A question for the admissions experts

[CircusAfro]

Ds's school has changed it's admission criteria to include siblings of current pupils this year, but only if the family practice a religion. Without giving too much info out about the school and it's curriculum, this is not logical. This affects ds who will not get a place.
Are the school bound by any guidelines when deciding their criteria, and is there any way challenging this?

No it is not. Faith schools are exempt from certain provisions of the Equality Act to allow them to give priority for admission on faith grounds. There is nothing in the exemption that limits them to giving priority to children of their own faith. Indeed, the same exemptions could be used by a faith school that wants to give priority to children of no faith.