A report that claims Catholic schools take fewer children from disadvantaged backgrounds than other schools uses flawed criteria, according to the chairman of the Catholic Education Service.
Bishop Malcolm McMahon rejects conclusions, reached in the study on the basis of the number of pupils claiming free school meals, as unreliable.
His rejection comes as part of a response to findings presented by the think tank, Theos, which it claims shows that many Catholic schools fail to represent the socio-economic situation in their local area and admit fewer pupils from deprived backgrounds.
“As an education provider with a particular mission to the poor, we find that the measure of free school meal take-up does not accurately represent our school communities,” writes the bishop in an addendum printed as part of the Theos report “More than an Educated Guess”.
The report cites research showing that “73 per cent of Catholic primaries and 72 per cent of Catholic secondaries have a lower proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals than the average for the local authority.”
There has long been a controversy over the intake at Catholic schools, with the accusation commonly made that the selection process is biased against children from deprived backgrounds.
However, Bishop McMahon writes that there could be a range of reasons why eligible pupils in Catholic schools aren’t claiming free school meals. These included families’ failure to claim due to immigration status and cultural differences.
The Theos report acknowledges that the free school meals criteria was a “blunt instrument” and also cites Department for Education research showing that 17 per cent of pupils at Catholic schools live in the country’s most deprived areas, compared with 12 per cent of pupils nationally.
The report rejects the accusation that faith schools are socially divisive and also cites research showing that Catholic schools can more easily create a school culture that mitigates deprivation.
Loading ...
