THE headteacher of a Roman Catholic secondary school has disputed claims that faith schools fuel segregation.

A House of Commons education committee last week heard that religious schools had fewer pupils eligible for free school meals, taken as an indicator that students had an 'underprivileged' background.

It was also told the schools attracted children from more able and affluent backgrounds than community comprehensives.

Prof Anne West, of the London School of Economics, and Rebecca Allen, of the Institute of Education, at University of London, carried out the research presented to the committee.

Their report said: "Schools with a religious denomination can be shown to have a more able and affluent intake than community comprehensives, especially once the characteristics of the local neighbourhood are taken into account.

"This means that areas with many religious schools have higher levels of school segregation."

But Mary Keelan, headteacher of St Gregory the Great Catholic School in Cricket Road, Cowley, said: "The notion of faith schools not being inclusive is a million miles from the truth.

"I've worked in a number of faith schools and I know for a fact that they are very representative of the particular populations that live around them, in terms of the ethnic mix, special needs statistics and free school meals, and that certainly applies to St Gregory's."

She said at her school English was not the first language of 22 per cent of pupils, 41 per cent were from ethnic minorities and more than 20 per cent had special needs. Just over half of pupils were Roman Catholic.

She said: "The core values are around Christian values, but these are mostly around respect for diversity and that kind of thing.

"Any good teacher will tell you that those core values are the key ingredients of every lesson."

The report also criticised admissions procedures, and alleged some faith schools in London charged admission fees and carried out "covert cream-skimming".

Miss Keelan said: "There is rigorous scrutiny around admissions and I would seriously counter the assertion that if there's success there's selection."

The report suggested national religious criteria could be agreed, meaning religious schools would not have to collect additional information.

Miss Keelan said: "It sounds like a good idea, but it would actually be a denial of the distinctive identity of different religious groups and I do not think you can put that into a national formula.

"A lot of this talk can be quite divisive about a system which is actually very cohesive. Our students work closely within the community and with other schools in the area."