Roman Catholic dioceses oppose primary schools being listed as “feeders” for non-Catholic secondaries, case before schools adjudicator reveals

Do parents who choose a Roman Catholic primary school for their children have to accept that doing so will restrict their choice when it comes to secondary education?

This would appear to be the underlying assumption justifying the existence of school preference arrangements in one part of the country, which are coming under challenge in what reads as if it could be a case with national implications.

Admissions arrangements affecting children at St Thomas More, a Roman Catholic primary academy in Leicester, are at the heart of a complex saga which, critics will say, has seen the school, the multi-academy trust and its diocese effectively narrowing parental choice by objecting to its being listed as a feeder school for non-Catholic secondaries.

The effect, says a parent who has taken their case to the national office which oversees school admissions, is to close down the options for children at the school – especially boys – compared to those attending non-religious primary schools in the area.

St Thomas More children are thus being discriminated against on grounds of religion, it is alleged. The parent, Dr Sara Thompson, a lecturer at a local university, argues the situation is illegal under the Equalities Act 2010, because children attending this Catholic primary school have less choice at secondary than those attending local non-Catholic primaries. Effectively all families are being asked to accept, when their child attends a Catholic primary, that they will have less local choice of secondary than those attending non-religious local schools, it is claimed.

The case is now being considered by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator. It shines a light on both the position of the Catholic Church on pupil transfers between primary and secondary schools, and on the use of “feeder schools” in the admission process.

The situation

As mentioned, this is a complex case. The issue hinges on the availability of secondary school places in the south-eastern part of the city of Leicester and its outskirts, and in particular whether or not the secondaries operate “feeder school” policies, where children from certain named primaries are given priority in admissions.

Boys, in particular, attending St Thomas More (STM) primary face a restricted set of options

2ndary school                   Distance (miles) Ofsted rating                    Main admissions criteria

Lancaster                           0.77                     Requires improvement       Catchment, distance

Sir Jonathan North             0.77                     Outstanding                        Girls;catchment, distance

Tudor Grange Samworth    2.4                       Inadequate                         Distance

Wigston Academy              3.1                        RI                                       Feeder schools, distance

South Wigston High           3.5                        RI                                       Feeder schs, distance

Gartree High School          2.96                      Outstanding                        Feeder schs, distance

Beauchamp College           2.98                     Outstanding                        Feeder schs, distance

Manor High School            2.64                      Good                                  Feeder schs, distance

St Paul’s                               2.8                         Good                                 Catholic (and Christian),

feeder schools

(The distance figure is the distance from St Thomas More, by road)           

The two closest secondaries to STM, called Lancaster and Tudor Grange – both academies – do not operate “feeder school” admissions policies. But some families will be concerned that they are poorly rated by Ofsted: Lancaster is currently graded “requires improvement,” while Tudor Grange is “inadequate”.

A third school which is close to STM, Sir Jonathan North, is Ofsted rated “outstanding”. But, as a girls’ school, clearly this is not an option for boys.

It is Thompson’s contention that boys at STM are thus essentially being offered no choice of schools rated “good” or better, other than St Paul’s, a Catholic secondary three miles away from the primary, with the next-closest secondaries, after Lancaster and Tudor Grange, all operating feeder school systems. These make it, it is claimed, all-but-impossible for children at a school not listed as a feeder to gain admission.

St Thomas More, the primary, and St Paul’s, the secondary, are both part of the same academy chain: St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust. Both also sit within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nottingham.

How the case progressed

Thompson, who first began investigating the schools’ admissions arrangements in 2019, therefore focused her attention on the feeder school arrangements at three secondary schools, all in the suburb of Oadby, just outside of Leicester. All are rated at least good by Ofsted and only just further away from STM than the three schools listed above.

Gartree High School and Beauchamp College are both rated “outstanding” by Ofsted, while Manor High School is “good”. All are academies, operating their own admissions systems, including the use of feeder schools.

In March 2019, Thompson approached all three Oadby secondaries, asking about their admissions arrangements.

At Beauchamp College, STM was at this time not listed as a feeder. Thompson asked why, with Beauchamp responding that it had approached STM twice about it in the past. On the first occasion, STM said it did not want to be listed as a feeder; the second time, it did not respond to the approach.

At Gartree High School, Thompson was simply told the school would not list STM as a feeder, but was not told why.

At Manor, Thompson was told that STM was listed as a feeder, and that it had no plans to de-list it.

At this stage, then, the situation seemed to be, among these three Oadby secondaries, that one had STM as a feeder; one had not, but had tried to list it; and the other also had not, though it was not clear why not.

Change is sought

Also in March 2019, Thompson then approached the Diocese of Nottingham, requesting that STM be listed as a feeder for Beauchamp. However, the diocese wrote back denying the request, and stating that the School Admissions Code required that the Bishop be consulted on any changes to admissions arrangements “affecting his schools”. It added that “without his [the Bishop’s] explicit approval any school proposing to add a Catholic school as a partner primary would be subject to immediate challenge and if necessary referral to the Office of the School Adjudicator”. However, the adjudicator this year found that the diocese had “no jurisdiction” over the admissions arrangements of Beauchamp as it was a non-faith school. (See below).

In June 2019, Thompson wrote to the head of STM, asking for her support for the request that Beauchamp list STM as a feeder. The STM head refused. The school then published on its website an undated letter, seemingly several years old, saying it was “inappropriate” for STM to be a feeder school for non-Catholic secondaries.

The letter, signed by the chair of Corpus Christi Catholic Academy Trust – which controlled STM until 2018, the diocesan director of education and the parish priest, said: “It has been the desire of the Diocese and the Catholic community of south and east Leicester to ensure that Catholic families are able to send their children to Catholic schools throughout their educational life. This is why these schools are provided. It is therefore inappropriate for St Thomas More to be linked as a feeder school with any other school.”

The letter said parents had the right to choose “whatever school they feel appropriate for their children,” although the effect, of course, of the school not being listed as a feeder at non-Catholic secondaries would appear to make exercising such a choice more difficult, with Thompson’s point being that the only realistic choice of local school rated at least good by Ofsted would be Catholic St Paul’s

In a letter to Thompson in July 2019, Neil Weightman, the diocese’s assistant director of education, suggested that the situation was the result of decisions taken by the secondaries, which as academies are now their own admissions authorities, in relation to the listing of feeder schools.

He wrote: “It is noted that the problems you cite of access to other local non-Catholic secondary schools is the result of their decision to change their admissions arrangements and move from using distance as the main criteria to having named primary schools. I am afraid that this is often used by schools that become own admission authorities to target intake at certain geographic areas at the expense of other areas.”

In January 2020, Thompson approached the three Oadby secondaries with a letter signed by 45 parents, requesting that all three should be listing STM as a feeder.

Manor acknowledged the letter and confirmed that STM was listed, and that any de-listing would be done through consultation.

Gartree acknowledged the letter, but refused to run a consultation on listing STM as a feeder.

Beauchamp invited Thompson in for a meeting, after which it was agreed that a consultation would take place, with a view to listing STM as a feeder.

Beauchamp consults on listing STM as a feeder

In October 2020, Beauchamp’s consultation started. A few days later, Neil Lockyer, chief executive of St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust, wrote to all STM parents.

His letter said that neither the school, nor the St Thomas Aquinas academy trust, “to which it belongs”, had been informed by Beauchamp about the consultation. The letter also implied that parents opting for Catholic primary education were doing so with the expectation that this continued through to secondary, although it added that it respected parents’ right to choose.

The letter said: “I want to be clear that St Thomas More Catholic Voluntary Academy, the MAT, the Nottingham RC Diocesan Education Service and Bishop Patrick will not associate the school as a ‘named feeder’ to any secondary school outside of our MAT; this may not change the position legally…but I feel it is important to share with you.”

It added: “I want to be very clear with you about the crucially important right of parental choice that each of you has. The school and the MAT both hold this right as one to be valued and protected. As your child is at St Thomas More, you have chosen a Catholic education for her/him. That education is not piecemeal nor sectional, but developmental, progressive and holistic; it is a journey of personal, educational, spiritual and moral formation which begins with a young child at the age of 4 and nurtures them through to the young man or woman they will become at 16 or 18 years of age…The choice is not for every family, and we completely respect that; but it is the choice we offer.”

Thompson argued against this. She said: “It is impossible to see how a decision made when a child is 3 or 4 should dictate that the child only has one path in life to adulthood. Many parents were unaware they were being implicitly tied into a rigid contract with the Catholic System of Education, whereby they were entering some sort of ‘contract of Catholic faith education’ that, effectively, means that Catholic primary school parents ‘forgo’ their choice of non-Catholic secondary schools. This was not an informed decision for a substantial number of parents and there is no exit strategy from this ‘implicit’ contract.”

Manor consults- but on de-listing STM

As of December 2020, Manor was holding its own consultation, but this time with the proposal to de-list STM as a feeder school. Thompson and, it is argued, other STM families, were unaware of this. STM itself, which had been made aware of the consultation, had strangely decided not to tell its parents, arguing that this was unnecessary, as Manor’s consultation had been about de-listing the school as a feeder, rather than listing it.

In February, 2021, the result of the Beauchamp consultation was announced, with 60 per cent of consultees – amounting to 137 people - in favour of STM being listed as a feeder of that school. STM was then listed as a feeder school in admissions arrangements for pupils entering secondary in September 2022.

Diocese objects to Beauchamp’s result, adjudicator finds in favour of diocese

However, in March, the diocese objected to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator to the listing of STM as a feeder to Beauchamp – a decision which had been taken by the admissions authority for Beauchamp, which is the Lionheart Academies Trust which runs it.

In a determination published in June, the OSA sided with the diocese. The adjudicator, Peter Goringe, decided that it had been “unreasonable” for Lionheart to list STM as a feeder for Beauchamp, even though STM had been the only primary within Beauchamp’s catchment area not to have been listed as a feeder school.

The other schools, found Goringe, had been listed as feeders to Beauchamp for many years without objections having been submitted. His determination then seemed to give decisive weight to the views of the diocese, the multi-academy trust and STM itself, which had focused on the alleged need to provide “continuity” of Catholic education between the two phases, rather than to those of the consultation respondents, including parents.

Goringe’s determination said: “In the case of St Thomas More, the diocese as objector and St Thomas Aquinas Multi-Academy Trust have provided a specific reason, that is, continuity of Catholic education that those bodies are committed to providing, for arguing that St Thomas More should not be a feeder school. The governing board of St Thomas More supports this position.

“I consider that this puts St Thomas More in a different position to the other feeder schools listed [in Beauchamp’s admissions system] and justifies its different treatment in this respect”

Yet it is not clear how a child transferring away from Catholic education at secondary would damage the continuity of education for those pupils going on to a Catholic secondary.

The determination added: “I am satisfied that parents, Catholic or non-Catholic, enrolling their children at St Thomas More understand that they are entering a Catholic system of education and should have no expectation that attending that school will give them a higher priority for a place at a particular school without a religious character.” However, the argument of STM parents wanting to have greater options within the admissions structure of the local schools would appear to be that they wanted parity of treatment with pupils from other primaries in the catchment area, rather than wanting to be given priority over pupils from any non-feeder schools to Beauchamp.

Indeed, Thompson has wider concerns about the subjectivity of the feeder system as a whole and argues for parity of treatment with other local primaries

Catholic dioceses across England “will not approve” primaries as feeders for non-Catholic secondaries

The determination also shed light on the position of Catholic dioceses across England on schools being listed as feeder schools for non-Catholic secondaries, with Nottingham stating that this was “not approved”.

In its reasons for opposing STM being a feeder for Beauchamp, the diocese is quoted in the adjudicator’s ruling saying: “They [Catholic schools] were established to provide Catholic education for children of all ages and the relationship between local Catholic primary and secondary schools established from their inception is fundamental and sacrosanct. They form together a family of schools with a deep and shared common heritage and set of beliefs. As such, Catholic primary schools are always named as partner primaries for their Catholic secondary schools and Catholic secondary schools do not name any other non-Catholic primary schools as feeder schools.

“The position of the Diocese of Nottingham, as it is in all other Catholic dioceses in England, [is] that where there is a local Catholic secondary school, we will not approve a Catholic primary school being named as a feeder school for any non-Catholic secondary school as that would be a step towards undermining the special relationship that exists between the Catholic primary and secondary schools.”

Presumably the latter means that this would risk reducing the number of children transferring from Catholic primary to Catholic secondary education.

Goringe actually ruled against the diocese on this point, as he stated that the diocese “had no jurisdiction” over the admissions arrangements of Beauchamp College, a school with no religious character. This suggested that Catholic dioceses did not have the right, under the School Admissions Code, to block the inclusion of a Catholic primary as a feeder to any non-religious secondary. Goringe did, though, rule in the diocese’s favour on other grounds, as set out above though Thompson argues that, because this was based on a separate and unrelated issue, absent from the diocese’s original objection, it was outside the scope of that objection

Thompson takes case to local MP, and to the adjudicator

In July, Thompson then wrote to her local MP, Labour’s Jon Ashworth, who in September then wrote to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator himself.

Ashworth wrote that his constituent believed that the adjudicator’s decision that STM be removed from the list of feeder schools for Beauchamp College was illegal under the Equality Act 2010, as it amounted to religious discrimination. He asked the adjudicator to look into this.

On November 1st, Thompson formally asked, through a lawyer, the adjudicator to look at the decision by Manor High School to de-list STM as a feeder school in February 2021. Among the arguments was an “ineffective consultation,” with Thompson re-stating her point that STM parents  had not been told by STM  that Manor was consulting on de-listing the school. The submission also raised concerns about the admissions arrangements at Beauchamp – following Goringe’s ruling – and those at Gartree.

Adjudicator says it will look into the case

Then, on November 17th, the OSA wrote back to say it had decided to look at the case, exercising its legal powers to do so. Technically, this will determine whether the three schools’ admissions arrangements for 2022 were in accordance with the School Admissions Code. However, with it being too late in practice for this to affect this round of admissions, the OSA’s letter to Thompson suggests that any practical impact would kick in for the 2023 round.

Thompson’s argument

Thompson said: “Our children are effectively being discriminated against on the basis of faith (or the faith of the school they attend, as about one third of the  families at St Thomas More are not even Catholic). Our children are at a disadvantage in relation to other children in the area.

“Parental choice has all but been removed. This is profoundly against core British values, such as tolerance, fairness and choice.”

She added: “I am fighting so that my children – and all the children in our primary school – have the same chances as all other primary school children in the area.”

She says that many families of children attending STM were not aware that, effectively, they were limiting their options for secondary education by choosing a Catholic primary, which, Thompson says, they were unaware  is not listed as a feeder school for non-Catholic secondaries.

Thompson argues that families choosing Catholic primary schools may not have done so on religious grounds-they may opt based on convenience of location, or on Ofsted rating, for example. Parents can also get divorced, change faith or lose their faith over the course of a child’s seven years at primary. It is not fair, then, she argues, effectively to lock in choice for secondary school when choosing a primary.

Thompson said: “Effectively St Thomas More parents ‘forgo’ their choice of non-Catholic secondary schools when they enrol their children in a primary Catholic school. A parental decision about primary education should not determine or restrict secondary education in such a way that children only have one education pathway in life (a Catholic pathway).”

I shall be keeping an eye on this case. Thompson has launched a Crowd Justice fundraiser for the legal action arising from this case, aiming to raise an initial £2,000 by December and £5,000 by March.