Earlier this week the Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan announced that a report by the Church in Wales has shown that pupils in Anglican schools do better on average in their exams. However, the report has been widely criticised as overstating its claims:
David Evans, of teaching union NUT Cymru has pointed out that:

“It’s difficult to do a comparison between Church in Wales schools and other schools because it’s very difficult to compare like with like. There are all sorts of issues that come into play – inner city schools compared with rural schools, for example.”

And, as the Secretary of Cardiff Humanists Julian Bennet pointed out in the same article, any difference in results is unlikely to be due to collective worship and the belief in a supernatural power.

That point is backed up by government statistics, which show that while religious voluntary aided schools get better average results than community schools, so do voluntary aided schools with no religious character. The important thing to remember with all of these large scale comparisons is that there are far larger differences within categories of school than between them. By far the biggest determinant of the results that a school achieves is its intake. The remaining differences can be explained by a wide range of factors—teaching quality, school leadership, governance and discipline, for example—that are common to all schools.

Because school intake has such an impact on schools results and behaviour, schools which have complex admissions arrangements can end up selecting better off families, even if unintentionally. The impact of this selection can then snowball, as differences in intake affect results and behaviour. The truth is that there are very many good schools that are inclusive and that inclusive schools can achieve great results while being engaged with the whole community.

We hope that one such school will be Oakhurst Primary School in Swindon, which has just opened. The community school had the help of 170 people from the community to help decorate the school as it opened, many of whom had been concerned about alternative plans for an Islamic faith school on the site. http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/4630229.Oakfield_School_opens_its_doors_to_community/