Thousands of children denied a place at first choice primary school

17 April, 2020

Thousands of families will be forced to send their reception-age children to a primary school which wasn’t their first choice, with many others being allocated a place at a school that they didn’t choose at all, according to local authority figures published this week.

Humanists UK, which has long campaigned for a fair school admissions system for all schools, including those with religious character – some of which are legally permitted to select 100% of their pupils on faith grounds – has expressed concern at the news that, in some areas, such as London and Birmingham, the number of pupils getting their first choice of school dropped by 1% according to data released by local authorities on ‘National Offer Day’.

This means thousands more children due to be starting school in 2020 will be denied a place at a preferred school than was the case last year, with the problem being particularly acute for non-religious families who have been allocated a faith school place, as well as those with a range of faith or belief backgrounds who may be locked out of their local schools by discriminatory religiously selective admissions policies.

The news comes just a few months after the first state-funded Catholic school that is legally permitted to select 100% of pupils on religious grounds was given the green light to open in Peterborough.

Humanists UK Education Campaigns Manager Ruth Wareham commented: ‘It is really disappointing to learn that thousands more families have been denied a place at their preferred primary school than last year. This is especially troubling given that, through the Government’s new funding scheme for voluntary aided schools, the number of fully selective religious schools is being permitted to increase.

‘We are regularly contacted by parents who, despite having deliberately chosen a school with a community ethos that is suitable for pupils from all backgrounds, have been allocated a school with a religious character which they believe to be divisive or indoctrinatory. We also work with many parents – particularly those in rural areas –  whose only local school is a faith school, and who have been put to the back of the queue for places because they do not share that faith. Both these sorts of cases are deeply unfair and, once the Government has the capacity, we would strongly urge them to review the school admissions system to ensure that all state schools are open to all, irrespective of background, religion, or belief.’

Notes:

For further comment or information, please contact Humanists UK Education Campaigns Manager Ruth Wareham at ruth@humanists.uk or phone 020 7324 3000.

Read our latest article about the most religiously selective school to be approved in a decade

Read more about our work on state-funded faith schools

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