School defiant in admissions row

England's leading comprehensive was defiant today after being criticised for breaking school admissions rules.

Coopers' Company and Coborn School in Upminster, which last year saw 100per cent of its GCSE class score five A to C grades, has been told by Local Government Ombudsman Patricia Thomas to stop interviewing applicants.

However, the school has refused, saying Mrs Thomas made a "factual error" when she said Coopers' was not a Christian comprehensive - only religious state schools are allowed by law to interview pupils. She made the order after upholding a complaint by parents whose son was refused a place that the school had broken the statutory code of practice on comprehensive admissions.

The code states that the only comprehensives allowed to interview pupils are church schools, and then only to measure the degree of the child's religious commitment. Coopers', while it stressed a Christian "ethos", was not strictly a church school, said Mrs Thomas.

However, Steve Hogan, clerk to the governors, said she was wrong, adding that the Department for Education classified Coopers' as a religious school.

Asked whether Coopers' had stopped interviewing applicants, he said: "Certainly not."

Mr Hogan said the school would redraft its policy on extracurricular activity at an admissions committee meeting next week. "We will go along with what they said and we will amend our policy. We don't accept their interpretation but we will amend it."