Atheists claim victory over admissions

Humanist activists claim that their campaigning has ended “selection by flower arranging” in faith schools in England.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) and campaign group the Fair Admissions Campaign made the assertion last Tuesday, when children learned whether they had a place at their chosen primary or secondary school. They said they had brought to an end admission arrangements that prioritise school places for children whose parents help with church activities like flower arranging, cleaning or maintaining church buildings.

The secular groups said faith schools had been forced to drop these criteria from their admission policies after their campaigners lodged a series of objections with the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA).

The claim came as the Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, said she wanted to stop “vexatious complaints” against faith schools from secularist campaign groups in order to unclog the admissions system.

To back its claim, the BHA used the example of the London Oratory, saying that as part of a complex ruling made after a long-running legal battle involving the school and the OSA, the school had lost its bid to include a family’s “Catholic service” as a means of selecting pupils.

In response, the Oratory released a statement saying the school “remains vindicated following [a] High Court Judgment in April 2015”.

“The British Humanist Association has presented the School’s successful court challenge and the judge’s findings in a skewed light,” continued the statement.

The OSA 2015 report showed a 36 per cent increase in expenditure attributable to legal fees associated with dealing with these sorts of complaints.

A spokesperson for the Fair Admissions Campaign said its principal aim was “reducing religious selection in schools and bringing it to an end”.