Canon John Hall, the Church of England’s Chief Education Officer, comments on the latest announcements from the Secretary of State for Education and the Catholic Education Service:
“We welcome this latest outcome of recent discussions between Government and faith leaders over how we can together ensure that faith schools continue to help build understanding and cohesion across communities. The Government have promised all along to listen to the views of faith groups in this process, and this latest announcement is a result of their having done so.
We are glad to note that the Government are not proposing to impose a legal requirement on new faith schools to set aside a proportion of places on the basis of local priority. The Bishop of Portsmouth wrote to the Secretary of State on 3rd October saying that faith groups could accept this voluntarily - as the Church of England had done – but that he did not want to see it imposed through legislation.
This will be seen as a watershed moment, when public confidence in faith schools and their role in breaking down walls within communities has been affirmed. We look forward to the further growth of Church and other faith schools within the maintained system.”
