Practising Church of England families will no longer get priority admission at oversubscribed faith schools in Suffolk from September 2023.

Suffolk County Council's cabinet on Tuesday agreed changes to school admissions criteria for oversubscribed CofE schools or those for any other church under the Worldwide Anglican Communion.

Chelmondiston and Tattingstone primary schools are both part of CofE trusts that will be affected.

Historically, CofE schools which are oversubscribed have been able to prioritise families who have attended the local church for a year or more over other pupils.

However, a joint decision with the St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocesan Board of Education agreed the time was right for a consultation on the criteria.

That survey in the autumn resulted in 68.4% of respondents, mostly parents, agreeing with the change and 31.6% against.

Rachel Hood, Conservative cabinet member for education, said: "This is a slight change that will hardly affect any children at all, but what it does is it removes the ability of children who have been put on the list for Church of England or Worldwide Anglican Communion schools to potentially get further up on the list if their parents have worshipped at the local church for a year.

"It was felt that was inappropriate. There was a consultation and it was agreed there shouldn't be that sort of priority."

In the latest admission process, just nine pupils in the county applied under that priority criteria, and only one was offered a place they would not have achieved anyway given distance from the school.

A small number of concerns had been raised around equality and inclusion on a consultation in 2020 to continue the priority criteria during the peak of Covid-19 where some families were not able to attend church.

The changes will take effect from the September 2023 admissions year.