The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard, who is responsible for the education of more than a million children, admitted that the Church faced “challenging questions” over whether middle class parents are monopolising places at its most popular schools.

But he insisted that they could best be addressed not by opposing the existence of faith schools but by actively allowing them to expand.

Bishop Pritchard, chairman of the Church’s Board of Education, was speaking as a report warned that children’s education is now being used as a “proxy” for an argument between adults over whether religion should have a place in public life.

The study, by the think-tank Theos, said that debates about faith schools had become too “ideologically-loaded”.

Elizabeth Oldfield, director of Theos, warned against allowing children’s education to become a “political football”.

The report summarises findings from different research examining claims that faith schools are elitist and divisive as well as why they often achieve better than average results.

It concludes that there is evidence for a so-called “faith schools effect” boosting academic performance but concludes that this may reflect admissions policies rather than the ethos of the school.

But it adds that there is no evidence to back up claims that faith schools generally promote racial or social division and say that they have a strong record of boosting social mobility for minorities.

It concludes that there is, however, some evidence of unintended “socio-economic sorting”, with middle class parents better able to secure places at the most sought-after faith schools. But it says the same applies in non-religious schools which also control their own admissions.

John Bingham | Read the full article on telegraph.co.uk

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