THIRTEEN faith schools in Manchester have been accused by the government of publishing unfair or illegal rules on taking in new pupils.

Top of the list was the high-flying King David High School - a Jewish secondary accused of five breaches of a binding national code on admissions.

They included not accepting children from outside the faith, requesting personal information from parents, failing to prioritise children in care, taking account of past behaviour and preferring applicants whose relatives attended the school.

Two associated schools - King David Infant School and King David Junior School - were also named by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The junior school was accused of failing to publish admission arrangements.

The infants was said to have prioritised children whose relatives had attended.

Five Roman Catholic primary schools were `failed' for the same reason - St Anne's in Ancoats, St Bernard's in Burnage, St Brigid's in Beswick, St Edward's in Rusholme, and St Richard's in Longsight.

Four more Catholic schools were criticised for failing to prioritise children in care. Those were St Peter's Primary in Gorton, Loreto High in Chorlton, St Matthew's High in Moston and St Paul's High in Wythenshawe.

Accused

One Church of England school - Trinity, in Hulme - was accused of the same failing.

The schools were identified after the government order an investigation into admissions policies in three areas - Manchester, Northamptonshire and Barnet, London.

In total, 96 out of 570 state schools were found to be breaking admission rules including six which were asking parents for financial contributions prior to admission. None of those were in Manchester, the M.E.N. understands.

All 13 schools in Manchester are voluntary-aided faith schools - meaning they are part of the state system, and receive government cash, but can set their own admissions policy within an admissions code.

King David High, which achieved the highest marks of any Manchester state school in national tests this year, claimed inspectors had got it wrong.

Governor Joshua Rowe said: "The study is not accurate because they are looking at historical admissions policies and measuring them up against the latest guidelines. We only ask about their religion, which we can do because we are a faith school. We have been working with the local authority to make sure we are fully compliant."

John Edwards, Manchester's council's deputy director of children's services, said there was a difference between the admissions criteria the schools were publishing and the rules they were, in practice, applying.

Those `in-practice' rules were in accordance with the code, he said.

Father Michael Walsh, spokesman for the Salford Roman Catholic diocese that covers Manchester, said: "The exercise has revealed a number of schools still needed some guidance. There may have been errors of interpretation."