|PIC1|A new report out today from the Church of England claims that schools with a religious foundation promote community cohesion rather than create division.

The report was carried out by Professor David Jesson, of the University of York, who looked at the independent reports of 400 secondary schools and 700 primary schools inspected between March and June this year.

He found that schools run by faith groups scored 11 per cent higher for their promotion of community cohesion compared with community schools, and that faith-based schools outperformed community schools by almost nine per cent when it came to tackling inequality.

At the primary education level, faith schools and community schools achieved the same grade average of 2.2 for promoting community cohesion, with grade 1 being outstanding and grade 4 being inadequate.

At the secondary school level, however, schools with a religious foundation achieved a substantially higher grade average of 1.86, compared to the average score of 2.31 for community schools.

Professor Jesson said in his research paper: “This finding is particularly relevant to the debate about schools’ contribution to community cohesion – and runs completely counter to those who have argued that because faith schools have a distinctive culture reflecting their faith orientation and are responsible for their admissions that they are ‘divisive’ and so contribute to greater segregation amongst their communities.

“This is clearly not supported by this most recent Ofsted inspection evidence.”

Faith schools also performed better in their strategies to tackle discriminatory behaviour between students, achieving a grade average of 1.68, compared to the grade average of 2.03 for community schools.

“Here again the contrast between faith schools and community schools is clear,” said Professor Jesson. “Faith schools achieve higher gradings on this aspect of their contribution to their pupils and their community.”

Writing in her introduction to the report, the Church of England’s Chief Education Officer the Rev Janina Ainsworth said schools with a religious foundation had a particular role to play in modelling how faith and belief could be explored and expressed in ways that bring communities together rather than driving them apart.

“They can minimise the risks of isolating communities for whom religious belief and practice are core parts of their identity and behaviour,” she said. “In Church of England schools that means taking all faith seriously and placing a high premium on dialogue, seeking the common ground as well as understanding and respecting difference.”

She continued: “Promoting community cohesion is not about diluting what we believe to create a pallid mush of ‘niceness’.

“Our Christian foundation places the strongest obligation onto Church of England schools to help children form relationships of mutual care and affection with people from every creed and background.

“For church schools, community cohesion is more than ticking a box for the government. It is about acting out the values articulated in the school’s mission statement in ways that serve and strengthen our human relationship with our neighbours.”