New plans to give faith schools more control of enrolment

Damian Hinds told the Sunday Times he still wants to relax the rules that would control how faith schools choose their students.

This would see new faith schools no longer stopped from picking more than half of pupils based on their religion.

The Catholic Church has been a big critic of these rules, saying the cap must go. It was aimed at boosting diversity in classrooms, but, the Church went as far to refuse to open any new schools.

There is speculation as to whether the Government policy could spark a wave of new Christian schools opening.

The Catholic diocese of East Anglia is already planning to open eight new schools.

Helen Bates, its assistant director for schools service, told Premier News Hour why the Catholic Church opposed the 50 per cent cap.

“The Catholic bishops do not want to find themselves in a position where a Catholic child is a refused a place in Catholic school because a non-Catholic child has a greater priority for that place and that’s always a possibility with the 50 per cent cap.”

Although those opposed to the change believe removing the cap will encourage prejudice, Bates said she has not seen any evidence of that.

“We have seen no evidence of Catholic schools being segregated or exclusive at all, actually quite the opposite.”

The Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education has accused Hinds of failing in his duty to wider society.
Chair of the…