A report that claims Catholic schools take fewer children from disadvantaged backgrounds than other schools uses flawed criteria, according to the chairman of the Catholic Education Service.

Bishop Malcolm McMahon rejects conclusions, reached in the study on the basis of the number of pupils claiming free school meals, as unreliable.

His rejection comes as part of a response to findings presented by the think tank, Theos, which cites research showing that "73 per cent of Catholic primaries and 72 per cent of Catholic secondaries have a lower proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals than the average for the local authority".

Bishop McMahon wrote in an addendum printed as part of the Theos report "More than an Educated Guess" that there could be a range of reasons why eligible pupils in Catholic schools aren't claiming free school meals. These included families' failure to claim due to immigration status and cultural differences.

The Theos report also cited Department for Education research showing that 17 per cent of pupils at Catholic schools live in the country's most deprived areas, compared with 12 per cent of pupils nationally, and found that the accusation that faith schools were socially divisive is unfounded.

It cited research showing that "Catholic sector schools seem able to generate and sustain a positive school culture that can mitigate the effects of deprivation more easily than the generality of schools".

Read the article on thetablet.co.uk

Image by Sean Hackbarth