Education made inaccessible via faith: inside the Fair Schools for Oldham campaign
Think about this: in 21st century Britain, it is acceptable that there are taxpayer-funded state schools which, given the label of ‘faith schools’, can discriminate against children from families of certain faiths in their admissions policy. Because of this faith requirement, some of Britain’s best performing schools simply can’t, and won’t, serve the most deprived areas. This inequality is so entrenched in our system that no one bats an eyelid. As always, the pain and suffering trickles down to the most marginalised in our society.
This is the lived reality of a community in Oldham who have created a campaign to raise awareness of this injustice and make a fairer schools admission policy in their town. Today, Find Others shines the spotlight on Fair Schools for Oldham.
Faith-based discrimination
Fair Schools for Oldham believes that Faith-based allocation is an arbitrary and grossly unfair way to determine a child’s life chances. After all, research shows that religious selection results in a greater proportion of children from better off, middle-class backgrounds. To win a place at the local Blue Coat School, you have to convince a religious minister that you are practising a faith.
The fact that you live close to the school counts for nothing, as closer applications are on an equal footing with applications from more distant wards in Oldham, or from areas outside of Oldham altogether. Unlike most state funded schools that serve their local communities, Oldham’s church schools do not prioritise based on your proximity to the school. Your child will be given preferential treatment if you can prove that you have attended church regularly for 5 years. Many are prepared to feign religious belief to earn a place, and the school even knows this, but it is much harder to do this if you have less stable employment, are a single parent, or are experiencing hardship. If you are not a practising Anglican, you are already discriminated against when it comes to applying for a place, and children of non-believers are at the back of the queue.
This faith-based admissions policy is designed in a way that will limit the number of children from central wards in Oldham. The central wards of Oldham are some of the most deprived wards in the country, and the families living in these areas are getting an unacceptably bad deal from Oldham’s school system just because they have no faith or because their beliefs don’t compel them to attend a public act of worship every week. Despite living next to Blue Coat, children have to walk past the best-performing school in Oldham to schools they often haven’t chosen, while children from better-off areas take advantage of its facilities.
The trust that runs Blue Coat has been given permission to open a new school in Oldham, the Brian Clarke Academy. While being marketed at a multi-faith inclusive school, it is clear that they are doing everything they can within the law to avoid it reflecting the cultural and ethnic make-up of Oldham.
The school is proposing to have 3 geographical zones; within 1 mile, between 1 and 2 miles, and between 2 and 3 miles of the school. Zone 1 gets 45 places, zone 2 gets 50 places, and zone 3 gets 25 places. This puts a limit on the number of places that could be allocated to the central wards, which is an attempt at deliberately engineering the mix of children so that more children from less deprived areas win places. Of course every child is deserving of a good education, but many families from the central wards don’t have another choice of a better school, while families further from the centre certainly do.
In response to this disappointing policy, the Cranmer trust has argued that ‘it is more important that there are children from aspirational backgrounds in the mix’. This is hugely insulting to families of the central wards, and implies that there is a conscious limit put on the amount of children that can access the school from these areas.
The Brian Clarke Academy has received approximately 600 applications, but it only has 240 places, and it won’t treat every child equally. The children of parents that can prove that they worship regularly will be eligible for over twice as many places in the new school as those that don’t.
Aims
Fair Schools for Oldham believes that all state-funded schools should be equally accessible to families of all faiths and none, regardless of who is running them. Dividing children on the grounds of religion damages community cohesion and leads to socio-economic segregation. For example, religiously selective schools typically admit a much smaller percentage of pupils on free school meals than others.
Because of this, Fair Schools for Oldham aims to highlight cases where this discrimination has negative local consequences, oppose the establishment of any new admissions policy that discriminates on faith in Oldham, and campaign for an end to faith-based discrimination in the admissions policies of existing local schools.
The campaign makes it very clear that it is not against religion. Supporters come from a wide variety of faiths and backgrounds, as well as humanists and other non-religious people. What they are is united on the principle that it is wrong for state-funded schools to have admissions policies that discriminate against local children simply because of their parent’s religion or beliefs.
While Oldham’s school admissions policy has very specific circumstances, this is also reflective of a wider problem across Britain. There are many communities just like Oldham’s, whose children aren’t getting the same head start in life just because of the amount of faith that one is seen to practice.
Alternatively, if you think that this story sounds a lot like the same issue that your community faces, use our free campaign tools at https://findothers.com/ to create a local action group opposed to faith-based discrimination. The more communities that become aware of the injustices facing them, the faster we can push for a society that is fairer and more inclusive for all.