THE headteacher of a Catholic school has criticised Oxfordshire County Council's admissions procedure after non-Catholic children were given places at the school ahead of Catholics.

The issue has prompted Kate O'Keefe, the headteacher of St Gregory the Great School in Cricket Road, Cowley, Oxford, to question the school admissions system.

The county council said St Gregory's determined its own admissions criteria and that the county and the school endeavoured to do the best for all pupils.

She said: "The admissions procedure in Oxfordshire isn't working efficiently.

"We're a Catholic school, but practising Catholic children weren't given a place as their first choice."

She said this had caused "significant distress" to six pupils concerned, especially as among those affected were children of people who had made contributions to the school's £20m building project.

She said: "There are practising Catholics who haven't got us as their first choice, while some of the intake we have been allocated aren't all Catholics. Something has gone wrong.

"I'm sure it will take time to sort out, but they're very distressed and my concern is for the children. Officers in the authority are working with our clerk of governors to resolve this matter."

Mrs O'Keefe said it was "not appropriate" for the pupils to have to go to appeal, as was usually the case if parents were not happy with the school their child had been allocated.

The council sent out letters a fortnight ago to all parents of pupils who had applied for admission to schools in September. About 450 pupils were not allocated a place at their first-choice school - eight per cent of applicants.

St Gregory's is oversubscribed in all but one of its year groups, and from the next academic year is looking to expand one year group from 150 to 180, because of its popularity. Its total roll stands at 1,003.

Father Daniel Seward, of the Oxford Oratory, the church linked to St Gregory's, said: "We provide a Catholic education and although a Catholic school welcomes other Christians and members of other faiths, when places are given in the first place to other pupils, something is obviously going wrong."

Oxfordshire County Council education department spokesman John Mitchell said: "As an aided school, St Gregory's determines its own admissions criteria and the county council supports an aided school, like St Gregory the Great, in an administrative capacity.

"Both the council and the school endeavour to do their best for all applicants but there may be occasions when applicants are less likely to get their first choice.

"This might happen if, for example, an application is late or it fails to include a significant fact, such as the child is Catholic, in the case of a pupil applying to St Gregory's."

  • Are you a parent of a pupil affected by this? If so, call Emma-Kate Lidbury on 01865 425403 or contact her by e-mail at elidbury@nqo.com