Catholic heads reject claim they broke admissions code
By Ed West
11 April 2008

Schools Secretary Ed Balls has been accused of conducting a "witch-hunt" after his department named 87 Christian and Jewish schools that he alleged were breaking Government admission rules, and questioned their "credibility".

The row began after the Government investigated almost 600 schools in Northamptonshire, Manchester and Barnet, north London, to test their admissions policies. It came to the conclusion that over 100, 87 of them faith schools, were using illegal admissions policies to weed out poorer children.

Under Government guidelines schools must not interview children or parents, only consider an application if the school is the parents' first preference, or take into account the behaviour of other family members. They are also prevented from using selective tests, asking for photographs of, or asking for extra information about, a pupil, or asking for fees, even if they are being sought as "voluntary contributions". One Anglican school and five Jewish schools, all in Barnet, were also identified as asking for voluntary contributions.

But critics accused Mr Balls of trying to distract attention from the 100,000 children who failed to make their first-choice school in September.

Conservative leader David Cameron said: "This onslaught he has launched against faith schools is crazy and attacking some of the best schools in the country. He is accusing them of things often they haven't done."

Michael Gove, Shadow Schools Secretary, added: "Ed Balls started a witch-hunt against schools which were alleged to be handing out places for cash. Many faith and other schools ask parents if they'd like to make purely voluntary contributions."

Mike Freer, leader of Barnet Council, said: "It is outrageous for Ed Balls to make a public announcement about these schools before they even had the chance to account for themselves. It smacks of a desperate act by a Government looking to distract attention from its own failings."

Critics also pointed out that the Jewish schools needed extra financial assistance to provide security against rising numbers of anti-Semitic attacks, something not met by the taxpayer. The schools' heads and Jewish groups said that admission was not dependent on any contribution.

Thirty-three Catholic schools were among those listed. Finchley Catholic High School, Barnet, was accused of failing to take children with special needs, and favouring applications from relations of former pupils.

Headmaster Kevin Hoare described the list as a "smokescreen" and accused the Government of attacking faith schools. "There is an anti-faith schools agenda at the moment and this may be part of it," he said.

Mr Balls insisted the investigation was not an attack on religious-based educated, and said that the Catholic, Anglican and Jewish leaders backed the new admissions code. But he admitted the survey was based on "unverified desk research".

Julian Ward, deputy headmaster of St Michael's in Barnet, one of the schools "named and shamed", said the Government department had broken its own regulations and released incorrect information about schools.

"They wanted to make an excuse for the fact that only 80 per cent of parents got their first-choice school," he said. "They quickly asked their own department for something that would show that schools were working against the Government.

"Nobody asked us about it. They went on the Barnet website and that's why there were so many mistakes. They were only interested in creating a smokescreen."

Mr Ward said the rules applied only to admissions for September 2009, so that schools were being criticised for breaking rules that have not come into effect.

He said St Michael's had received an apology from the Government over allegations that it did not give priority to children in care, yet it still released this false claim to the press. In a statement the Catholic Education Service said: "Catholic schools, along with all others, are expected to have clear admissions arrangements that can be readily understood and which comply fully with the School Admissions Code. This is something that we support wholeheartedly, irrespective of being required to do it. The CES remains confident that the admissions arrangements of the vast majority of Catholic schools are sound, fully meeting all statutory requirements."