New data shows Catholic schools in England serve more disadvantaged pupils

The Catholic Education Service has today released its annual Digest of 2013 Census Data for Schools and Colleges in England. Catholic schools make up 10% of the maintained schools sector, employing over 46,000 teachers, 37,000 education support staff and educating 770,000 pupils.

The data collected in the census show that on average pupils at Catholic schools in England come disproportionately from the most deprived areas. 18.4% of pupils in Catholic primary schools are from some of the most deprived areas, compared to only 13.8% nationally. Catholic secondary schools follow a similar trend. 17.3% of pupils are coming from some of the most socially deprived areas with a national figure of 12.2%. The Census has also found that Catholic schools take more pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds with 34.5% of pupils in Catholic primary schools from ethnic minority backgrounds and 30.2% of Catholic secondary school pupils.

Paul Barber, Director of the Catholic Education Service said: "We have always known that Catholic schools serve ethnically diverse communities and the figures from the Census data show that this continues to be the case. The makeup of Catholic schools reflects the growing diversity of our communities and these figures demonstrate the vital role that Catholic schools play in working towards a common good for the whole society and carrying out the Church's mission to the poor. We would like to thank all the schools which took part in our Census survey for their cooperation and contribution to the research process."

The average percentage of Catholic pupils in Catholic schools in England has remained relatively static in regard to previous years at 70.2% while the actual number of Catholic pupils has increased. Although almost 30% of pupils in Catholic schools are of other faiths or none, there remains an extremely low percentage of pupils withdrawing from collective worship in schools at 0.01%.

Source: CES