| CHURCH OF ENGLAND education chiefs in London have vigorously rebutted accusations that C of E secondary schools in the capital are “cherry-picking”.
Described by the Church of England’s chief education officer, the Revd Janina Ainsworth, as “a transparently partial reading of the statistics”, the unpublished paper making the accusations was given to the British Education Research Association earlier this month.
It is based on analysis of official data by Rebecca Allen of the Institute of Education, University of London; and Ann West, Professsor of Education Policy at the London School of Economics. They say that, compared with community schools, C of E and RC secondary schools in London educate only 17 per cent of pupils who qualify for free school meals — an indicator of poverty — compared with 25 per cent in community schools.
The also say that church schools educate fewer lower-ability pupils, and that church schools in largely Asian neighbourhoods have fewer Bangladeshi and Pakistani children than neighbouring schools.
While acknowledging that church schools have proportionately more Black African and Caribbean pupils than community schools, the two academics speculate whether these are generally more able children from better-off families.
The figure was disputed by the dioceses of London and Southwark. In the 15 Anglican secondary schools in London diocese, an average of 22 per cent of pupils were on free school meals, and more than 60 per cent of pupils were from ethnic-minority backgrounds.
Although four of these schools were among the 40 most advantaged in the capital, in one of these, four out of ten pupils received free meals. Two C of E schools were among the least advantaged.
Tom Peryer, diocesan director of education, said: “As far as London diocese is concerned, the socio-economic profile of pupils is fairly typical of London as a whole. Like community schools, there are some with very high proportions of pupils eligible for free school meals, and others, particularly in outer London, where the numbers are much smaller.”
Cherry-picking, he said, was now a cliché directed at faith schools, whereas there were as great or greater differences between the profiles of community schools because of the overriding influence of neighbourhood catchment areas. “The researchers appear unconcerned to address cherry-picking by postcode.”
Barbara Lane, Southwark diocese’s director of education, said that the pupil profile of Anglican secondary schools was similar to the average for each of the 12 local authorities covered by the diocese.
Research by Lambeth Council into the education of Black African pupils had identified 12 schools that had significantly raised their achievement. Seven of these were C of E schools. In a comment on the paper, she said: “These allegations, so frequently reported, serve to mask the continuing contribution our schools make to countering disadvantage.”
At Sir John Cass and Redcoat School, Tower Hamlets, where more than half the pupils are from Bangladeshi backgrounds, the school day has been modified this month to accommodate Ramadan. |
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