Schools Minister Lord Hill says faith schools have a crucial role to play in the provision of education in Britain today.

He told the Church of England’s Academy Family Conference yesterday that Church of England-run academies could help to raise the aspirations of young people and tackle disadvantage.

He said that the Government valued the contribution being made by the Church’s schools and academies to the education system.

“Faith schools play a central role in delivering excellent, publicly-funded education in this country,” he said.

“The Government is committed to supporting the establishment of new schools by a range of providers – including faith organisations – to help to raise standards and improve choice.

“I look forward to seeing more excellent Church of England academies opening over the coming months, working in partnership with other schools to raise aspiration and tackle disadvantage in line with the moral purpose of the Church of England's educational mission.”

The Church of England sponsors or co-sponsors 42 academies and has three new ones due to open in the next year, making it the largest provider of academies in England.
Its academies typically replace vulnerable or failing schools and 24 of its schools have submitted applications to convert to academy status.

The affirmation from Lord Hill will be welcome news to the Church, which has had to confront the criticism that faith schools are divisive and unfair to children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Ian Craig, head of the Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA), recently criticised points based admissions systems at some faith schools which give higher priority to children who were baptised or whose parents volunteer at church. He said such systems tended to favour children from middle class backgrounds at the expense of children from immigrant and less advantaged households.