Surrey County Council has abandoned a proposed faith school takeover following sustained campaigning by the National Secular Society.
Last week, a council report recommended dropping the proposals and those recommendations have now been approved by the Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning. The decision follows two contentious rounds of consultation.
The council has also belatedly admitted that the resulting faith school would have been able to discriminate on the basis of religion in hiring staff, having previously claimed otherwise.
Overwhelming parental opposition and false claims about faith schools
The council initially planned to amalgamate a local non-religious school, Merrow Junior School, into the smaller Merrow Church of England Controlled Infant School.
The resulting school would be a Voluntary Controlled (VC) Christian faith school called Merrow CofE Primary School. VC schools can legally discriminate on the basis of religion in admissions and the hiring of staff.
Following overwhelming opposition by local parents, politicians and the NSS, the council was forced to launch a second consultation which included a merged non-religious school as an option.
But the NSS heavily criticised the second consultation, which wrongly claimed that the Church of England does not evangelise schoolchildren and that VC schools cannot discriminate in admissions. The council was forced to withdraw the claims following a letter from the NSS.
The consultation also wrongly stated that VC schools cannot discriminate on the basis of religion in hiring staff. In fact, up to one fifth of staff at VC schools can be appointed on the basis of religion. The NSS repeatedly pointed this out to the council, but the claim was never removed.
NSS: ‘Fantastic result for families in Guildford’
National Secular Society spokesperson Alejandro Sanchez said: “This is a fantastic result for families in Guildford, who overwhelmingly opposed the planned faith school takeover.
“In an increasingly religiously diverse and irreligious UK, our education system should be open and welcoming to all. Faith schools which can legally discriminate on the basis of religion in admissions and hiring are entirely incompatible with that vision.