Why does Liverpool have so many faith schools?

Dear readers — today’s story will touch on a familiar anxiety for many readers: secondary school options. How to find an institution close to home with good academic performance is hard enough. But what about one that reflects your values — or religion?

David Blunkett famously said he wanted to “bottle the magic” of faith schools. Liverpool has a preponderance of them; it's the city with the second highest rate of faith schools in England and Wales. Most of these are Catholic but also Anglican, joint Church of England and Catholic, and Jewish. Eden Girls’ Leadership Academy, a Muslim designated secondary school will soon join this list. 

But despite this apparent abundance, the schools are oversubscribed, and some believe the selection process to be discriminatory.

Why does Liverpool have so many faith schools? And do they serve the city’s families in the way they should?

For the latest edition of Answers in The Post,  journalist Stephanie Power went to find out. As parents of ten and eleven year olds gear up for the angst-inducing process of getting their kids into a decent school, Stephanie discovers who is being hit hardest by faith and academy schools admissions, and wonders if we have been here before. 

But first, your regularly scheduled Post briefing.

Post briefing

Woolton Hall has mysteriously caught fire again. The 18th century Grade I-listed manor house on Speke Road was attended by Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS) on Tuesday night as a major fire had broken out. The building, which previously served as a hotel, an army hospital, a convent and a school, but has been allowed to dilapidate in recent years, previously caught fire in 2019 — an incident treated as an arson attack by police. In this latest case, drone footage shared with the BBC shows severe damage to the roof.

Merseyrail passengers will soon be travelling into the future. A new tap-and-go ticketing service was unveiled by metro mayor Steve Rotheram earlier this week. The new system, comparable to the Parisian Navigo (launched 2001) and or Transport for London’s Oyster card (launched 2003) will allow passengers to use a MetroCard linked to their bank account to journey across the city region. The second phase of this exciting new (to Liverpool, at least) technology, described as a “gamechanger” by Mayor Rotheram, will see travellers able to use their bank card, or devices such as phones or watches, instead of the MetroCard. 

And a scheme to develop creative talent in Knowsley has been given a £650,000 funding boost by Arts Council England. This Place This Stage, a three year project, will work with schools, youth organisations and community groups to help young people develop a career in the creative industries. Lisa Allen, chief executive of Shakespeare North Playhouse — who will be working with Knowsley Council on the project — said: "Creating cultural opportunities like this across Knowsley really matters, especially in areas where access to the arts hasn't always been a given.”

Why does Liverpool have so many faith schools?

On a warm summer's day, in a terraced house in Granby Street, Dr Amina Elmi gets ready to support the next cohort of disappointed parents.

She says parents come for advice, excited about the prospect of a good education for their children. They list Liverpool College, Belvidere, Archbishop Blanch. All schools in and close to Toxteth. But too often they don’t get any of their choices.

“Here in L8 we have some of the best schools in Liverpool, including some great girls schools. But access doesn’t seem to be for people who are from here because locale isn’t taken into account.”

Amina, who is project manager at the Granby Somali Women’s Group, says that whilst primary schools take children on the basis of where they live, secondary schools, very often, don’t. She says that initial excitement from parents turns to frustration and incomprehension. Why is it so difficult to get children into desired schools? 

In theory, the planned Eden Girls Leadership Academy could help with this. But the project has already caused controversy in the area. As many readers will remember, the original approved site was where L8’s African Caribbean Centre is presently located, and the former mayor Joanne Anderson warned this risked exacerbating tensions within the community.

The new proposed site — bordered by Mulgrave Street and Selborne Street — could take the first 120 pupils in September 2026, taking up to 50% muslim girls. 

But Amina says that won’t help boys, or multiculturalism. “We want children to integrate,” she says. “To come into contact with children from other races, other faiths.”

A criticism I often hear, from parents of tweens, is that Liverpool has too many faith schools already. But does it? To understand the makeup of the city’s schooling, you need to go back 200 years.

What’s the history of free education in Liverpool?

Whilst there is some evidence of schooling before the late 1700s, the provision of free schools in Liverpool really started with the Church of England Sunday School movement. 

In 1784, Williamson’s Liverpool Advertiser sung the concept’s praises: "From being idle, ungovernable, profligate and filthy in the extreme . . . the boys and girls are become not only more cleanly and decent in their appearance, but are greatly humanised in their manners, more orderly, tractable, and attentive to business; and of course more serviceable . . . cursing and swearing are now very rarely heard among them". 

In November that year, a plan was developed for thirty Sunday schools. In the 1820s, Liverpool’s Corporation set up two schools - in the north and south ends of the city. They were Church of England. But with one in four children in Liverpool being Catholic, what was to be done about faith teaching?