The official body responsible for running Catholic schools in England and Wales will seek to legally challenge a decision by the school admissions watchdog which found that the religious selection test used by Catholic schools is ‘unfair and arbitrary’.
Earlier this month, the admission arrangements of a number of Catholic schools were referred to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA) over their use of the new Certificate of Catholic Practice. The Certificate, which was introduced this year by the Catholic Education Service (CES), is used by schools to verify whether or not a pupil is from a ‘practising’ Catholic family, and to subsequently give such pupils priority in admissions.
However, the certificate simply requires the approval and signature of a priest, and does not record more objective measures such as attendance at mass or proof of baptism. This was judged to be too arbitrary by the OSA and in contravention of the requirement for ‘reasonable, clear, objective, and procedurally fair’ admissions arrangements set out in the School Admissions Code which all schools must follow.
The CES together with the Diocese of Westminster have stated that ‘the legality of this determination is now being challenged in the high court’.
This is not the first time that the admission arrangements of religiously selective schools have been deemed unlawful by the OSA. Last year a report published by the British Humanist Association (BHA) on behalf of the Fair Admissions Campaign (FAC) detailed the rulings of the Adjudicator in a representative sample of religiously selective state secondary schools in England, finding widespread violations of the Code in almost every case.
‘The CES are essentially appealing to the court for the right to religiously discriminate against children on whatever grounds they please,’ said BHA Faith Schools Campaigner Jay Harman. ‘The vast majority of people acknowledged that it’s bad enough for state-funded schools to discriminate against and divide children on the basis of their parents’ religious or non-religious beliefs. To do so in such an arbitrary and unaccountable way is even more unacceptable. We will certainly be following these legal proceedings very closely indeed.’
‘Given that these schools can clearly not be trusted to be fair, open, and inclusive in their admission arrangements, the Government should think very carefully before it goes ahead with plans to drop the existing 50% cap on religious selection,’ he added. ‘Doing so now, at the behest of the Catholic Education Service no less, effectively represents a move to reward unlawful behaviour rather than punish it, and will only pave the way for far more manipulation of this kind in the future.’
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For further comment or information please contact BHA Faith Schools Campaigner Jay Harman on jay@humanists.uk or 0207 324 3078.
Read the OSA’s decisions on the admission arrangements of:
St Paul’s Catholic College, Surrey: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/st-pauls-catholic-college
St Michael’s Catholic Primary Schools, Surrey: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/st-michaels-catholic-primary-school-surrey
Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School, Surrey: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/our-lady-of-the-rosary-catholic-primary-school
St Ignatius Catholic Primary School, Surrey: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/st-ignatius-catholic-primary-school
St Richard Reynolds Catholic College, Richmond: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/st-richard-reynolds-catholic-college
Read the BHA’s news item ‘An Unholy Mess: new report reveals “near-universal noncompliance” with School Admissions Code among religiously selective state schools in England: https://humanists.uk/2015/10/01/an-unholy-mess-new-report-reveals-near-universal-noncompliance-with-school-admissions-code-among-state-faith-schools-in-england/
Read the full report: http://fairadmissions.org.uk/anunholymess/
Read the BHA’s news item ‘Government published plans to allow full religious discrimination in school admissions’: https://humanists.uk/2016/09/13/government-publishes-plans-to-allow-full-religious-discrimination-in-school-admissions/
Read more about the BHA’s work on ‘faith’ schools: https://humanists.uk/campaigns/schools-and-education/faith-schools/
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.