From _Times._ I know I bang on about this, but it is quite impossible to understand the attraction of faith schools without realising [“how dreadful”:http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2052192,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=Britain] the existing system is.
bq. Although progress has been made, Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, says that too many 11-year-olds are leaving primary school without being able to read.
“One hundred fifty thousand children a year going into secondary schools who can’t read,” he said. “It’s unacceptable. So we think this is where a very bright light has to be shone on the whole literacy problem, and it needs to be a high-priority item.”
Children who read and write poorly cannot follow the curriculum and are often destined to fail their GCSEs.
Love that _often._
You’re presumably saying that faith schools produce better results. But isn’t this simply because (at least, this is something I read in _The Spectator_ recently) they tend to cherry-pick the best pupils in the first place?