A FORMER diocesan education director has told a Westminster education seminar that school admissions should be biased towards children from poorer homes.

Canon Richard Lindley, who was successively director of education for Birmingham and Winchester dioceses, is now one of several government-appointed independent adjudicators who rule on admissions disputes.

Addressing the independent Westminster Education Forum for MPs, civil servants, and local-authority leaders, he argued that ballots for places at oversubscribed schools, and compulsory banding, could result in schools, taking a wider spread of ability and prevent middle-class domination of the best schools by buying houses nearby.

Though still at the experimental stage, ballots “seemed to hold the possibility for greater justice”, he said.

Canon Lindley, who last year approved a pilot scheme in Brighton where a computer lottery allocates some secondary places, also questioned some “seemingly innocuous and helpful” admissions criteria such as the widely used policy of giving preference to siblings of existing pupils.

He insisted, however, that his criticisms were selective. “I am aware of many inner-city schools, church schools and those of other faiths, struggling hard to meet the needs of their local community and combating great disadvantage.”

Critics of the random allocation of places argue that it nullifies the principle of parental choice. The C of E’s chief education officer, the Revd Jan Ainsworth, said that the introduction of lotteries would restrict the capacity for parents and pupils to choose a school with a Christian ethos. “There is nothing socially selective about suggesting that those seeking a school place because of the importance they attach to Christian faith should attend church regularly to demonstrate that connection.”