Faith schools undermine equality, choice and social cohesion.
Let's build an inclusive education system today, to ensure an inclusive society tomorrow.
Our education system should be open and welcoming to all. That's why we want publicly funded faith schools phased out and an end to religiously selective school admissions.
Around a third of publicly funded schools in England and Wales are faith schools – schools with a religious character. Scottish and Northern Irish schools are still divided along sectarian lines.
Separating children according to religion is divisive and leads to religious, ethnic and socio-economic segregation.
To make matters worse, many faith schools can discriminate against pupils and teachers who do not share the religion of the school.
Parents are entitled to raise their children within a faith tradition, but they are not entitled to enlist the help of the state to do so. The state should not allow the schools it funds to inculcate children into a particular religion.
Faith schools seriously limit choice for parents who do not want a religious education for their children, or do not share the faith of the local school. Our research has found that 18,000 families were assigned faith schools against their wishes in England in 2017 alone.
Despite a consistent and dramatic decline in church attendance, and a growing majority of non-religious citizens, successive governments have paved the way for ever greater religious involvement in education, often to the detriment of inclusive community schools.
A secular approach to education would ensure publicly funded schools are equally welcoming to all children, regardless of their backgrounds.
Take action!
1. Write to your MP
Please call on your MP to support a secular, inclusive education system for all.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join us
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
NSS to challenge new religiously selective faith school proposals
Posted: Tue, 26 Mar 2019 16:46
The government has announced details of proposals for 14 new faith schools which could select all their children on the basis of their parents' religion under a new funding scheme.
The plans have been released after the Department for Education assigned funds for a new wave of voluntary aided (VA) schools in England in November.
Five of the schools will be Catholic schools. Three will be Church of England schools; two will be Hindu, two Islamic, one Jewish and one will be non-denominational Christian.
The National Secular Society plans to oppose the proposals through its No More Faith Schools campaign.
VA schools are permitted to teach confessional religious education and may select all their pupils, all their staff and a majority of governors on religious grounds.
The schools, most of which are faith schools, are publicly funded. Religious bodies which set them up contribute 10% of the capital costs while local authorities pay 100% of the running costs.
In December a government impact assessment found the decision to fund the schools would disadvantage families and teachers who do not share those schools' religion.
National Secular Society head of education Alastair Lichten said: "The government and local authorities should resist the temptation to pander to assertive religious groups by opening new faith schools which can discriminate in 100% of their admissions.
"Faith schools have a negative impact on social cohesion, foster segregation of children on social, ethnic and religious lines, undermine children's freedom of and from religion, harm choice and exacerbate inequality. In areas where new schools are needed these should be inclusive, rather than being organised around an exclusive religious ethos.
"We will engage with local supporters, councils and activists to ensure all these proposals face a robust challenge."
It has been very difficult for new VA schools to open since 2010, as the government's academisation policies have prevented local authorities from proposing them.
But after the government abandoned plans to remove a limit on faith based selection at new academies last year, it set money aside for new VA schools.
Mr Lichten said opponents of faith based selection should recall the government's decision not to scrap the cap on religious selection as "a reminder that the faith school lobby can be opposed".
"If you support an inclusive education system free from religious control, discrimination or proselytisation, then I urge you to take action today. You can download your guide to challenging new schools, sign the national petition and write to your MP all through our dedicated campaign website."
Also read: New voluntary aided faith schools - what happens next?, by Alastair Lichten on our No More Faith Schools website.
More schools suspend diversity teaching under Muslim pressure
Posted: Wed, 20 Mar 2019 15:23
Four more primary schools in Birmingham have stopped teaching lessons about diversity amid complaints from mainly Muslim parents about references to LGBT people.
The decision from Leigh Trust, which runs the schools, comes after a different school was forced to suspend similar lessons last week amid high-profile parental protests.
The National Secular Society said the trust's decision would "encourage some of the loudest and most intolerant religious voices to demand more unreasonable, unworkable concessions".
The news has emerged as parents also pressurise at least seven schools in Greater Manchester to avoid teaching about LGBT rights in their sex and relationships education lessons.
The four schools in Birmingham are Leigh Primary School, Alston Primary School, Marlborough Junior and Infants School and Wyndcliff Primary School. All four are part of the same multi-academy trust.
The trust decided to suspend the No Outsiders programme until it has reached an agreement with parents after a similar decision at Parkfield Community School, also in Birmingham.
In a letter Leigh Trust has said it will end the lessons until after the Islamic month of Ramadan, which finishes in June, according to the BBC.
The trust added that it wanted to discuss the programme with parents to find "a positive way" of teaching about the Equality Act of 2010. The act protects individuals from discrimination on the basis of a range of protected characteristics.
Some parents have complained that the lessons contradict their interpretations of Islam because they promote acceptance of LGBT people. They have also claimed the lessons are not appropriate for the age of the children learning them.
Inspectors from Ofsted said they had found no evidence that Parkfield's 'No Outsiders' lessons focused disproportionately on LGBT issues or were not age-appropriate on a visit to the school last month.
In Manchester parents from mainly Muslim backgrounds at seven primary schools have contacted school management to complain about sex and relationships education, according to The Guardian.
The government is planning to make it compulsory to teach age-appropriate lessons about relationships, sex and health from 2020.
Last month the Department for Education (DfE) reaffirmed that there would be no parental right to withdraw children from relationships education, which will be taught in primary schools. Parents will have the "right to request" withdrawal from sex education, which will be taught in secondary schools.
A parent of a primary age child at one of the schools, William Hulme Grammar in Whalley Range, said some parents had handed out letters urging others to sign a petition against the lessons.
The parent said other parents were making calls for protests and withdrawals of children at primary schools across the region on a WhatsApp group with almost 250 members.
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans said: "The spread of Islamic censorship of diversity education in Birmingham is deeply concerning. It will encourage some of the loudest and most intolerant religious voices to demand more unreasonable, unworkable concessions.
"There appears to be no credible evidence to support the claims being made against the No Outsiders programme, which has been taught for several years and which promotes tolerance in an age-appropriate manner. Schools need to stand up to parents making these kinds of demands – and the government needs to back them up unequivocally.
"Unfortunately Leigh Trust has taken the easy way out and given intolerant parents all the more reason to double down on their demands. And the response of parents in Manchester is a sign of where this logic leads.
"This also raises questions for the government, which should be giving a very strong message that it backs schools which promote inclusion in the face of religious groups' intolerance."
The NSS wrote to the Department for Education (DfE) earlier this month to seek assurances that it was "providing unequivocal support" to Parkfield and a teacher facing a personal campaign of abuse.
The DfE has yet to respond to the letter at the time of going to print. Last week a parents' group behind the protests at Parkfield reported having "a positive meeting" with the DfE about the lessons shortly before they were suspended there.
A letter requesting withdrawal from sex and relationships education is also being distributed for bulk use among parents in Manchester, according to BBC journalist Sima Kotecha.
The letter says the parent who signs it is asking the school in question to "respect my religion" and cites protections against discrimination in equalities legislation.
It also asks schools to "make me aware of the topics that the school will be covering" in the lessons and to make clear what alternative provision they will make available for withdrawn children.
The letter is available on the website of the Stop RSE campaign, which is coordinating some anti-RSE efforts. Last month an NSS exposé highlighted the bigoted messages behind the campaign.
William Hulme said it had been contacted by five parents about the government's proposed changes and the resulting discussions had been straightforward and amicable.
An assistant head of one of the other schools, Angela Stansfield of Acacias Community Primary School in Burnage, said some parents had requested a meeting.
"A significant issue with our parents seems to be linked to LGBT, and our approach has always been that we do not promote any particular sexuality."
The other five affected primary schools in the Greater Manchester area are Birchfields, Gatley, Plymouth Grove and Claremont primary schools and MEA Central.
On Tuesday parents protested against No Outsiders outside a school in Birmingham which does not run the programme, Anderton Park primary school.
A key figure behind the Stop RSE campaign, Kate Godfrey-Faussett, organised a petition which gained more than 100,000 signatures and secured a debate on religious opt-outs in parliament on 25 February.
In response to the Parkfield protests the lead commissioner for countering extremism, Sara Khan, warned of the risk of giving too much ground to extremists on a trip to Birmingham.
"I am very alive to the fact that the longer we allow things like this to go on and ferment, the more extremists will exploit it."
Sara Khan will address the NSS's Secularism 2019 conference in London on Saturday 18 May.
MPs debated the government's latest guidance on relationships, sex and health education in parliament on Wednesday. Several expressed "concern" or asked for "reassurance" for religious groups, while others expressed concern about the potential impact on LGBT+ people.
This story was updated on Friday 22 March to include a reference to the debate which took place in parliament.
More information
Protect relationships and sex education
Age-appropriate relationships and sex education should be every child’s right.
Remove religious appointees from Scottish councils
Religion shouldn’t grant people privileged places in local democracy.
Research and reports
The faith schools research bank
The choice delusion: how faith schools restrict school choice
Three in ten families across England live in areas where most or all of the closest primary schools are faith schools and thousands are being assigned faith schools against their wishes.
Power grab: Academisation and the threat to secular education
Academisation has enabled faith groups to increase their influence over all schools, including those with no religious character. With little public debate, religious governance has increased, while secular oversight has diminished.
Religiosity inspections: the case against faith-based reviews of state schools
Faith based inspections of state schools are an unnecessary drain on public finds, frame widely held values as exclusive, and promote biased religious education.
Faith-shaped holes: How religious privilege is undermining equality law (PDF, 1.3 Mb)
