True -
It is part and parcel of a Church of England school, usually reflected in the Trust Deed if this is available, that the worship as part of assembly should be Christian and reflecting the beliefs and practices of the Church of England. Many dioceses, including Canterbury Diocese, produce Christian worship material which reflects the Christian year, the main festivals and draws on stories from the Bible. "Putting Worship at the Heart of Assembly" is the new resource within Canterbury Diocese. In other maintained schools the legal requirement is that the daily act of collective worship should be Christian more often than not

False -
While all church schools have a core of children from Christian families, it is only in a minority of voluntary aided schools where the majority of pupils fulfil the church affiliation criteria. It is only possible for voluntary aided and foundation schools, which themselves are in a minority of the 4,700 maintained church schools in the country, where governors can stipulate church affiliation within the oversubscription criteria. In voluntary controlled schools the oversubscription criteria are drawn up by the local education authority and are in line with the criteria for community schools. In Kent there is an additional criterion, which cannot be backed up by a request for evidence, whereby parents seeking a place for their child can indicate whether they have a preference for a denominational school. In practice, nearly all parents who want their child at the school in question tick this box

True -
Historically the Church of England, assisted through the National Society, provided most of the early elementary schools in the country, whereas when secondary education became commonplace both state and other denominations were involved in promoting such schools. There is therefore an inevitable mismatch between provision in primary (4,500) and secondary (200) Church of England schools: over a quarter of primary schools are Church of England schools, while the proportion of Church of England schools in the secondary sector is much lower. This is the basis for the recommendation in Lord Dearing's report for the Archbishops' Council of the Church of England entitled "The Way Ahead: Church of England schools in the new millennium", which recommends the building of the equivalent of a further one hundred Church of England secondary schools to enable those who benefit from primary school education in a church school to be able to continue in their education in a church school environment. The same mismatch is not there for Roman Catholic Schools, which seek to provide enough places in the secondary sector to accommodate Catholic children in Catholic primary schools

False -
Voluntary controlled schools are controlled by the local education authority, voluntary aided schools are aided by the Department for Education and Skills and provided by the Church. The terms "controlled" and "aided" relate to responsibility for providing the finance for maintenance and building works in general terms. There are other financial and legal differences between the two types of school, with the church having a majority stakeholding in the governing body of a voluntary aided school with a number of associated responsibilities and autonomy relating to staffing, provision of denominational religious education and admissions

False -
hereas it is true that the priest/vicar may well chair the governing body and is ex-officio a member of the governing body, increasingly this is the exception rather than the rule. Apart from the time and commitment needed for the role of chair of governors, there can sometimes be a conflict between a priest's pastoral role and the need to take decisions on behalf of the governors

True -
While it is technically possible for a voluntary aided school to teach only Christianity within religious education, this rarely or never happens and Canterbury Diocese and most dioceses in the country would encourage and enable pupils in church schools to learn about and learn from a number of other faiths apart from Christianity. Locally agreed syllabi for religious education have to be followed in voluntary controlled schools, although there is the option for a reserved teacher to be employed to teach denominational RE

Canterbury Diocesan Board of Education
1 March 2005