Calls to end limits on free school religious selection

The New Schools Network has called for an end to the cap on free schools that limits the number of places that can be allocated on religious grounds.

Under the current rules, faith schools are required to limit the number if pupils it accepts on the basis of faith to fifty per cent when it is over subscribed.

Nick Timothy, director of the New Schools Network, has called for this cap to be lifted, arguing that it does little to in increase the diversity but is ‘effectively discriminatory for Roman Catholics’, as these limits have discouraged the opening of many Catholic free schools.

The New Schools Network argues that Catholic schools are ‘more likely to be ethnically diverse than other schools, more likely to be in poor areas, more likely to be rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted, and more likely to provide what parents want’.

Instead of the limit on places allocate don religious grounds, Timothy posits that the rule should be replaced by a ‘legal duty on faith schools to ensure that their pupils mix’, which he suggests could be encouraged through sport, performing arts, or school visits with children from different backgrounds.