For the avoidance of doubt, by ‘faith school’ (not a legal term) we mean any school, either state-funded or private, which is associated with a particular religion. The level of this association and the practical consequences of it may vary, but wherever a religious organisation is involved in the running of a school and is therefore free to influence certain aspects of it, that school is a ‘faith school’.
In addition to faith schools having a variety of different religious designations, they fall into a number of different ‘types’ of school too. Each type is subject to different rules in a range of areas, and is also subject to different levels of state or local authority control.
A table setting out the different kinds of state school and the powers that are available to each of them vis a vis religion, is available to download.