Faith schools

The English education system developed in partnership with the mainstream Christian churches, whose involvement in education pre-dates that of the state and which focused on providing education for the poor. Since 1944 faith communities have been able to apply to set up schools in the state sector in response to demand from parents. Today around a third of maintained schools have a religious character and are popularly known as faith schools.

What is a faith school?

Maintained faith schools must meet the same criteria as other maintained schools. For example, they must:

comply with the statutory Admissions Code
follow the National Curriculum and participate in National Curriculum tests and assessments and are inspected by Ofsted
have fully qualified teaching staff
be run by a governing body composed according to the stakeholder model
promote community cohesion.

Faith schools receive their recurrent funding from their LA in the same way as other maintained schools. In many cases, the faith organisation will have provided the land for the school and, in the case of voluntary-aided (VA) faith schools, remain responsible for any capital work. However, in practice, VA faith schools tend to receive 90 per cent of funding for capital work from the DCSF or their LA. LAs are responsible for capital funding for voluntary-controlled (VC) and foundation (including trust) faith schools.

How are they different from maintained schools without a religious character?

Staff: foundation and voluntary-controlled schools with a religious character must reserve up to one-fifth of their teaching posts, which can include the headteacher, for persons who are selected and appointed for their fitness and competence to teach religious education in accordance with the tenets of the school's relevant faith. VA faith schools may fill all teaching staff places with staff of their faith and may apply a faith test for appointment of support.
Religious education and collective worship: in VA faith schools the syllabus is decided by the governing body in accordance with the trust deeds of the school, so the school will usually teach denominational religious education in accordance with the tenets of the faith of the school. Foundation and VC faith schools follow the locally agreed syllabus, although parents may request that their child receives religious education in accordance with the tenets of the faith.
Admissions: faith schools may give priority to applicants who are of the faith of the school, but if they cannot fill all of their places with children of the faith they must admit other applicants.
Ethos: faith schools have a faith-based ethos that is written into the school's instrument of government.

How many are there?

There just over 20,000 maintained schools in England of which almost 7,000 are faith schools (source Edubase 2010). Around 68 per cent of maintained faith schools are Church of England schools and 30 per cent are Catholic. All but 58 of the maintained faith schools are associated with the major Christian denominations. The 58 schools are comprised of:

Jewish (38)
Muslim (11)
Sikh (4)
Greek Orthodox (1)
Hindu (1)
Quaker (1)
Seventh Day Adventist (1)
United Reform Church (1)

The major Christian denominations are:

Christian (364)
Church of England (4887)
Church of England/Christian (6)
Church of England/Free Church (1)
Church of England/Methodist (33)
Church of England/Methodist/United Reform/Baptist (1)
Church of England/Roman Catholic (10)
Church of England/United Reform (2)
Methodist (39)
Methodist/Church of England (3)

Faith academies

Of the 203 open academies open, 53 have a faith designation:

Christian (31)
Church of England (19)
Catholic (2)
Church of England//Catholic (1)

Faith in the system

Faith in the system was launched at the British Library in 2007 and presents the joint views of the Government and faith school providers. The document sets out the principles which underlie the contribution that faith communities and their schools make to educating young people in England, to nurturing them in their faith and to promoting community cohesion. It is endorsed by organisations representing the five faiths with schools open or approved to open in the maintained sector, including various Christian denominations, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and Hindu. Faith in the system can be ordered or downloaded from the Online Publications for Schools website, ref DFES-00496-2007.

Information about the 'Keeping faith in the system' conference held in October 2009 is available now.

Faith schools in the independent sector

In the independent sector there are around 2400 independent schools providing education for approximately 550,000 pupils. Currently there are 957 independent faith schools educating approximately 21,200 pupils. Of those 957 schools, 786 have a Christian ethos or are inter-denominational and the remaining 171 schools comprise: