclusivity, equality and social cohesion at the centre of their approach to opening new schools.

"This means making sure no more faith schools which can select 100% of children based on religion can open.

"We are an increasingly diverse and irreligious nation. We must therefore prioritise schools which equally welcome all children and families, and which promote cohesion between communities of different religions and beliefs, rather than driving them apart."

The Public Bill Committee will conclude its consideration of the bill at 5pm on Tuesday 11^th February. It strongly advises those who wish to submit evidence to do so "as soon as possible". More details are available here