THE Government has proposed lifting the 50-per-cent cap on faith-based admissions for brand new faith schools in England, subject to a consultation launched by the Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, on Wednesday.
Currently, any latest faith school — created under the free-schools programme — that’s oversubscribed can select pupils based on faith for just half the available places.
The programme, with its faith cap — for schools funded by central government but not run by the local authority — was introduced by Lord Cameron throughout the Coalition Government. It was argued on the time that the cap would halt the rise of hardline religious schools. The Government now says that it has, as an alternative, inadvertently prevented the expansion of some denominational schools.
A press release announcing the proposals on Wednesday said that the aim was for “high-performing” faith-school providers, akin to the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church, to establish latest schools and expand into “strong multi-academy trusts” (MATs) where there was a requirement. The move, it said, was based on latest figures that show that half of colleges in England at the moment are academies.
“The Church of England, Catholic Church, and other faith-school providers have a track record in delivering high-quality education, and run among the highest-performing schools across the country,” the announcement said.
But due to the faith-admissions cap, “some faith groups have felt unable to open latest free schools and felt discouraged about bringing existing schools into academy trusts.”
Speaking to the Church Times on Tuesday, the Schools Minister, Damian Hinds, said that this “constraint” had been felt particularly by the RC Church. It has previously argued that favouring non-RC children over children of religion was incompatible with canon law. In 2015, the Catholic Education Service declined to take part in the free-schools programme until the cap was repealed.
Mr Hinds said that the Government wanted all Christian and non-Christian denominations to have “as full a component as possible on this great development and improvement [of academisation] that we’ve been working towards within the English school system. And which means having equal access to have the ability to open free schools.”
The “great strength” of this method was its variety, he said; but “inside that variety, I also am very conscious that faith schools very often do thoroughly academically; they can even have a singular and special pastoral atmosphere and approach.”
As well as scrapping the cap, the Government plans to open special faith-based academies to enhance provision for kids with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Mr Hinds said that admissions for these schools would “still be based on children’s education, health, and care plan, somewhat than faith or religious-practice criteria. But it can mean which you can have a special school with a non secular character and with the freedoms that include that,” akin to promoting for employees who’ve a faith, having the ability to teach Religious Education (RE) in response to the tenets of that faith, and making a spot for worship.
Last month, a report from Ofsted concluded that RE in English schools often failed to organize students to “live in a posh world”, and criticised the Government for not acting on a report published ten years previously which drew similar conclusions (News, 19 April).
Asked concerning the current state of RE, Mr Hinds said: “We all the time take Ofsted reports seriously. RE has a singular place in our college system and we’ll proceed to take the event and optimisation of RE very seriously.”
Responding to the federal government plans this week, the Church of England’s chief education officer, the Revd Nigel Genders, said: “By enabling Church of England special schools, we are able to serve the needs of more children in additional communities, no matter their faith background. With over 50 per cent of colleges now being academies, it’s vital to proceed to develop the system to enable schools of every type to be a part of a trust with a shared purpose and vision for the common good.”
The RC Bishop of Leeds, Rt Revd Marcus Stock, who chairs the Catholic Education Service, said: “These proposals are welcome. Dioceses are well placed to reply to differing local educational demands across the country, including the availability for kids with special educational needs and disabilities.”
Making the announcement, Ms Keegan said: “As someone who attended a faith school as a baby, and having worked closely with our leading faith groups as Education Secretary, I’ve seen first-hand how their values and standards so often give young people an excellent start in life.
“Faith groups run a few of the perfect schools within the country, including in among the most disadvantaged areas, and it’s absolutely right we support them to unleash that potential even further — including through the creation of the first-ever faith academies for kids with special educational needs.”
