The growth of popular faith schools is often blocked because they are used as an ideological "battleground" says the Church of England's head of education.

The Bishop of Oxford, the Right Reverend John Pritchard blamed secular campaigners for questioning the legitimacy of faith schools.

Bishop Pritchard was writing in a report on faith schools for religious think tank, Theos.

Fair admissions group Accord Coalition, called the paper a "whitewash".

The report, More than an Educated Guess, says the argument over state-funded faith schools in England has become ideologically loaded "acting as a battleground on which to fight larger battles about the role of religion in an increasingly plural society".

The report recommends "we should stop overloading a narrow issue with all our anxieties about religious difference".

The authors reject suggestions that faith schools are divisive in terms of race or ethnicity, and say they just as successful as non-faith schools in reflecting the make-up of English communities and promoting cohesion.

They do, however, admit there is an issue over admission policies in some faith-based schools which "can disadvantage the less well off".

They identify a need "for Christian schools in particular... to reassess policies around pupil selection.

Judith Burns | Read the full article on bbc.co.uk