Parents fake faith for school places – faith school admission ‘ludicrous’

Parents are pretending to be Christian to win places at state-funded faith schools, and the clergy and school staff involved know exactly what is going on, The Sunday Times has reported. Humanists UK said the article shows how absurd religious selection in schools has become, and renewed its call for faith-based admissions to end.

The article describes parents attending church twice a month for two years, having their children baptised, and taking on church duties, all to collect the priest-signed attendance records that faith school admissions policies demand. One mother in Teddington told the paper that most families at her child’s school had faked their way in, and that the vicar was well aware of it.

Clergy appear to be in on the act. One vicar, watching his congregation shrink once the application deadline had passed, remarked: ‘Ah, I can see it’s the annual exodus of soon-to-be reception parents.’

A teacher at a Roman Catholic school in north London told The Sunday Times that it did not matter how recently a child had been baptised, as long as the evidence was in by the deadline. Another parent described how his mother gave up doing the readings at church the moment he and his brother had got into the school.

Why faith-based admissions are unfair

Most state-funded faith schools can give priority to children by religion when they are oversubscribed, so a child can be turned away from their local school because their family is of no religion or the ‘wrong’ one. Research has found that areas with more faith schools have more socio-economic segregation and that disadvantaged pupils are less likely to get a place, and Humanists UK’s own research found that fully selective faith schools are markedly less ethnically diverse than those limited to selecting half their pupils.

Despite this, the Government voted to allow new state schools to select all their pupils by faith through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act. It has since announced a review of the School Admissions Code. Every state-funded school should be open to all children, whatever their religion or belief. In Ireland, where the ‘baptism barrier’ to school places was removed, christenings have since fallen.

Nathan Stilwell, Head of Press and Campaign Communications at Humanists UK, said:

‘Everyone knows this is a ludicrous charade – parents, vicars, and schools alike. Families shouldn’t have to pretend to believe something to get their child into a local school paid for by all of us. Religious selection doesn’t measure faith, it measures who can give up their Sunday mornings, and it leaves out the children who most need a good local school. The admissions review is the Government’s chance to end it and open every state school to every child.’