TAKE ACTION: Tell Peterborough City Council local residents want fully inclusive schools

Peterborough residents: help stop new 100% religiously selective school in Hampton East by responding to the Peterborough City Council consultation.

Peterborough City Council is currently running a final consultation on the plan to open Hampton Waters Roman Catholic Voluntary Aided School. To be successful, the school must be able to demonstrate sufficient local support for the bid.

Will you oppose religious selection in Peterborough by responding to the consultation and help to ensure that every school that opens in Peterborough is open to all regardless of background?

In the published proposal, the Diocese says that 20% of places at the school will be reserved for local children regardless of religion. However, as this is a self-imposed cap,  the school will be legally entitled to change this and revert to prioritising Catholics for all places in the future. Whether a school selects 80% or 100% of pupils by faith, this is still discriminatory and still poses a significant threat to integration and social cohesion.

We’d like as many local people as possible to respond to the consultation and speak up against religious selection to prevent this discriminatory new state-funded school from opening. 

We’ve provided a model response to the consultation questions below. However, since the Council are more likely to pay attention to original contributions, we highly recommend that you adapt the text. 

Tips on adapting your response

To assist you in writing your consultation response, we have provided a suggested text (see below). You are strongly encouraged to edit this to make it more personal – we know that original responses have more impact and your input is more likely to be fully considered if you can make reference to personal experiences.

If you are a parent... please say so, and talk about any relevant experiences you have had trying to get your children into a suitable local school. If you have ever lived in an area with lots of religious selection, talk about the segregation this causes. You should also explain why you think it is important that new school places in Peterborough are in fully inclusive, non-partisan schools for the whole community.

If you are a pupil… talk about the importance of being able to access a local school and why having a diverse range of friends and classmates is valuable to you.

If you are a teacher or governor… talk about how your experience has shown you how important it is for schools to be diverse and inclusive.
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