A CHURCH school judged outstanding by Ofsted is calling on education bosses to reconsider helping students with fares - warning many parents cannot afford to send them.

St Francis Xavier, SFX, school in Richmond is a joint Catholic and Church of England secondary school which transports up to 90 per cent of the students by bus because there are no safe walking routes and many live well over three miles from the school.

Headteacher Sharon Keelan-Beardsley said parents and pupils felt that although they lived in a primarily Christian country, their rights to send children to a school which mirrored their values and beliefs was becoming a privilege reserved for those who could afford to pay.

In 2012 North Yorkshire County Council made the decision to remove the discretionary payments to provide transport to schools with a religious character, whilst also introducing a new ‘nearest and normal’ school criteria for providing future school transport.

“As the only school with a religious character in the area, SFX, a joint RC and Anglican school, does not have specific catchment areas as they draw on faith preference from a much wider area than other schools,” she said.

“Parents have been very supportive of the school and are grateful for the time and effort that has gone into arranging our own transport. However they feel angry about the way that the policy has been applied.

“Students who currently receive free school meals will be separated from their peers, they have their passes paid for by NYCC, and there will be in effect a free school meals bus.

“Some siblings who have older brothers and sisters at another local school will no longer be able to share the same bus."

The county’s executive member for schools, Cllr Arthur Barker, said: “We sought to maintain a generous level of subsidy to provide free home to school transport for children attending denominational schools beyond their normal catchment school.

“But given that the county council has to find nearly a third of its total budget in savings we must give priority to frontline and statutory responsibilities.”

He added: “These proposals were consulted on carefully and were phased in to protect families that already had the provision and those that had already made school choices for the next year.

“We realise that this may create difficulties for some schools and some families, but in these challenging financial times we have to make very tough decisions in order to protect those most in need.”