Religious schools 'show bias for rich'

· Middle class favoured, study shows
· Faith schools deny selection claim

• Anushka Asthana, education correspondent
• The Observer, Sunday 2 March 2008
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• Rebecca Allen, an academic at the Institute of Education has found that Faith schools are siphoning off middle-class pupils and are failing to take children from the poorest backgrounds nationwide. Even when they are situated in deprived inner-city areas, religious schools have fewer poor children than local authority secondary schools.

Religious schools in England admit 10 per cent fewer poor pupils than is representative of the local area. Local authority schools, meanwhile, take in 30 per cent more and have a disproportionately deprived intake. The result is a school system deeply divided by social class.

That is despite the fact that schools are expected to reflect the social make-up of the communities they serve. Other research by Allen suggests that some of the schools are using the fact that they can select by religion as a way of picking out middle-class pupils.

Barry Sheerman, the MP who chairs the Children, Schools and Families select committee, said he believed head teachers were trying to boost their league table positions. 'It astonishes me that faith schools are so good at making sure they have fewer children from poorer backgrounds and fewer children with special needs,' he said.

Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said it was better for children from different backgrounds to study together. 'All the evidence is that when you get pupils from different social classes mixing together, it is a real positive and when you get children of different abilities mixing, it is a real positive. It does not disadvantage the highest achievers, but it does advantage the lowest. Social segregation is not only bad for community cohesion; it is also bad for learning.'

But those running faith schools rebutted the claims. 'We reject all suggestions that there is a conscious or unconscious policy of creaming off middle-class children,' said a spokesman for the Church of England. Andy Hibberd, co-founder of The Parent Organisation, said he had never come across a C of E school that rejected children because of their background, but added: 'I'd be surprised if you could find one Roman Catholic school that could categorically prove it did not [covertly] select parents based on their socio-economic background.'

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families pointed out that all schools had to adhere to a tough new admissions code that outlawed any unfair practices that could lead to social segregation, and had a duty to promote community cohesion. 'We are absolutely clear that any test of faith membership or practice is in line with the law,' he said.

Meanwhile, more evidence has emerged of tricks used by schools to select through the back door despite the new code. Researchers found headteachers who asked parents to come in to collect a prospectus, attend pre-admissions meetings and write letters of reference for their child.

'It does look as if some schools are using practices that might enable them to select in or select out ... some children,' said Professor Anne West of the London School of Economics, who is carrying out the research for Rise (Research and Information on State Education).

She said some of the practices would be 'problematic in relation to the code' that bans heads from interviewing parents or asking for unnecessary supplementary information. However, she stressed that the work was in the very early stages.

Winning a place at their school of choice will be on the minds of hundreds of thousands of parents this weekend. Tomorrow is National Offer Day, when letters will be sent out informing them of decisions. Many who fail to win a place at their first choice will turn to a plethora of websites and consultants for help on how to appeal. Some will pay £2,000 for a team of experts to support them.

Ministers insist that parents have the choice as to which school their child will attend. But a poll released yesterday by the think-tank Policy Exchange found that 42 per cent of state school parents felt they had little or no choice.