St Paul’s Church of England Primary School in Barnet has now formally apologised after a ruling last month by the Local Government Ombudsman, which criticised the school for ‘failing to treat an application fairly, providing incorrect information, delaying its response unreasonably and ultimately misunderstanding its own responsibilities.’ Whilst the apology is to be welcomed, the BHA feels this is another example of why ‘faith’ schools should not be able to discriminate in admissions policies along religious lines.
The case regards the rejection of an application to St Paul’s from a girl whose Christian parents were too busy caring for her disabled sibling to demonstrate the ‘religious commitment’ required by the school’s admissions policy. The family had not attended enough ‘extra church activities’ to qualify.
Amongst other criticisms, the Ombudsman’s report blamed the school principally for having admission arrangements that did not comply with statutory codes of practice, in that ‘an applicant’s commitment to religious faith was assessed in a way that could contravene the Disability Discrimination Act.’ The report further recommended that parents should no longer have to prove their commitment through such extra church activities.
Although the school has since apologised for the ‘inconvenience and stress’ it caused, the BHA is concerned about the ongoing series of instances involving ‘faith’ schools operating deeply unfair admissions policies. This particular school’s policy may now be altered in light of this ruling, but the very fact that ‘faith’ schools are able to apply their own admissions policies suggests that this case will be one of many.
BHA Faith Schools Campaigns Officer Richy Thompson commented, ‘This act of discrimination highlights the general problem with ‘faith’ schools operating outside the standards which apply to non-faith schools. The only way to ensure fairness for all parents and children is to remove the ability for ‘faith’ schools to apply a religious test in their admissions policies.
‘Additionally, the fact that the Education Bill will remove the power of the Schools Adjudicator to decide how schools must comply with rulings on how their admissions operate, means that even more policy-making power will be handed to ‘faith’ schools. If this part of the Bill passes, it looks as though cases such as this will only become more common.’
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For further comment or information, contact Richy Thompson on 020 7462 4993
Read the full Ombudsman’s report
For more information on religion and schools, see our campaign pages.
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the UK. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.