The number of state religious secondary schools in Coventry is up by a third with the opening of two new faith schools this week.
When Sikh free school the Seva School and Muslim free school the Eden Girls School are fully open there will be six state secondary faith schools in Coventry.
The existing four are Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School, Cardinal Newman Catholic School, Bishop Ullathorne Catholic School and the Coventry Blue Coat Church of England School and Music College.
The city’s first Sikh school, the Seva School, has opened in the former Dartmouth School buildings in Tiverton Road, Wyken.
The school will eventually take primary and secondary pupils but has started out this year by taking just younger primary pupils.
The buildings in Tiverton Road are a temporary home ahead of a move to a permanent site in the city.
The Eden Girls School is also in temporary buildings in Lincoln Street, Foleshill, while permanent buildings go up alongside.
Led by headteacher Asiyah Ravat, teachers at the all-girl Muslim school aim to get pupils into top universities and then to jobs at successful multinationals.
It’s the second Muslim school for the city. The other one, Coventry Muslim School, is fee paying and doesn’t get government funds.
Judith Everington, a former religious education teacher in Coventry who now works at Warwick University’s Centre for Education Studies, said: “I see this as a tremendously important and valuable development.
“Coventry has always been a multi-ethnic multi-faith city yet for a long time there have only been faith schools with a Christian foundation.
“This has been a long time coming. Hats off to everyone involved.”
A third new secondary school has also opened in in the city as the new term has begun this week.
The WMG Academy for Young Engineers has opened in Mitchell Avenue, Canley.
WMG Academy WMG Academy
The school for 14 to 18-year-olds concentrates on subjects such as maths, physics, art and design.
It has close links with Warwick University nearby in Gibbet Hill Road.
Pupils have been spending the first few days doing project work at Warwick University before settling in to the gleaming new £10.5 million building.
The school is a University Technical College, a new kind of school independent from councils linked to universities and overseen directly by the government.
Original Content by Coventry telegraph