HC Deb 22 May 2002 vol 386 cc358-9W
Mr. Willis

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills where an Academy is created involving the(a) Church Schools Company and (b) other faith-based organisations, what control they will be able to exercise over admissions. [58073]

Mr. Timms

The admission arrangements for each Academy will be agreed with the Secretary of State and form part of its legally binding funding agreement. Admission arrangements for all Academies must be consistent with admissions law and the statutory codes of practice, as these apply to maintained schools.

Mr. Willis

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills where an existing school is taken over by(a) a faith-based organisation and (b) a group sponsored by a faith-based individual, what provision there will be for existing pupils and teachers to opt out of faith-based teaching and arrangements. [58078]

Mr. Timms

No state school can be taken over by an organisation or group. For an existing state school to become a faith school would require publication of two sets of statutory proposals—to close the school, and to open a new school with a religious character. The local School Organisation Committee, or Schools Adjudicator, would decide on the proposals following local consultation.

We would expect the School Organisation Committee or Adjudicator to seek assurances from the local education authority that existing pupils, including those who did not wish to transfer to the new faith school, would be provided for and their interests safeguarded.

Parents of children transferring to the new school could withdraw their children from RE teaching and collective worship if they wished to.

Teachers of the existing school who transferred to the new faith school would continue to enjoy the protections that applied to their employment at their former school. They would not have to participate in religious aspects of the new school. Those who did not wish to transfer would have to seek alternative employment if the local education authority did not offer another post.