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UK News

Convert your schools into academies for more freedom, Education Secretary tells faith leaders

by Eno Adeogun

Damian Hinds told religious representatives at a round table discussion on Tuesday that the move would place "freedom into the hands of school leaders".

Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and are independent of local authority control.

 

Mr Hinds detailed the benefits of faith schools changing status to Premier.

"There's more leeway on things like the curriculum," he said. "You're still expected to have a broad and balanced curriculum but you're able to make that a bit more tailored if you wish to.

"A lot of schools don't - they want to stick with the national curriculum.

"But for those who do wish to - make it a bit more tailored to something different."

Mr Hinds also highlighted to the representatives from all major religions the role faith organisations have had in the Government's education reforms since 2010.

Wikimedia Commons

He said: "The Church of England is the biggest name in primary education in England and the Catholic Church is the biggest single name in secondary education. And there are other faith groups involved of course as well.

"They're a really, really important part of our diverse school system."

Faith schools make up one-third of the schools in England and more than a quarter of state-funded faith schools already have academy status.

Mr Hinds insisted he does not want to see an end to faith schools.

"I went to a faith school myself and I think that added something to my education," he told Premier.

"Obviously for other parents, for other families, they don't want that and that's fine.

"But it really does add something. And actually the results that we see coming out of faith schools tend to be strong - some of our top performing schools in the whole country are faith schools.

"They must be doing something right."

Wikimedia Commons
Damian Hinds

The Department for Education has been criticised by some Christian figures over a number of its policies including the 50 per cent cap imposed on faith school leaders which limits the number of pupils they can admit who share the religious ethos of the school.

Acknowledging the concerns of some people within Christian circles, Hinds said: "I think faith schools, church schools and other faith schools really add something to the diversity of our system.

"We're quite unusual actually in having such diversity in our system - in state-funded education."

Listen to Premier's Eno Adeogun speaking with Damian Hinds:

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