The details

A second consultation on the future of the Merrow schools is now open.

When this process began, we were presented with a single option. I am therefore pleased that the community is now being offered a genuine choice between a Church of England Primary School and a Foundation Primary School.

I have my own personal view on the consultation and I have been transparent elsewhere about that. However, the purpose of this website is not to tell people how to respond. My aim is to help everyone understand the issues, clear out any confusion or misrepresentations and thereby reach their own informed conclusions.

Where information is uncertain, disputed or unavailable, I have said so.

This website is not affiliated with Surrey County Council, the Diocese of Guildford, St John’s Church, Merrow Schools Federation or any other organisation involved in the consultation. It represents my own analysis of publicly available information.

Understanding the role of “the Church”

It is important to distinguish between two separate organisations and their roles within this consultation:

St John’s Church, including the work of Rev Tim Clifford-Hill and Georgie Gregson.
The Diocese of Guildford, the Diocese Board of Education (DBE), and the wider Church of England education system.

These are not the same thing.

Many families have spoken positively about the pastoral support, assemblies, and visible presence that Tim and Georgie provide within the community. The relationships they have built with children, parents and staff are clearly valued.

However, the question being considered in this consultation is not whether St John’s Church should continue to have a relationship with local schools.

The consultation document states that positive relationships between the church and the school could continue regardless of which option is chosen.

The question being considered is whether the future primary school should be a formal Church of England (CofE) designation or a Foundation school without a religious designation.

These are different questions and it is important not to confuse them.

What does religious designation mean?

A religious designation is a formal legal status that forms part of a school’s governance and constitutional arrangements.

In practice, a CofE designation means that:

The school has a recognised Christian religious character.
The school’s ethos and values are expected to reflect that religious character.
The Diocese has a formal role in aspects of governance and oversight.
Foundation Governors are appointed through church and diocesan structures and have a responsibility to preserve and develop the school’s Christian foundation and ethos.
Collective worship is conducted in accordance with the school’s religious designation.

This does not mean that only Christian children can attend this school. The CofE’s stated position is that its schools are intended to serve children “from all faiths and none”.

Equally, a Foundation school does not exclude religion from school life. Foundation schools continue to teach Religious Education, promote values such as kindness, respect and service, and many maintain strong relationships with local churches and faith groups.

The key difference is that a CofE school has a formal religious designation embedded within its governance and constitutional arrangements, whereas a Foundation school does not.

Multi-Academy Trust considerations

Schools increasingly join Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) to access shared expertise, school improvement support, specialist staff, financial efficiencies and greater long-term resilience.

Most schools in the local area are already members of MATs.

For a small one-form-entry primary school, MAT membership can provide access to curriculum expertise, staff development opportunities, specialist support services, purchasing efficiencies, IT support, HR support and governance expertise.

Future governors and school leaders may wish to explore MAT membership in the future. So, it is important to note the implications that this consultation may have:

A Foundation school would be able to explore a wide range of MAT partnerships. A CofE school would be expected to join a CofE MAT.

This may reduce the range of future MAT options available.

The decision made today may therefore influence the strategic choices available to future governors and school leaders.

Are there financial differences between the two options?

No. Both options would continue to receive funding through the same national school funding formula. In practice, the largest factor affecting a school’s income is usually the number of pupils on roll, as most of the funding is allocated on a per-pupil basis.

To be clear, the CofE structure proposed (a Voluntary Controlled school) will not benefit from any Diocese money for any form of capital expenditure or buildings maintenance either. Whilst you may have heard of schools that have benefitted from this, these would be a Voluntary Aided school which is not under consideration.

What support does the Diocese provide?

The Diocese Board of Education (DBE) provides a range of services to Church schools, including governance support, leadership development, training and support relating to Christian distinctiveness.

Some support is provided freely by the Diocese, while other services may be purchased separately.

I have asked Surrey County Council and the Diocese to clarify which services are provided without charge and which incur costs. But to date, no response has been received.

In the meantime, the following is what I believe to be true following an extensive Google search:

Services the DBE is legally required to provide free: This includes guidance on strategic restructuring that impacts the DBE (such as the current process), Christian ethos and vision, RE curriculum, preparing for a SIAMs inspection (which is an inspection concerning the impact of the school’s Christian vision on pupils). They can also sit on the panel for headteacher hiring, but this should be through the lens of assessing the ability of the person to deliver the Christian ethos. This Christian-based support would continue with a CofE Primary. But wouldn’t be relevant for the community school option.
All other services such as wider academic curriculum support, school improvement support, HR support etc can also be provided by the DBE’s consultancy arm. However, these must be paid for by the school. All non-Christian based services can also be bought in by non-Church schools, so a Foundation School could choose to continue to buy these in from the DBE, or choose any other provider.

What about educational outcomes?

One of the arguments that has been made in support of the CofE option is that the Diocese provides excellent school improvement support and has a strong track record in educational outcomes.

This raises a reasonable question: do schools with a CofE designation achieve better educational outcomes than comparable schools without one?

The available evidence does not provide a clear answer.

Educational performance is influenced by many factors including leadership, teaching quality, pupil demographics, levels of disadvantage, special educational needs, staffing stability and school culture. It is therefore difficult to attribute outcomes to religious designation alone.

Using published Key Stage 2 attainment data for schools within the local area

In 2025, six of the seven non-faith primary schools within approximately three miles of Merrow Junior School achieved at least the national average in combined Reading, Writing and Mathematics. The seventh was only marginally below the national average.
Among the four CofE schools within the same area, for which Key Stage 2 data is available, only one achieved the national average in 2025.

Sources:

Department for Education School Performance Tables
Individual school published attainment data
Key Stage 2 Reading, Writing and Mathematics combined attainment measures

Parental demand

A key challenge facing all local schools is falling pupil numbers.

Birth rates have fallen nationally and locally, resulting in fewer Reception-age children entering schools each year. This has created significant surplus capacity across Guildford and Surrey.

It is therefore reasonable to ask whether a CofE designation would increase demand for school places.

The evidence is, at best, mixed. School places demand will likely be influenced factors such as location, reputation, educational outcomes, primary vs split Infant and Junior schools.

However, if we look at published numbers for reception places starting September 2026, a trend is apparent and one can reasonably conclude that parents have not actively sought out CofE or Catholic school places in the local area.

School	PAN (Planned Admission Numbers)	Places Offered	Notes
Clandon CofE Primary	15	8	Average 7 unfilled places per class
Merrow Infants CofE	30	23	Average 7 unfilled places per class
St Thomas’	60	50	Average 5 unfilled places per class
Boxgrove	90	81	Average 3 unfilled places per class
Burpham	60	56	Average 2 unfilled places per class

Sources:

Surrey County Council school place planning data
Surrey admissions and allocation data
Published admission numbers and allocation figures

Demographics and religious affiliation

The outcome of the consultation will affect local educational choices for generations to come.

For that reason, it is useful to consider broader demographic and social trends.

According to the 2021 Census for England and Wales, 46.2% of people identified as Christian, compared with 59.3% in 2011. During the same period, the proportion of people reporting no religion increased from 25.2% to 37.2%.

Research by King’s College London and other organisations has identified an even stronger trend among younger generations, who are significantly less likely to identify with organised religion than older age groups. Within the “Gen Z” age group – whose children are likely to attend the school in the coming decades – only 37% hold any religious belief, with data suggesting that around a third of these identify as Anglicans.

This suggests that future generations of parents may have very different religious expectations and priorities from previous generations.

In considering the future viability of the school, one should consider these broader demographic trends and how they might affect future parental demand.

Sources:

Office for National Statistics Census 2021
Office for National Statistics Religion in England and Wales dataset
King’s College London studies on religion and generational change

Land and site ownership

The proposed primary school would operate from the current Juniors site. The difference lies in the ownership arrangements behind the sites.

Currently:

The Infant site is partly owned by SCC (70%). The rest (30%) is held in trust for education purposes. The Trustees are the churchwardens of St Johns Church. It isn’t clear where the boundaries lie, but a reasonable assumption is that the old school building and the school house plus the enclosed reception playground are likely to be the subject of this trust.

The Juniors site is owned by the Governing Body.

Under Option 1 (CofE Primary School):

The Juniors site would revert to Local Authority ownership when the current Junior School closes.
Most of the Juniors site would remain owned by the Local Authority, but a proportion would be transferred to diocesan trustees to mirror the current ownership arrangements at the Infants site. The legal implications of this (cost and time are unclear)
The Infants site would become entirely owned by the Local Authority.

Under Option 2 (Foundation Primary School):

The Juniors site would remain in the ownership of the governing body.
Ownership arrangements at the Infants site would remain unchanged, with ownership shared between the Local Authority and diocesan trustees.

For most families, these arrangements will have little impact on day-to-day school life. However, they do affect who holds legal interests in the sites and who may have a role in future decisions affecting school land and buildings.

Sources

The information on this website is drawn from publicly available sources, including:

Surrey County Council consultation documents.
Department for Education school performance and admissions data.
Office for National Statistics Census data.
Church of England education guidance.
Diocese of Guildford publications.
Merrow Schools Federation published information.
I am updating this as I go – links will be provided in due course