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When choosing a school creates a two-tier society
• THANK you for the article highlighting the two-tier system created by religious schools in Islington (Children flock to church schools as other primaries struggle to fill their classrooms. Are we creating a two-tier system? February 1).
Councillor Ursula Woolley is completely erroneous in saying this does not happen here. As a mother of young children living in Highbury I know of so many parents who, without shame, confess that they only go to church so their kids can get into St Joan of Arc and St John’s. They hold little religious belief or faith in god. I find their hypocrisy disgusting.
They claim they do not want to “sacrifice” their child’s education, yet what they are really sacrificing is the society in which their children have to live, now and in the future. By creating a two-tier society, which begins with their choice of school, they are creating a system based on have/have-not, rich/poor, and criminals/victims.
Of course, most of these parents plan to sell their London homes for astronomical prices come secondary school time and move to the countryside, where they can finally live in the choice, homogenised, white, middle-class society they so crave.
Heaven forbid that their children have to mix with plebs and foreigners. Anyone can play the game and send their kids to a religious school but many of us have made the choice to send our kids to a multicultural school which reflects the society we live in and to invest our energy in supporting local schools, whichever one it may be.
I am proud to say that many parents at the school my children attend have made this choice and as a result it is one of the best community, non-religious schools in the area. This is despite the challenges of different backgrounds, religious beliefs, children who speak English as a second language and the number of children who have free school meals. The school has a great community atmosphere and good results.
This has been achieved by the hard work of the teachers and the excellent headteacher, who with the support of some amazing parents and governors made the school what it is without having to resort to exclusion.
The parents have made the choice to be inclusive and to create the best school for their children as well as children of different backgrounds; surely a truly Christian person would make a similar choice.
RONIT DASSA
N5
• THE two clergymen who last week defended their church schools’ selective policies for admitting pupils in Jamie Welham’s informative article have something to be defensive about.
St Peter’s and St Paul’s RC Primary in Clerkenwell admitted a lower proportion of special needs children than any other RC or any Church of England primary in Islington in 2006 and in 2007 and, among RC primaries, admitted the second lowest proportion of children who became eligible for free school meals.
St John’s Highbury Vale admitted a lower proportion of children who became eligible for free school meals than any other Church of England primary or any RC primary, and was the only primary in Islington which admitted not a single “statemented” child in 2006 and in 2007.
Are these schools doing enough – anything – to attract the whole spectrum of religious families?
Readers who suspect that Councillor Ursula Woolley may have been too gracious in denying a divide between church and community schools, for example in carrying out their ethical responsibilities to children and parents, should get the admission statistics, available on the basis of the Freedom of Information Act through Danielle Manston,
FOI officer, Corp Law and Community Services, Islington Town Hall, Upper Street N1 2UD on 020 7527 3309, by fax on 020 7527 3333 or at Danielle.manston
@islington.gov.uk
JF, N7
Name and address supplied
• Much has been made of the additional choice that church schools offer parents.
For those with religious beliefs this must be true. However, church schools diminish choice for the rest of us. What about the atheists with the temerity to want to send their children to the nearest school?
I resent my taxes funding schools that my children are barred from attending.
Church schools have a right to exist, but should only be able to select if the church wants to fund them in their entirety. It’s a shame that none of the major political parties is willing to stand up and make this obvious point.
I have friends who recently joined a church in Islington. Unprompted, the vicar raised the benefit of the high-performing church primary school. Another Jewish friend enjoys the time spent with ambitious Muslims and Buddhists during the Sunday service.
In our relatively enlightened times, the influence of the mainstream church continues to diminish, along with congregations of pious believers. Perhaps it is unsurprising that cynical churchmen will happily fill their pews with non-believers and their schools with young minds ripe for indoctrination. At least, the churches won’t be empty and they won’t be out of a job.
PHIL BAKER
EC1
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