So-called 'faith' schools are different from comprehensives in a number of ways, listed below.
[The reason I put 'faith' in inverted commas is that virtually all 'faith' schools are actually christian (mostly CofE or Roman Catholic, with a tiny number of Methodist and other christian schools); there are an even tinier number, fingers of one hand, of schools belonging to a small number of other faiths - Jewish and Muslim, and virtually none for some major faiths, eg Hindu, Sikh. The actual distribution of faiths from the census is - 78% Christian, 3.2% Muslim, 1.2% Hindu, 0.7% Sikh, 0.5% Jewish, 0.3% Buddhist, 0.3% other, 16.1% no religion. England & Wales
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/nugget.asp?ID=984&Pos=6&ColRank=1&Rank=176
The term 'faith' schools is used as a smokescreen by the government to pretend they are covering all religions when in fact there is a huge bias in favour of christianity.]
* Governance - in a 'faith' school, the governors have to have more relationship with the particular church that the school is based on. In other words the church has strong right of influence over the governors, even though it is state-funding they are spending.
* Ownership of property - there are two types of 'faith' schools, voluntary aided and voluntary controlled. In the case of voluntary aided, the ownership of the estate is vested in the church even though it is subsidised by state funds. These schools are more difficult for LEAs and government to influence.
* Headteacher - 'faith' schools normally can specify that the headteacher must be a practising member of the church the school is linked to. Because of the large number of church primaries this makes it more difficult for primary teachers who are not active members of the CoE or RC churches to achieve headship, as they are automatically excluded from this role in nearly 1 in 3 primary schools. SSometimes this extends to other staff, eg schools run by Catholic Brotherhoods tend to be dominated by staff from that background.
* Curriculum - while all schools must follow the national curriculum and this includes the requirement to teach Religious Education with a broadly christian outlook, many non-faith secondary schools tend to ignore the requirement for daily worship. [OFSTED politely point it out in reports, usually the phrase
'The school does not meet statutory requirements for collective worship' appears in the OFSTED report and it is an action point under 'Areas for Improvement']. 'Faith' schools, ie Christian, however are much more likely to vigorously enforce this (and hence they have less for OFSTED to criticise). The 'collective act of daily worship' is often used to reinforce religious values - for example speakers in Catholic schools will often use daily worship to reinforce the church's opposition to abortion, contraception and homosexuality; alternative viewpoints are seldom if ever allowed to be put.
* Selection - this is the most pernicious difference. Most LEA 'community' schools select only on non-denominational criteria, eg distance, sibling already at school, welfare/pastoral, special need etc. 'Faith' schools can select on grounds of faith. While some only give priority to members of the church, others will only select those who are practising members of the church. In one school I know in Preston, they have progressively tightened the rules, so that it is now the vicars who are selecting, as even occasional attendance does not count, you have to actively and regularly participate in church life. This school also has a preference for evangelical rather than mainstream CofE churches. [It is a technology specialist school which does select up to 10% of pupils for aptitude
following a test]
Here are the (religious) selection criteria for this school:
... preference will be given to the admission of children in the
following priority order:-
1. Children resident in the Preston Deanery who are, or who have a parent who is,
actively involved in the work and worship of a Christian church which is, or which
belongs to a denomination which is, in membership of Churches Together in
England or the Evangelical Alliance.
2. Children not resident in Preston Deanery who are, or who have a parent who is,
actively involved in the work and worship of a Christian church which is, or which
belongs to a denomination which is, in membership of Churches Together in
England or the Evangelical Alliance.
3. Children whose parents wish them to be educated at the school....
[distance being the sole criteria]
...
Where applications are made under category 1 or 2, the Governors will seek references from
the churches to which affiliation is claimed. In deciding whether to accept any application
under categories 1 or 2, the Governors will take into account the nature and degree of
commitment to the work and worship of the specified church, including such matters as the
regularity of attendance at divine worship. In the event of there being an over-subscription
in either category 1 or 2, the degree of commitment will likewise to taken into consideration
in the allocation of places.
Source:
http://www.archtemple.lancsngfl.ac.uk/ under prospectus The Insert pages 4 and 5
Because the number of applicants in categories 1 and 2 is always larger than the number of places, in practice only categories 1 and 2 have been used increasingly and are now used exclusively. The definition of how active a parent is has also got tougher. For example I know of one parent, practising church goer, who has two diabetic children, the older got into the school some years ago because their church-going was considered acceptable but the younger has been refused on the grounds there church participation is not up to the standards now required (they haven't changed - only the criteria and numbers applying). The fact that the children are diabetic and need special care and attention (and would therefore benefit from being at the same school) is considered irrelevant compared to the church participation record of the parents.
This school is in a multi-cultural city where 20% or so of the (child) population are from non-christian religion, ie Muslim and Hindu. In practice this is a 'whites only' school. A state community school 1 mile away is well over half Asian because it is the only one in the neighbourhood that doesn't select on religion.
Educational Apartheid is alive and well in the North of England!
Nice thrashing this out with you lilmisshissyfit.
I love the bit when the copper walks into the school in the Wickerman 
) 76-83, long time ago, it was a good education academically, but i don't remember being taught about different faiths, there was a lot of religious instruction on the catholic faith, mass once a week, prayers in the morning first thing and after lunch, it was very uncritical about the catholic faith, you don't realise at the time because it's all you know, so it was indoctrination (so they thought) most of us couldn't be arsed with catholicism after about 13/14 and i'd say a lot of our parents wanted us to go there because it was a good school and not because it was faith based.....
)
