New faith schools win selection fight

NEW faith schools will be able to select all their pupils using religious criteria, the Government will announce today.

Currently, anyone wanting to set up a school of any religion usually has to go through the free school system, which limits faith selection to 50 per cent.

It has led to complaints from Catholic schools that they are having to turn away Catholic families in favour of others who do not share the faith.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds, who attended a Catholic grammar school, said in January he could not support the cap, which was brought in around a decade ago. Today, he is announcing a scheme to help create new faith schools via the old voluntaryaided system.

Under this system, the new school can be maintained by the local authority and run by a religious body, which contributes to the building costs.

However, experts say it will lead to segregated communities. Ofsted has repeatedly warned it has uncovered cases of hardline religious schools seeking to isolate pupils from British life, leaving them vulnerable to radicalisation.

The Government said any new faith schools would be expected to make sure pupils interact with the community.