Review of admissions in church schools desperately needed

Following the news that Secretary of State Ed Balls has ordered a review of admissions policies in faith and church schools, Jonathan Bartley, co-director of the religious thinktank Ekklesia, who has just recently won a year long battle to get his own son who has special needs into a church school said: "This review is much needed. Church schools should be leading the way in taking the most vulnerable children. Instead, there is a mounting body of evidence that such schools are taking far fewer needy children than others.

"Church schools, although funded almost entirely by the taxpayer, still seek control their own admissions arrangements - which usually favour children of church-goers before anyone else in their community. This sends off a message - not of care for the most vulnerable - but of being a self-serving club that cares first and foremost about its own."