Around thirty per cent of all schools in England have a religious character. The author argues that the current "faith schools debate" is more about the nature of its "plural society" than about the place of such schools within the state-maintained sector. He suggests that to assume we are, in fact, living within a determinedly…

Despite there being significant numbers of state maintained Catholic schools in England, they have until recently proved to be of interest only to a minority of researchers, usually those directly involved in their promotion. New Government initiatives encouraging further diversity in the provision of schools have proved controversial and, in…