The Church of England has welcomed the new School Admissions Code, published by DfES last week, and issued guidance for dioceses on the advice they should offer to their schools to match with the requirements of the new code.

David Whittington, Acting Chief Education Officer, said: "Admitting children to schools is a demanding and complex business and the governing bodies of schools that are their own admissions authorities have had to adapt and revise their policies and procedures over the years since 'parental preference' became the basis.

"This new guidance is designed to assist the overriding aim of the code - to produce a more understandable and transparent admissions system."

The national guidance emphasises the nature of Church of England schools as "distinctive and inclusive":

There are about 4,620 Church of England schools. Some 4,400 primary, equivalent to 25 per cent of all state primary schools, and 220 secondary, or 6 per cent. Nineteen per cent of all primary pupils and six per cent of all secondary pupils attend these schools, and both proportions are growing.

New schools should normally have at least 25 per cent of their pupils from other faiths or none while all schools should aim to have non-Christian pupils make up at least 15 per cent of their school population, the Church of England said yesterday.

The Church of England has said that schools can even give up to 100 per cent "local priority" where this is judged appropriate by the school and advises ways in which these twin aims can be achieved in very differing local circumstances.

It also suggests simpler criteria for the "faith priority" places to achieve greater transparency for parents and more straightforward decision-making for the admissions panel:

known to the church
attached to the church and
at the heart of the church.

The Church has welcomed other fundamental changes that the code either repeats from recent legislation or decides for the first time:

The abolition of "first preference first".
The abolition of interviews (except for boarding)
The banning of criteria which restrict parents' range of choice.
The introduction of Choice Advisers.

David Whittington added: "The resultant Code is a lengthy document but, together with the Church's own advice, it should lead to the desired clarity and to more responsiveness to parents' wishes."