For some of us this headline is a red rag to a bull but the Channel 4 ‘Despatches’ documentary screened on Monday night was certainly not.

It was a damp squib, a storm in a teacup. Clearly Channel 4 was looking for something inflammatory and they didn’t find anything.

Jack Straw sensibly said that we should wait to see the evidence before we judge. There wasn’t any.

That was an expensive mistake. However, the programme made another even more damaging mistake. It mixed up ‘Faith Schools’ with ‘Church Schools’. The programme makers used ‘Faith Schools’ to try and damn all schools with a religious character. ‘Church Schools’ weren’t mentioned.

The TV boffins probably didn’t understand the difference – or if they did, we must suspect their motives for not mentioning the difference.

‘Church Schools’ have been around a long time. They can trace their origins to the monastic movement of the 5th century. Our own QEGS began life as a Chantry school in 1509 adjacent to the parish church (now the Cathedral).

The modern idea of the church school began in 1811 when a devout layman, Joshua Watson, was moved to establish a church school in every parish to care for the increasing number of poor children in urban areas as a result of the onset of the Industrial Revolution.

Herein lies the difference. ‘Church Schools’ have always catered for children of all faiths and none from their localities. They still do. ‘Faith Schools’ exist to educate their own faith or denominational members exclusively.

The Channel 4 documentary maintained that ‘Faith Schools’ are exclusive. ‘Church Schools’ are not. That is their strength and there are some ‘Church Schools’ in Blackburn which are over 90% Asian heritage.

Those who get hot under the collar about ‘Faith Schools’ need to learn the difference and our friends in the media should be more honest, more informed or both.

Christopher Armstrong - Dean of Blackburn