Government advisor accuses faith schools of selection

A senior government advisor has accused faith schools of using religious belief as a tool of social selection. Sir Peter Lampi, chairman of the Sutton Trust said that using religious faith as part of the admissions criteria was a way of schools cherrypicking their pupils.

'If you sign up for the programme for your child and are prepared to have that faith taught by the school, whether you are part of that faith or not should not be a deterrent,' he said. 'The criteria that your parents are not good Catholics should not be allowed.'

The issue is an important one because of the prevalence and success of faith schools in this country. They represent 18% of all secondary schools and 42 per cent of the top 200 comprehensives.

The Sutton Trust found that 5.8% of pupils at faith comprehensives qualified for free school meals compared with the local average of 13.7%. But a spokesperson for the Catholic Church said that the Trust's data was flawed as its schools drew in pupils from a wider area than the local postcode. Ofsted statistics show that 15% of pupils in Catholic schools were eligible for free meals, in line with the national average.

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