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<p>Church and faith schools represent a third of all state-funded schools. The department
values the contribution that they make to a diverse school system.</p><p>Faith schools
have played a longstanding and important role in our education system. Faith schools
are popular with parents, with many being high-performing and are more likely to be
rated good or outstanding by Ofsted than non-faith schools. New academies and free
schools that have a faith designation must allow for a minimum of 50% of places to
be allocated to children without reference to faith where the school is oversubscribed.</p><p>In
2018, the department published ‘Secondary school choice and selection: insights from
new national preferences data’. The report found evidence that the smaller proportion
of disadvantaged and minority ethnic pupils attending church schools compared to other
schools was a result of a range of factors, including admissions oversubscription
criteria, as well as parental preference.</p><p>The department expects all schools,
including faith schools, to be open and inclusive. All schools, including faith schools,
must ensure that their admission arrangements are fair and objective, and that the
arrangements will not disadvantage unfairly a child from a particular social or racial
group.</p><p>Many faith schools are oversubscribed, showing that parents value and
want these schools. The department also understands that the ability to prioritise
children of faith when oversubscribed is important to faith schools and we do not
intend to change that.</p>
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