The Geographical Distribution of Church Schools in England

• Introduction
• Historical Background
• +- Church Primary Schools
  • Methodology
  • Distribution Patterns
  • Explanations
  • Conclusion
• +- Primary School Maps
  • Flash Map Viewer
  • Individual Maps
    • Base Maps
    • All CofE Schools
    • Pupils All CofE
    • CofE Aided Schools
    • Pupils CofE Aided
    • CofE Controlled Schools
    • Pupils CofE Controlled
    • Roman Catholic Schools
    • CofE & RC Schools
    • Pupils CofE & RC
• +- CofE Secondary Schools
  • Distribution
  • Map
• Notes & Download
• Culham Institute Home Page

Introduction

The school system established in this country was largely a product of church initiative with a lead being taken by the Church of England at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Today church schools make up a third of all schools in the maintained sector in England and continue to play a highly significant and appreciated role on the national educational stage.

This study is particularly timely, for two reasons. First, recent legislation has strengthened the position of the church schools sector in relation to LEA powers to reorganise schools. Thus both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church each have one vote out of a total of five on the new school organisation committees, and any reorganisation plan which does not safeguard the proportion of church school places will be rejected unless it is approved by the churches. The distribution pattern of church schools is therefore extremely significant.

Secondly, the Church of England has just commissioned a review of its schools under the chairmanship of Lord Dearing. This will be examining possible ways of increasing the proportion of secondary places in the Church of England sector and looking at the relationship between distinctiveness and performance in church schools, as well as at ways of increasing the recruitment of church members into teaching.

This paper focuses on describing the current distribution patterns. Much of this is achieved through the visual medium of the maps themselves, and as a consequence textual commentary has been kept to a minimum. Some broad-brush comments are made in relation to explanations for the patterns; however, more detailed explanations, as will be indicated later in the text, would require a very substantial research project.

These web pages, first published in 2003, are based on work undertaken and written in 1999.

© John D. Gay, Jan Greenough 2000-2003. Page Top