The National Secular Society has backed a Welsh council’s plan to redesignate a faith primary school as a nonreligious community school.
In May, Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC) voted to remove the Voluntary Controlled (VC) status from Cilgerran Church in Wales VC School and convert it to a school without a religious designation, following a consultation.
Welcoming the decision, the NSS praised the council’s “secular approach to education” as the “best means of ensuring publicly funded schools are equally welcoming to all children, regardless of their backgrounds”.
The NSS added: “Inclusive schools which educate pupils together are one of our best means of promoting community cohesion, whilst faith schools which divide children on the basis of religion and are entirely out of step with the irreligious and religiously diverse Wales of today.
“Schools we all pay for should be managed in the best interests of everyone, not used as a vehicle for the agenda of religious institutions”.
As revealed in the 2021 census, the nonreligious are the largest religion or belief group in Wales at 47% of the population, an increase from 32% in 2011. The number of Christians decreased from 58% of the population to 44% in the same time period.
As part of the consultation, PCC argued that changing the school’s designation would help secure long-term sustainability by allowing for future federation with one or more local community schools, something precluded by Cilgerran’s VC status.
The Church in Wales has initiated legal proceedings regarding PCC’s decision to remove the VC status, claiming “public misrepresentation and unqualified legal assertions” by council officers, and “discrimination against faith schooling”.
The Church states that it “will not agree” to PCC “occupying the premises for the purposes of a community school”.
Whilst VC schools are funded by the local authority, the land and buildings are generally owned by a charitable organisation linked to the relevant religious institution. In the case of Cilgerran, the land is owned by the Diocese of St Davids.
Responding to the question of the ownership and use of the land, the council stated that “no change would be implemented without resolving land ownership and occupation rights in accordance with statutory and legal requirements”.
At VC schools, legally mandated collective worship must adhere to the school’s designated character, teachers can be hired, promoted, and disciplined on the basis of religious tests, and governing bodies include representatives of the relevant religious institution.
Although VC schools tend not to select on the basis of religion in their admissions, it is lawful for them to do so.
The NSS campaigns for publicly funded faith schools to be phased out, and for religiously selective admissions to be abolished.