GOVERNORS and parents at church schools are being divided by new government guidelines which stipulate that children in care should be put at the top of admission lists.

The policy has sparked anger in some quarters that standards at some of the country’s best state schools may be lowered. Others say children in care should always have been given priority by church schools on grounds of Christian fairness.

The guidelines from Whitehall, which come into force next year, call for all state-funded schools to give priority to children from care homes, who it describes as “a disadvantaged group who have very low levels of attainment”.

Church schools will retain discretion over their admissions, but are coming under pressure from the church itself to abide by the guidelines.

The Church of England provides a quarter of the primary schools in England. Many have excelled in league tables and are oversubscribed.

Local education authorities, among others, have now come into conflict with rebel schools that are refusing to place children in care as a top priority.

At St Barnabas’ Church of England primary in Pimlico, London, where last year there were about 50 applicants for 23 places, children who are practising Christians are placed before those in care.

John Hicks, the school’s head teacher, defended the policy: “We know children in care must be educated but it can be detrimental to schools that are oversubscribed because in theory a child could arrive in the area and get in when other children in the parish can’t.”

In some schools governors plan to continue putting candidates from care homes at the bottom of their list, below even non-Christians.

“The blunt truth is church schools are operating a selective policy creaming off the middle class,” said one governor of a London primary school that is refusing to adhere to the guidelines.

The government says 59% of the 60,000 children in care in England left school without a GCSE last year. It aims to cut this figure to 10% by 2006.

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