Church schools encouraged to admit more non-religious pupils

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However, the suggestion was welcomed by the National Secular Society, whose president Terry Sanderson said: “The Church has repeatedly denied that the strict selection criteria that are applied in some schools are the reason they perform so well.

“We are told that it is because of the ‘Christian ethos’. Now the cat is out of the bag and the Bishop of Oxford has let us know that the Church is fully aware of why their schools perform so well.”

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, chair of Accord, which campaigns to end religious discrimination in school staffing and admissions, said: “This is a very welcome step that attempts to help rectify current policy, which means that religion and discrimination in schools have become almost synonymous.

“Schools should be inclusive and tolerant and no state-funded school should be allowed to discriminate on the grounds of religion for any of their teacher posts or any pupil places.”

The Church is expected to publish new admissions guidelines in the summer.