Are 'faith schools' more or less divisive than Grammar and Independent schools

[zanzibarmum]

Accord 'research' says faith schools are divisive (there's a surprise coming from them). Are they - more or less so than GS or public schools

Isn't that a contradiction uqd. If the state education system is secular there will be no church shcools.

Cory - those secondaries don't sound ideal - I would feel the same as you about them. The thing is would the government put the money from the taxpayer into education. It is not as though we have a choice of how money raised through taxt is spent. I would pay more tax for smaller class sizes but this is not an option..the only way to pay for small class sizes is to pay for private education. I think if church schools were scrapped there would just be less money in the state education pot and larger classes, crumbling buildings etc.

Womble - no, the schools will still be there. They just won't have the faith element as an entrance requirement. I'm puzzled that this is hard to understand.

But happywomble, having these schools council-run would not be about some new and daring use of taxpayers' money. It's how they were run until a year ago- and getting very good results too!

It just so happens that the government believes anything called an academy has to be better, and anything to do with religion has to imply good discipline, and it so happened that a local councillor has close ties with this particular sect.

Teens who have shown no behavioural problems are now going off the rails- you bet it's going to cost the taxpayers!

'I think we would all prefer to pay higher taxes. '

Not me. I am working harder and harder and paying more and more tax and I've had enough. I want to decide how to spend my own money. Charge me more VAT perhaps.

Message withdrawn

Actually,in an ideal world there wouldn't be a choice - your nearest Secondary school would be where you go. Ditto primary school.

In your opinion.

In an ideal world the nearest secondary school would be as good as the one on the other side of town, and so it would make perfect sense to go there. That's the thinking behind the heart-in-the-right-place, head-up-its-arse comprehensive system.

In an ideal world everyone would send their child to the local school, and be happy with the state of the education there. It's what we have where I live in Canada now and it works very well. Helps create a good local community, because all the children know each other, and the parents are much more likely to know them too (and each other). We don't have a hugely socially divided community though, so there is very little catchment area "cache". Possibly the fact that all the children then go to a very small number of secondary schools (lots of classes per year, but with fewer years) to which they are taken by bus.

I think the influence by individuals/groups, for what is a relatively small amount of cash, in the academy approach is deeply iffy, especially if they are allowed then to set the school ethos and approach. It makes a total mockery of any concept of parental choice.

I went to a comprehensive school in the 80's whose catchment area was arranged so it took in equal nos of children from middle class, working class and the poorest areas of the city. The classes were streamed by ability
and parents were not given alternative schools unless there were exceptional reasons. I think everyone rubbed along well and it gave us a balanced view of society also I feel I can empathize with people from different backgrounds which is an important skill in my line of work. The downfall of my school was the introduction of parental choice which led to the middle class parents choosing to send their dc to the "quieter" school in the heart of the suburbs.

I think one of the real failures of this labour government is they have not address the education apartheid system which exists in a lot of areas in the uk for fear of upsetting the middle class voters. I for one would be pleased to see all school places allocated by a lottery system to ensure a balanced social mix and fairness. I also support streaming children for subjects by ability so they can be taught more effectively. If Gordon Brown did this as his swan song he would improve the lot of poor children in this country more than all the surestart centres put together.