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Faith for the faithless

faith for the faithless

21 April 2011

The Church of England has announced that they intend to reserve no more than 10% of places for followers of its faith. The announcement comes ahead of the CofE’s publication of guidelines on admissions this summer and represents a huge development in church policy that could have a significant impact on CofE school admissions.

10% is a much lower proportion than the maximum reserve of 50% for new free schools with religious character. The guidance is intended to put pressure on faith schools to change their admissions rules. However, voluntary aided faith schools are their own admissions authority and there may be pressure from parents and other members of the church to maintain the status quo, thereby diluting the impact of the guidelines.

The Rt Revd John Pritchard believes that the Church of England’s admission policy should be changed regardless of whether the overall effect would be to reduce school results - the aim being to serve the community as whole.

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