Faith school admissions

Around a third of all state-funded schools in England and Wales are ‘schools with a religious character’ – the legal term for ‘faith schools’, as they are known in England and Wales, or denominational schools, as they are known in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Despite being funded almost entirely by the public purse, due to a specific exemption in the Equality Act 2010, state-funded faith schools in England and Wales are generally allowed to select up to 100% of their pupils by religion. In free schools, this is currently capped at 50%. In Scotland, the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 allows denominational schools to select pupils whose families adhere to the relevant religion. What this means in practice varies but can mean, for example, requirement of a baptismal certificate. Our strategic partner, Humanist Society Scotland, leads the campaign for inclusive education in Scotland. In Northern Ireland, religious selection is technically permitted but, because of historical divisions between the different religious communities, it is fairly uncommon and plays less of a role in segregation than school organisation.

Decades of evidence shows that religious selection doesn’t just discriminate against families that do not share the faith of the school, but that it divides communities by religion or belief, ethnicity and family income. In addition to being some of the most socially selective schools in England and Wales, faith schools also tend to take fewer children with special educational needs or disabilities than other schools. They also often prioritise families of the faith over children who are or were in care. We believe that our state schools should be open to all irrespective of their background or belief.

In depth

England and Wales

Many faith schools are their own admissions authorities, which means they set their own admissions criteria and give preference to children from families that share their religion. The proportion of places that a school may allocate based on faith depends on what type of school it is. Voluntary aided (VA) schools and faith schools that have converted to being academies can legally select up to 100% of their pupils on faith grounds, whereas free schools (which are just new academy schools) are only permitted to select up to 50% by religion. Voluntary controlled (VC) and foundation schools have their admissions determined by the local authority and most are not permitted to select on religious grounds, although there are a few local areas where they retain this right.

Like other state-funded schools, faith schools in England and Wales are bound by their country’s School Admissions Code, which require that all admissions criteria are ‘reasonable, clear, objective, and procedurally fair’. The Code also prohibits the prioritisation of children based on financial support provided to a school or organisation, including religious authorities, and based on any practical support provided to an organisation, again including religious ones. Religious selection is only permitted when a school is oversubscribed. If there are more places at the school than pupils applying, the school must admit everyone.

The specific religious criteria used by schools vary widely. Most commonly, schools will ask parents for evidence such as a baptismal certificate or a document signed by a local religious leader proving attendance at a place of worship. The extent of attendance required also varies, and, in some cases, priority is given on a ‘sliding scale’ based on how frequently parents or children attend their place of worship. This can make it difficult to satisfy admissions criteria even for those who do share the faith. Often this is especially the case for poorer or single-parent families who may not have the time or resources to attend regular religious services. The faith-based requirements of some religious schools go beyond regular attendance at places of worship and include modesty codes that apply to parents (particularly mothers). While these have sometimes been found to breach the School Admissions Code for failing to be sufficiently clear and objective, the Code does not prevent them in principle. Nor does it prohibit other restrictions on parental behaviour, such as rules against internet use or television.

More generally, it is widespread that faith schools break the School Admissions Code. A 2015 report we did, based largely on complaints to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator, found ‘near-universal noncompliance’, including some very serious breaches – like requiring financial support to associated religious groups, breaking the Equality Act 2010 in directly discriminating on the basis of race or gender, or requiring things like flower arranging. Nothing has fundamentally changed in the years since.

In addition to prioritising families that share their faith, many faith schools choose to give preference to families from any religion over the non-religious. This means that the non-religious are placed at the back of the queue for places at many of their local state-funded schools.

In 2023, following representations from Humanists UK, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child called for the UK Government to ‘guarantee the right of all children to freedom of expression and to practise freely their religion or belief, including by… Preventing the use of religion as a selection criterion for school admissions in England’. This was because, by making the assumption that a child with religious parents is automatically of the same faith, such policies fail to take proper account of the fact that children and young people have an independent right to freedom of religion or belief that is not respected by religiously selective admissions policies.

But religious selection doesn’t only discriminate against pupils of the ‘wrong’ or no religion. It also leads to segregation based on ethnicity and family income. Research demonstrates that faith schools are more socially selective than other types of school, do not take their fair share of disadvantaged children, including those on free school meals or those with special educational needs and disabilities, and are less ethnically diverse than their local communities. In 2025, a High Court judgment found that faith-based admissions in state schools can result in ‘indirect race discrimination’, highlighting long-standing concerns from us that religious selection leads to ethnic and social segregation in schools. Research from 2017 published on the Department for Education’s own website shows that pupils in ethnically mixed schools are more trusting and have more positive views of children from different backgrounds than do pupils in segregated schools. Elsewhere, the authors of that same study argue that ‘faith schools, to the extent that they are segregated, deprive young people of the opportunity to mix across ethnic and religious lines’ in a manner that thwarts positive attitudes to members of so-called ‘outgroups’.

Sometimes, advocates for faith schools highlight their performance in assessments and league tables as a reason for providing them with state funding. However, the evidence shows that any overall differences in performance between faith schools and other schools are down to religious selection. In studies that control for pupil background, the supposed better attainment and progress of faith schools melts away. Even the Christian think tank Theos, in its report More than an Educated Guess: Assessing the evidence on faith schools, concluded that ‘The research seems to support the claim that students in faith schools, generally do fare better academically than their counterparts in non-faith schools. At the moment, the body of evidence appears to suggest this is probably primarily the outcome of selection processes.’

A vast problem. An unwanted system

Let’s be clear: this problem is huge. In England, 1.2 million places are subject to religious selection. This is more than the number of places at private, single-sex and grammar schools, or places selected by ability or aptitude, combined.

By comparison to the 16% of places that are subject to religious selection, almost all at Christian schools, weekly church attendance by those of parent age stands at about 4%. It is commonly heard that religious selection drives attendance and some research bears this out. Sutton Trust research has found that 6% of parents have admitted to ‘Attend[ing] church services so that [their] child(ren) could enter a church school’. Those from higher social strata were also more likely to admit to having done this.

6% may not sound like a huge number, but it is more than 4%, and implies that school admissions is a large factor in driving church attendance amongst this demographic. Indeed, in the 2010s the Church of England has conducted a major research programme called the Church Growth Research Programme, in order to identify what successfully causes churches to grow, so that this knowledge can be used to stimulate further growth elsewhere. Academics carried out ‘a purpose-built survey of growing, stable and declining churches across all dioceses’. One of the questions asked was ‘Is this church linked to a Church of England school? [If yes] Is it over-subscribed?’ Analysing the results, the academics wrote that ‘The results for church growth are interesting. Here the Church school has a key role… The most direct impact on attendance may be felt in areas where a popular C of E school is over-subscribed. Some churchgoing is clearly motivated by a desire to qualify for school admission, but the boost to attendance may last into the longer term if families decide to stay.’ This was found to be statistically significant; the academics concluded that ‘Middle class suburbs with church schools… offer great opportunities [for growth].’ Elsewhere they wrote that ‘Being connected with an over-subscribed school is helpful, if not easy to engineer!’

The public doesn’t want this. A 2012 survey by ComRes commissioned by the Accord Coalition found that 73% of British adults think that ‘state funded schools should not be allowed to select or discriminate against prospective pupils on religious grounds in their admissions policy’. Only 18% think that they should, whereas 9% are unsure. This means that opposition to such selection stands at more than four to one.

Many people find this counterintuitive, as they think of their local religiously selective schools and see them as popular. But as a matter of fact, not many parents at all choose schools based on religion. Ofsted’s Parents Annual Survey 2021 asked parents to pick their top three factors from a list of twelve for choosing which school to send their children to; only 6% of those with school-age children picked religion. The reasons given as important were location, ethos or values, and Ofsted results.

So: religious selection is not popular. High-performing schools are popular. And socio-economic selection through religious selection often leads religiously selective schools to be high-performing schools.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland’s education system remains overwhelmingly divided between Protestant-affiliated ‘controlled’ and ‘Catholic-maintained’ schools. These account for around 93% of schools. Controlled schools, which were originally founded by Protestant denominations but are now state-run, continue to operate with church-appointed representatives on their boards and uphold Christian collective worship. Catholic-maintained schools are explicitly managed under the authority of the Catholic Church, embedding Catholic doctrine and religious observance into their daily life. This arrangement ensures that the state-funded school system is, in practice, deeply rooted in Christian identity.

Integrated schools were originally established to reduce sectarian division by bringing together Protestants, Catholics, and those from other beliefs. These schools generally try to balance the proportion of children from each community, aiming at 40% Catholic, 40% Protestant, 20% Other. To assist schools in striking this balance, parents are asked to provide their religion or belief as part of the application process. Despite the intent, most integrated schools still uphold an essentially Christian ethos, from collective worship and RE curriculum to governance arrangements, meaning they often continue to marginalise non‑religious worldviews unless actively reformed.

Public measures show overwhelming support for integrated education to become the norm. This has been reflected by the scale of parental and community support when schools are proposed for transformation, such as in the case of Bangor Academy and Rathmore Primary School. Unfortunately, the Education Minister Paul Givan blocked this proposed transformation, and in a subsequent legal case the judge ruled in favour of his decision, arguing that there was little evidence of demand for integration from the Catholic community. This was despite 80% of parents supporting integration plans. Northern Ireland Humanists supports integrated schools as a positive step forward, but believes that the law should go further than the Integrated Education Act 2022 to address the Christian dominance in all aspects of school life. In 2025, we again called for a more ambitious approach.

What we’re doing

• We continually challenge discrimination by religious schools in admissions, including through leading successful campaigns to keep the 50% cap on faith-based admissions in free schools, first from 2016-2018 and again in 2024. We continue to challenge the state funding of religious schools through the media.
• Disappointingly, however, the new Government is proposing to allow 100% religious selection through provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that will allow other types of schools not subject to the cap to open. We worked with Parliamentarians to propose amendments to the Bill that would extend the 50% cap to all other types of schools.
• We advise and support parents who are experiencing difficulties securing a good school place for their children as a result of religious selection, as well as those who have been allocated places at faith schools against their wishes. We do this via our parents’ guides for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and by providing bespoke advice where necessary.
• We have a good working relationship with officials in the UK and Welsh Departments for Education (DfE) and regularly respond to relevant Government consultations, provide briefings and evidence on the issue of inclusive admissions.
• We are a member of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) and work together with them and children’s rights organisations in Wales and Northern Ireland to lobby for inclusive admissions via processes such as the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s Concluding Observations.
• We have published a number of reports highlighting problems caused by faith-based admissions policies. In 2021, we published Careless or uncaring? How faith schools turn away children who are or were in care, highlighting the proportion of faith secondaries in England that fail to prioritise care-experienced children who come from non-religious or other faith backgrounds in their admissions. We established that 76% of Catholic secondaries and 100% of Jewish secondaries discriminate against vulnerable children in this way. In 2025 Wales Humanists published Careless or Uncaring? How faith schools in Wales turn away care-experienced children. A survey of all the admissions policies for religious schools in Wales, it found that 43% of Catholic schools and 1% of Church in Wales schools discriminate against care-experienced children on religious grounds.
• In 2018, we published Non-religious need not apply, outlining how faith schools in England are more likely to discriminate against non-religious families than against those who have any kind of religion in their admissions.
• In 2017, we published No Room at the Inn, demonstrating that, contrary to the claim that Church of England schools are moving away from faith-based entry tests, some 69% of Church of England secondaries have policies that religiously discriminate in their admission arrangements to some extent.
• And in 2015, we published An Unholy Mess: How virtually all religiously selective state schools in England are breaking the law. It detailed how religiously selective schools are invariably breaking the School Admissions Code. We complained about many of these to the Schools Adjudicator, and these were generally upheld. This involved some high-profile schools, such as the London Oratory School, and meant that things like preferential treatment for taking part in ‘flower arranging’ and ‘cleaning’ were eradicated from school admissions policies.

Appendix: Past work on this issue

• We twice successfully challenged proposals by the then Conservative government to scrap the 50% cap on religious admissions in English free schools, first in 2016-8 and then again in 2024. Our campaign in 2024 included organising an open letter — signed by a diverse range of religious leaders, parliamentarians, education experts, and prominent public figures, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and former government integration and community cohesion tsar Ted Cantle — opposing the proposal. We also published a briefing explaining the purpose of the cap and outlining the evidence in favour of keeping it, and a second briefing showing why the Catholic Church’s claim that the cap breaks Canon Law fails to stack up.

In 2016 and 2018 we:

• Published analysis of official figures demonstrating that the 50% cap had significantly boosted integration in the majority of religious free schools, contrary to claims made by the Government.
  • Demonstrated that claims made by the Catholic Church that ‘canon law’ prevents it from opening schools under the 50% cap were disingenuous and misleading.
  • Forced the government to amend misleading statistics on ethnic integration presented in their green paper proposals on the cap via a complaint to the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA).
  • Organised an open letter, signed by over 70 religious leaders, parliamentarians, education experts, and public figures, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, calling on the Education Secretary to keep the cap in place.
• After this, we led the campaign against a funding programme for new 100% religiously selective voluntary aided faith schools that was introduced in 2019. In the end, this led to just two such schools – one in Peterborough and one in Kingston upon Thames – opening.
• Following evidence we provided, in 2023, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the UK Government to ‘[prevent] the use of religion as a selection criterion for school admissions in England’ as part of its Concluding Observations.
• In 2016 we launched our whistleblowing site, Faith Schoolers Anonymous to provide parents, pupils, teachers, and other stakeholders with a platform to share their experience of discrimination, indoctrination and other forms of poor practice in faith schools.
• In June 2013 we helped launch the Fair Admissions Campaign, a single-issue campaign that focused on faith-based admissions. The Campaign published a map that revealed for the first time the extent that different schools religiously and socio-economically select, and how much this correlates.During the passage of the Education Act 2011, we worked with peers to introduce amendments on admissions. And all through the 21st century, we have responded to all relevant UK and Welsh Government consultations on these matters.