Christian families are such a rarity in some inner-city communities that two Church of England schools now cater exclusively for Muslim pupils

In many church primary schools in English cities, more than half of the pupils are Muslim. In at least a dozen such schools, more than 80% are from Islamic homes. Five church schools, in Blackburn, Birmingham, Bradford, Oldham and London, have become 99% Muslim and in two – another school in Blackburn and one in Dewsbury – every pupil is Muslim. The Church is putting £750,000 towards the construction of a new primary school in Blackburn whose intake will be almost 100% Muslim. Some parishes in the town – where eight of the 24 church primary schools have a majority of Muslim pupils – have questioned the justification for the investment. It is also understood that at least one Church school no longer observes the requirement to have an act of daily collective worship that is consistently and recognisably Christian. A former school governor in Bradford has warned that some Christians in her city have chosen to send their children to secular schools, fearing they would be isolated at their local, Muslim-dominated church school.