One of Britain’s leading Catholic comprehensive schools has been ordered to change its admissions procedures 
so that it no longer prioritises pupils and families who do volunteer work for their local church.
Following a complaint by the British Humanist Association, the Office of the Schools Adjudicator has ruled that the London Oratory School, should not award extra points in the admissions process to applicants and their parents who have undertaken voluntary work Church or parish such as assisting in the liturgy, belonging to Catholic organisations and visiting the sick and housebound.
The London Oratory, attended by the children of former Prime Minister Tony Blair and where the son of the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, will start next month, is heavily oversubscribed and regularly receives around 800 applications for 160 places.
Other politicians who have sent children there include Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman and former Education Secretary Ruth Kelly, the Independent reports.
But the schools adjudicator, David Lennard Jones, has ruled the school’s admissions policy unfair because the schools’ admissions code does not allow priority to be given to those who have given practical support to a school or an associated organisation, in this case the Church.
In his ruling, Mr Lennard Jones said the practice meant parents who wanted a place would have to start planning three years before applying.
“This process will favour those parents who are good at planning ahead and are sufficiently well organised to identify the admissions criteria, who ensure that they undertake the necessary activities and keep sufficient records to be able to evidence that they have done this,” he added.
He asked whether it was fair “for anyone to be required to be doing something for as long as four years before the timer of admission in order to gain priority” and argued that it was opposed by the local Catholic diocese.
He said: “The families who this applies to would feel unfairly treated either because they were unaware of the requirement until the time of application (perhaps because they did not at the time live in the London area) and by then it was too late to change their practice or because they were aware in time but did not feel that it was fair they should have to change their practice”.
The service clause was one of four hurdles for applicants to clear and whittled the number of those qualifying for a place down from 800 to 265. Only 160 places are available a year.
The school’s admissions policy was also criticised on the grounds that it did not make it clear enough that a child who was a non-Catholic could be admitted if a place was available – although , in practice, it was conceded this was unlikely to happen because the school was so oversubscribed by Catholic parents seeking a place.
Richy Thompson, of the British Humanist Association – which made the objection to the school’s policy, said: “This state-funded school is one of the most socio-economically selective in the country, taking in under 20 per cent as many pupils requiring free school meals as live in the area in which it is based.
“The degree to which the school’s admissions criteria enabled social engineering to take place was appalling and we are very pleased these parts must now all be removed.”
The school was founded in 1863 by the fathers of the Brompton Oratory in London who remain its trustees.