Muslim pupils outnumber Christian children in more than 30 church schools, including one Church of England primary that has had a “100% Muslim population”.
St Thomas in Werneth, Oldham, is reported by the local diocese to have no Christian pupils, while at Staincliffe C of E Junior School in Batley, West Yorkshire, 98% of pupils “come from a Muslim background”, according to its most recent religious inspection report in 2015.
The Church of England estimated that about 20 of its schools had more Muslim pupils than Christians and 15 Roman Catholic schools had majority Muslim pupils, according to the Catholic Education Service.
Some church schools include Islamic prayers in their services and allow girls to wear headscarves as part of their uniform. All Saints Church of England Primary in Bradford sells hijabs to its pupils.
Anglican and Catholic church schools receive funding from the government and are required to have a daily act of collective worship that is recognisably Christian.
Experts said this weekend that some should be turned into secular schools.
Alan Smithers, a professor and director of the centre for education at the University of Buckingham, said: “The Church of England has traditionally provided education in this country but now that risks being an uncomfortable experience for the Muslim pupils that fill many of these schools.
“It must also be very confusing for the handful of Christian pupils in some of them. It would seem logical these schools become secular institutions.”
The St Thomas website says the school observes “both Christian and Muslim festivals”. The diocese of Manchester uses its website to trumpet St Thomas as having a “100% Muslim population”, although that figure is “a little out of date”, according to the Rev Nick Andrewes, who chairs the school’s governors.
Staincliffe has held termly shared assembly services with an imam and a parish priest, referred to as the “men in black”, while a Remembrance Day service included Islamic as well as Christian prayers.
The school has also scheduled staff training days to coincide with the festival of Eid, when most Muslim pupils would expect the day off school, in an attempt to improve attendance.
Staincliffe’s website quotes its motto, “one team together”, and says it is proud to be “cohesive, inclusive and caring” and “a church school serving a majority Muslim community”.
The growing number of church schools dominated by Muslim children reflects an influx of immigrants into communities that used to be largely Christian, according to the Catholic Education Service. It said that at one Catholic school nine out of 10 pupils were Muslim.
The Rev Nigel Genders, the Church of England’s chief education officer, said that at Bishop Bridgeman C of E Primary School in Bolton 90% of pupils were Muslim “yet it feels like a Church of England school”.
He added: “It goes back to the principle that we are not faith schools serving a Christian population but church schools serving the local community.”