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Catholic schools in England and Wales are “beacons of diversity” with one in three pupils registering in a recent census as not Catholic.
The school rolls also have 21% more pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds compared to other schools.
These insights follow a change in the annual Catholic Education Service Schools’ census.
This year for the first time, the census collected data about the religions of pupils who are not Catholic.
The census was sent to over 2,200 Catholic primary and secondary schools in England and Wales.
It also found more than one in five “black children” and 26,000 Muslims in the census area attend Catholic schools.
In fact, aside from Christian pupils, more Muslims are enrolled at Catholic schools than children of any other faith.
In contrast, one of the biggest religious groupings was of pupils who have “no religion”.
To add to the cultural mix, one in five pupils are from “minority white backgrounds” – many of whom are from Eastern European migrant families – are also Catholic school pupils.
Paul Barber, Director of the Catholic Education Service Catholic schools have again shown they are “the most ethnically diverse in the country.
” What’s more, Catholic schools are not just more diverse but disproportionately more so.
“The fact that a tenth of all schools educates a fifth of certain ethnic minorities is an incredible achievement.”
Barber noted Catholicism in England and Wales is a largely immigrant faith.
“Catholic schools have a strong track record of taking in children from a wide range of ethnic minorities and producing well-educated, open minded, citizens.
“It is very easy for secularist campaigners to claim that religious ethos schools are divisive and segregate communities but the evidence for this simply doesn’t back this up.”
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