The National Secular Society is assisting local parents
to block a proposal to convert a Suffolk community school to a Church of
England school.
Parents at Dell Primary school in Lowestoft contacted the NSS after Suffolk County Council issued a Statutory Notice
to change the status of the school from Community to Church of England
Voluntary Aided.
In order to achieve this, the legal process requires
the existing community school to be closed and a new Voluntary Aided
school to be opened.
The NSS has written to Suffolk
County Council with concerns over the consultation process, which it
says was biased and failed to inform parents of a number of significant
implications of converting the status of the school.
This contravenes
Department for Education guidance
(pdf) which requires those bringing forward proposals to "provide
sufficient information for those being consulted to form a considered
view on the matters on which they are being consulted".
Unlike
community schools, which are controlled by the local authority,
Voluntary Aided schools are their own 'admissions authority' and are
allowed to select or discriminate against prospective pupils on
religious grounds if oversubscribed. In addition, the governing body
employs the staff and can apply a religious test in appointing,
remunerating and promoting all teachers. Voluntary Aided faith schools
are also free to devise their own religious education syllabus rather
than follow the locally agreed syllabus.
The Church of England has recently signalled its intention to intensify the religious input across the whole curriculum and life of its schools, which are funded by the State.
One
parent concerned about the proposals is mother of two Claudette Brewer.
She told the NSS: "I do not want my children to be educated at a school
that has the freedom to impose its own religious beliefs on pupils, and
the freedom to discriminate against those that do not conform to those
beliefs".
The proposals for the school to take on a
religious character have been brought forward by the school's governing
body, and appear to have been initiated by the local authority appointed
school governor, who is also the local vicar.
According to the school governors: "Dell
Primary School already has very strong links with St Mark's Church.
Canon Ian Bentley, the vicar there, has been a governor at the school
for three years and plays an active role in its development. Becoming a
Church of England voluntary aided school is a natural way to cement
these links and strengthen our bond with the local church community."
Waveney,
in which Dell primary is situated, is the least religious area in
Suffolk, judged by it having the lowest percentage of Sunday attendance
at 5.3% of the local population in 2005.
Less than 3% of 22 to
44-year-old age group (those most likely to be parents) attend a local
church of any denomination on Sunday. Only around a third of church
attendees in Suffolk attend an Anglican church.
Stephen
Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society, said: "This
proposal appears to serve the needs of the Church rather than local
families and the population of Suffolk as a whole.
"If
Suffolk County Council agree to this proposal it will drastically
reduce choice for local parents who do not want their children to
receive an education with a distinctive Christian character.
"We
have raised a number of concerns with Suffolk County Council about this
proposal and we very much hope they reject it. It would certainly be
inappropriate to proceed on the basis on a biased consultation that
failed to enable local taxpayers to make a fully informed decision about
the future of their local school."