50% cap on faith admissions - time to write to your MP if you think it should stay?

[notjustbaconbutties]

There have been loads of threads in the past about the 50% cap on faith-based admissions, which has applied to all the new faith academies and free schools established since 2010. If you're not familiar with it then there's a good Wikipedia article here which gives a lot of background: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_50%25_Rule

Theresa May's manifesto said that she would ignore the responses to the Schools That Work for Everyone consultation and remove the cap, but it's all gone very quiet since she was elected(ish).

A decision is expected soon, and a cross-party group of MPs has started an Early Day Motion (which is a sort of petition for MPs) to say it should be kept. MPs need to be prodded to sign EDMs by their constituents, so if you feel strongly on this, now is a good time to write to them. If you don't have time to write your own letter then the Accord Coalition (campaign group) has made it easy by setting up a template letter: accordcoalition.org.uk/2017/11/10/mps-urge-government-not-to-jettison-anti-discrimination-cap-at-faith-schools/.

Either way it's going to be really interesting to see how the Government proceeds on this, because there is pretty good evidence that the cap is doing the job it was intended to do, and is popular with the vast majority parents. (I know many people out there think it should go further and ban faith-based admissions altogether, but if even this small and unprecedented step in the right direction can't survive a change in government there's little hope for further reform in future).

It's worth adding that unlike the Grammar School debate, the removal of this cap doesn't need a vote in the house of commons or any change in legislation. The Government can just do it if they want to. They just need to change the Admissions Code and the template funding agreements for new faith schools.

Thanks, I didn't know about this. A lot of the local CofE primary schools around here use church attendance as a very socially exclusive measure, and a few have just academized. Will write to my MP.

Urgh how sneaky of them. This is mainly due to pressure from the Catholic Education service who I believe have refused to open any new schools if they're not allowed to be exclusively Catholic. The DfE are desperate for new schools and need groups to open them for them because they don't allow Local Authorities to do this any more, so this is for political, not educational reasons.

I am totally against religious groups holding the government to ransom.

A lot of the local CofE primary schools around here use church attendance as a very socially exclusive measure, and a few have just academized

The cap does not apply to convertor academies so your local CofE primary schools are not subject to the cap.

This is mainly due to pressure from the Catholic Education service who I believe have refused to open any new schools if they're not allowed to be exclusively Catholic

That is correct. They are very rigid in their approach. For example, they prevented St Mary's College in Crosby converting to a free school because it would be limited to allocating 50% of its places on faith grounds. Instead it remains an independent school which, although it is Catholic, does not admit any children on faith grounds at all. Admission is determined entirely by performance in the entrance tests. Apparently no loaf at all is better than half a loaf.

The CES has argued that the requirement in the Admissions Code would mean that some children would be excluded because they were Catholic. They say that, once they had allocated 50% of the places on faith grounds, the remaining places must all go to non-Catholics. That is clearly wrong - the remaining places must be allocated without reference to faith so are open to anyone, Catholic or not. This has been clearly proven but the CES clings to its argument.

I think there should be a fairly low cap of faith based admissions for CofE schools, and quite a few schools have this in place voluntarily to the point that the vicar can't get his children into the attached school.

As tools of evangelism (among other purposes) church schools are in a strong position to reach out to their local community, and rejected Christian children can be salt and light in their community schools. Win win.

The "rejected" Christian children, as well as the non-"rejected" Christian children, can also benefit from mixing with non-Christian children. Win win.

I would be relaxed about it being lifted. Many faith schools are permitted to admit 100% by reference to faith but chose not to. If you consider the history of education in England, the Church of England, in particular, played an important role in educating whole communities before there was a secular offer and many of the school buildings and land were originally funded by the Church.

Either there are faith schools or there aren't (my preference), dont see the point in a 50% level. Most religious schools seem to find a way to fill up to almost 100% same faith anyway. Its just mad that some parents have to fake belief to get into a god good school.

Julie the "point" is that there are lots of reasons why families might choose a faith school - it might be because they specifically want a faith ethos, it might be because it's their local school, and it might be because it's a good school, or another reason. The 50% rule gives access to the local community, without them having to fake belief or change their patterns of church attendance to jump through the faith hoops.

As it says in the Wikipedia article, the schools minister at the time the rule was set up said there are "two competing rights in a state-funded school system: people’s right to choose to have their children educated in the way that they wish, and the right of [other] taxpayers who live near state-funded schools to have some ability to access them despite the over-representation of people from the faith that the system allows."

I'd rather there were no faith schools, I don't think evangelism has a place in the state education system. It's also anti-parental choice to exclude local children from their local school, especially based on things like pew-time which serve to select particular types of parents.

Lady The Church of England isn't the only religious group to run schools and indeed they're not the ones pressing for the 50% cap to be removed, so pointing to their history of setting up schools in England is irrelevant.

noblegiraffe, of course there are a wide variety of religious groups which have established and run schools, both in the state and independent sector. The history is relevant, for example the difference between VC and VA schools.

It's also worth remembering that all parents have the right to withdraw their children from collective worship and / or RE, whatever type of school they attend, whether faith or non-faith.

I agree it's relevant, in the sense that, just like LadyLapsang, the CofE are relaxed about whether the 50% cap stays or goes. They're not arguing either way. They've said they want their schools to be inclusive. They would advise any new CE school to have as many open places as possible.

The trouble is that the schools themselves don't tend to follow that advice unless they have to. There was already a case of one proposed CE faith school trying to jump the gun in anticipation of the cap being lifted.

But the debate about whether schools should be allowed to evangelise at all is a separate one. I'd like to think that people on both sides of that debate would still see the importance of keeping this small but significant rule in place.

the "point" is that there are lots of reasons why families might choose a faith school
I am sure their are, but the whole "reason" faith schools exist is to educate children in their families particular religion.

The 50% rule gives access to the local community

But in practice does it?

What if the local families don't want educated in a religious ethos, they get forced into it at the 'local' school. If it was 100% one faith then this wouldn't happen.

Religious families move very close to the school to get in on the distance criteria putting house prices up and pushing out the local community.
Because their is supposedly only 50% of places for the local community so the pressure to fake religion to get in is increased. The cobra effect.

the whole "reason" faith schools exist is to educate children in their families particular religion

Not true, or at least not always true.

Church of England schools were set up for charitable purposes to educate communities that otherwise wouldn't have had schools. Some may have drifted away from that original purpose over time, but the Church authorities are urging them to go back to their roots. As quoted in that Wiki article they have said: “Our schools are not faith schools for the faithful, they are church schools for the community.”

Catholic voluntary aided schools in the UK were originally set up to educate the Catholic community. That is certainly true, and that is why the Catholic Education Service is arguing for the cap to be lifted. However, voluntary aided schools also originally got a lot of funding from the Catholic communities that they educated. That "voluntary" funding has reduced over the years to a very small amount, and if it wasn't for the fact that the church still owned most of the buildings, and the schools are generally doing very well as they are, they probably would have been absorbed into the state sector before now.
But the 50% rule only applies to free schools - and they are fully funded by the state. They're different so should have different admissions rules.

Many people think it is time for the Catholic Education Service to widen its remit. The umbrella body for all Catholic Education Services throughout the world has said Catholic schools should be for the whole community - and they are in almost every country except the UK.

What if the local families don't want educated in a religious ethos, they get forced into it at the 'local' school. If it was 100% one faith then this wouldn't happen.

In theory they won't be forced into it, because there is a preference system in place. Of course we can't always have our preferred schools, but that's the same for everyone. The 50% rule makes no difference to the situation you describe. Even with 100% faith admissions families are still sometimes forced into faith schools if they happen to be the only ones with any places. At least if they're forced into a 50:50 faith school it will be more inclusive than being forced into a 100% faith school.

Religious families move very close to the school to get in on the distance criteria putting house prices up and pushing out the local community.
Religious and non-religious families do that. It's a separate problem, not made worse or better by the 50% rule.

Because their is supposedly only 50% of places for the local community so the pressure to fake religion to get in is increased.

Er no, the pressure is less because there are a lot more community places available.

I dont disagree with what you say about the history of schools but you missed out that as a historically Christian country the local community would be expected to be Christian. There was no distinction between religion and knowledge so schools were being set up to teach Christian knowledge and enshrine Christian beliefs in children. They were not set up to educate a non-Christian community.

In theory they won't be forced into it But in practice they are. Based on distance the closest school is the one you are most likely to get into. Any schools further away, you will likely be way down the the priority list. This happened to my DC a few years ago and despite my protestations to the council a faith school was the only option they would offer me. We got very lucky in the first week of September and got in on a waiting list at a non-religious school that was 6th closest to us but quite far away. Many other families near me weren't that lucky and some ended up moving house. Had the faith school been 100% the council would have been forced to find us a place at a non-religious school, so I am all for the 100% change.

At least if they're forced into a 50:50 faith school it will be more inclusive than being forced into a 100% faith school Only they are not because its still 95% faith (5% pretend idk) because religious families move close to the school to get in on distance grounds and the local community usually cant afford the increased prices to leap frog them. So it becomes a school for wealthy religious families and even less inclusive.

not made worse or better by the 50% rule
It is made worse because there is an area around the school where house prices are exorbitant, are constantly resold once the child is in the school and it hollows out/separates the community. 100% faith would stop this.

Er no, the pressure is less because there are a lot more community places available
Huh? No, half the places go to religious families that are driven in from outside the community, the other half go to religious families who buy expensive houses close to the school and move away once they get in. The only way for real locals to get in is to go to church. If it was 100% faith then the next closest non faith school would be our local school, instead of all the children being sent to schools all over the place and our community being fragmented.

Had the faith school been 100% the council would have been forced to find us a place at a non-religious school, so I am all for the 100% change.

No it wouldn't! That doesn't happen unfortunately. If the only place left is a faith school place then the council is under no obligation whatsoever to find you an alternative.

Only they are not because its still 95% faith (5% pretend idk) because religious families move close to the school to get in on distance grounds and the local community usually cant afford the increased prices to leap frog them

As I said, non-religious families are just as able to do this as non-religious families. If the school was 50:50 and performing well then house prices may still go up, but the community sticking around or moving in to access the school would be more mixed.

Good/Outstanding schools in areas where other schools are poorly performing will always cause the frenzy of housing problems you describe, whatever type of school they are, but in general, based on data so far, the 50:50 rule has been shown to open up admissions to under-represented communities - see this paper.

Thanks for the heads up, noble.

noble notjust

I'll take it as a compliment Perking

No it wouldn't! That doesn't happen unfortunately

You missed my point. Yes it does, it happened to us.

We didn't get offered any of our preferences and the council offered us the faith school. Nearest school is an oversubscribed supposedly 50:50 faith school, we didn't put it on list of preferences for good reasons (were going to force them to go over PAN I think it was called).

I said we dont want a religious school place, council said take it or leave it. I left it and was forced to find our own school place, quite a lot further away and with a very stressful summer.

I found out subsequently that had the closest school been Catholic with 100% selection by faith they would have forced the second closest non faith school to take us.

First paragraph got mis-ordered somehow ;)

Nearest school is an oversubscribed supposedly 50:50 faith school, we didn't put it on list of preferences for good reasons
We didn't get offered any of our preferences and the council offered us the faith school (were going to force them to go over PAN I think it was called).

I found out subsequently that had the closest school been Catholic with 100% selection by faith they would have forced the second closest non faith school to take us.

How did you find this out? It sounds hypothetical rather than something that is prescribed in a council document, but if it is then do post the link. If it is hypothetical then what if the closest school had been 100% Church of England?

In practice the council can force any school to go over PAN via the Fair Access Protocol. Shoe-horning a non-religious family into a 50:50 faith school is just as unreasonable as shoe-horning you into a 100% school. Anyone can see that, but they're allowed to do both, and if you turn it down they owe you nothing. Yes, a more reasonable council would have found you a place at a community school, but the fact that councils are sometimes idiots isn't a good reason to get rid of the 50:50 rule.

but they're allowed to do both
Yes I agree that they are technically allowed to but in practice it doesn't happen. I didn't find out via documents, just from people in the council, governors, parents etc

There was a lot of schools in region expanded because of a pop bulge, 100% Catholic school elsewhere in region increased their PAN by 10% iirc, a bit of shuffling and 10% more Catholics went to that school freeing up spaces at other non faith schools. Was just a practical thing, seems far more practical than shoving people in religious schools they dont want.

Problem with 50:50 faith schools is you end up having twice as many faith schools and less non-faith schools. 100% faith should leave more schools for people like me, other factors aside.