The Archbishop of Canterbury has denied that Church of England schools are socially exclusive at a major church schools conference Tuesday.

Dr Rowan Williams stressed at the conference, Church Schools: Faith in the Future, that church schools are inclusive and that the schools continue to serve children in deprived areas.

“The often forgotten fact that church schools are the main educational presences in some of our most deprived communities means that it simply cannot be said that these schools somehow have a policy of sanitising or segregating,” he said.