Schools Bill

Academy reforms ‘open door to more Catholic schools’

Campaigners fear lifting rule requiring all new schools to be academies will allow more voluntary aided settings that select based on faith

Campaigners fear lifting rule requiring all new schools to be academies will allow more voluntary aided settings that select based on faith

Humanists fear the government’s academy reforms will pave the way for new Catholic schools which select all their pupils based on faith.

The children’s wellbeing and schools bill will scrap the “free school presumption” that currently dictates that councils must first consider bids to open an academy when a new school is needed.

The rule has effectively meant that other new schools – including community schools and voluntary-aided (VA) or controlled schools – are banned.

This has been a particular problem for Catholic dioceses, because of a rule capping the proportion of pupils that oversubscribed free schools can select based on faith at 50 per cent.

Canon law prevents Catholic schools from turning away pupils on the basis of their Catholic faith.

But the law change raises the prospect that proposals for new voluntary-aided schools, which are allowed to select up to 100 per cent of pupils based on faith, will emerge and be accepted by councils.

‘Unintended consequences’

A spokesperson for Humanists UK said they were “concerned about the potential unintended consequences”.

“One of them is that 100 per cent admissions discrimination on religious grounds will once again become possible. This could contradict the other aims of the bill, which are to make sure children in a locality have access to a school place.”

The Department for Education pointed out that voluntary-aided and voluntary-controlled schools can still be opened under the current system.

But, in reality, the free schools presumption and the conversion of schools to academies means the number of VA schools has fallen in recent years – from 3,415 in 2015, to 2,395 last year.

The DfE said the bill would allow councils to set out “what is needed for their area, and so of course it’s highly unlikely that the need for places would be met by schools that intended to operate a 100 per cent faith-based admissions arrangement”.

‘Councils opened these schools before’

But the Humanists said there was no evidence “to suggest local authorities are unlikely to open these types of schools”.

“Councils opened these types of schools before the move towards academisation 15 years ago and will be able to do so again if this measure is passed unamended. Parliament needs to close this loophole.”

The previous Conservative government had proposed lifting the 50 per cent faith-based admissions cap for free schools. The new government said it was considering responses to its consultation on the matter.

A spokesperson for the Catholic Education Service said the Church had a “long history of opening new voluntary-aided schools to serve local communities.

“We’re pleased the government has recognised the important contribution of VA schools and this route to meet local educational demand.”

The change is less impactful for the Church of England, which does not have a rule preventing it from turning away pupils of faith.

Schools Week understands the Church will continue to bid to open free schools and VA schools.

A DfE spokesperson said: “Under the proposals in the bill, local authorities will carefully consider proposals from all groups and commission the right new schools to meet need and to ensure every child in their local area has the opportunity to achieve and thrive.”

QTS law clarification

Around 15,000 unqualified teachers already working in England’s schools will not be affected by the government’s move to require all teaching staff to have or work towards qualified status.

The schools bill proposes to extend the requirement that currently applies to local authority-maintained schools to include academies.

However, the Department for Education clarified this week that teachers recruited before the implementation of the new law “will not be required to have or work towards QTS”.

This means that schools will “not be required to ensure their existing unqualified teachers gain QTS.”

However, if an unqualified teacher wants to move schools, it appears they would have to become qualified. The new rule is due to apply from September 2026.

According to government data, there were just under 15,000 teachers working in England’s schools who were paid on the unqualified teacher pay scale.

Most of those – just under 10,000 – work in academies.

But around 5,000 work in maintained schools, although this includes teachers directly employed by local authorities.

Two-thirds hit by uniform rules

A third of primary schools and more than two-thirds of secondaries will have to remove compulsory branded items from their uniforms to meet new government rules.

Catherine McKinnell
Catherine McKinnell

The children’s wellbeing and schools bill seeks to restrict the number of branded items to three for primary schools and four for secondaries if one item is a tie.

Schools minister Catherine McKinnell said the government estimated “that one-third of primary schools and seven in ten secondary schools will have to remove compulsory branded items from their uniforms to comply with the new limit”.

“Many schools will only have to remove one or two items, although those with excessive numbers of branded items will have to remove more,” she added in a parliamentary question.

The estimates are based on the DfE’s 2023 cost of school uniforms survey.

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