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: DfE must stand up to religious bullying over sex education
Posted: Fri, 15 Feb 2019 16:12
The National Secular Society has said the government should "not give ground" on relationships and sex education (RSE) in England's schools after highlighting the bigoted messages of religious anti-RSE campaigners.
An NSS investigation has exclusively revealed that an academic who secured a debate on RSE in parliament has encouraged Muslims to adopt a "psychological" or "mental health" response to same-sex attraction.
In a speech promoting her anti-RSE campaign Dr Kate Godfrey-Faussett also said homosexuality results from a lack of "guidance".
Godfrey-Faussett is playing a key role in the primarily Islam-based Stop RSE campaign, which opposes plans to make RSE teaching compulsory. She also created a petition on the parliament.uk website which demands a parental opt-out from RSE classes.
Last week it was announced that the petition had reached 100,000 signatures. MPs will now debate it on 25 February.
The Department for Education (DfE) is planning to make it compulsory for schools in England to teach a new RSE curriculum from September 2020. It has indicated that schools will be required to take pupils' religious backgrounds into account and talk to parents about their plans to teach RSE. It has also responded sympathetically to the petition.
In her speech about the campaign broadcast online Godfrey-Faussett said many young Muslims were "turning to same sex relationships because they haven't had the guidance". She bemoaned the "queering" of the "Muslim community" and said Muslims should "work psychologically or in a mental health capacity" with those experiencing same-sex attraction.
She claimed the government's move was part of a "totalitarian endeavour to indoctrinate our children in secular ideologies" and criticised "the promotion of the homosexual agenda".
She also called for "unity" among Muslims, approvingly quoting an imam who said: "While we're arguing about whether we pray with our hands crossed or our hands by our side, our enemy is actually plotting to cut our hands off."
Her petition says: "We believe it is the parent's fundamental right to teach their child RSE topics or to at least decide who teaches them and when and how they are taught. We want the right to opt our children out of RSE when it becomes mandatory."
In response the government has said: "As primary educators, parents must be consulted on their school's curriculum for relationships, and relationships and sex education, and may request their child's withdrawal from sex education."
At a meeting in Nottingham on Saturday representatives of Stop RSE said Muslim charities in the city would produce guidance for anti-RSE parents.
The group said it would work with a collective of madrassas to develop an alternative curriculum and run workshops for parents to ensure Islamic perspectives are passed on to children. Godfrey-Faussett, who is currently speaking at a range of events on the subject, encouraged anti-RSE Muslim parents to get on to school governing bodies, block resources from schools and promote alternatives.
She encouraged Muslim parents to take their children out of state education so they could home educate them and claimed the rights of the religious were being undermined by LGBT people.
The meeting also heard claims that children would be sexualised at young ages, including claims they would be shown pornography at the age of five. Schools watchdog Ofsted was also criticised for not conceding more ground to religious groups.
Stop RSE's website encourages parents to withdraw their children and pressurise schools to change their curricula to fit in with intolerant religious views on sexuality.
The NSS has also found that Stop RSE has promoted material which says the punishment for homosexuality is death.
Downloadable resources which were available on its website until earlier this week included the book Marriage and Morals in Islam. This says: "In the Islamic legal system, homosexuality is a punishable crime against the laws of God. In the case of homosexuality between two males, the active partner is to be lashed a hundred times if he is unmarried and killed if he is married; whereas the passive partner is to be killed regardless of his marital status.
"In the case of two females (i.e. lesbianism), the sinners are to be lashed a hundred times if they are unmarried and stoned to death if they are married."
The book goes on to say Islam "is not prepared to tolerate any perverted behaviour" and high rates of AIDS show "nature has not accepted" homosexuality "as a normal sexual behaviour".
It also decries "the moral bankruptcy of the West", based on some Christian churches' acceptance of gay relationships.
In other resources which its website linked to – also removed this week – it promoted Islamic 'modesty' codes and creationism and negative attitudes towards masturbation, menstruation and female sexuality.
In one instance it linked to a resource which claims to offer "practical advice on menstrual issues". This teaches girls not to bathe during menstruation, adding that tampons are "absolutely forbidden" and can cause harm.
The group's website has also promoted YouTube videos on Islamic teachings on sex and relationships. In one of these homosexuality and masturbation were described as "sexual deviances" which went against the "divine purpose" of sex and would lead to dire consequences.
Elsewhere the group encourages parents to remove children from lessons where LGBT+ issues are taught. It also encourages them to pressurise schools not to use resources which go "against the teachings of all major religions", for example by referring to same-sex relationships.
Stop RSE has an Islamic ethos and is supported by both Muslim parents and representatives and some from other religions. It has supported recent protests against a school in Birmingham which promoted a programme called 'No Outsiders', which promotes LGBT+ rights.
Last week around 100 people gathered outside Parkfield Community School in the latest protest. It was also reported that assistant headteacher Andrew Moffatt had received threats from parents over his role promoting No Outsiders.
In 2014 Moffatt resigned from his role at another Birmingham school after Muslim and Christian parents objected to the use of a book he wrote about challenging homophobia in school.
The government is currently considering its guidance for schools on RSE. Conservative religious groups are lobbying ministers in an attempt to water down the guidance.
There has also been a backlash against RSE from some orthodox Jewish groups. Last month an activist father threatened the government with legal action over requirements to teach children about LGBT+ relationships.
Anti-abortion group the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC) is also campaigning against relationships education.
The NSS has now written to the education secretary to encourage him not to water down the guidance in the face of religious pressure.
The society urged Damian Hinds "to keep in mind the vital importance of balanced and accurate Relationships and Sex Education to all children". It also expressed disappointment over the department's position on the parental opt-out from RSE.
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans wrote: "Parents' rights and religious freedoms are not absolute and must be balanced against the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations for LGBT people. Challenging LGBT discrimination in school lessons and in everyday school life is key to promoting equality at school and in wider society.
"All pupils should have the right to access education that gives them clear and accurate information on topics that matter to their health and wellbeing. This includes learning that LGBT people and same-sex relationships exist. Religious objections should not be allowed to override attempts to ensure that happens."
The NSS highlighted the findings of its Unsafe Sex Education report, which revealed that most faith schools were distorting sex education by teaching it through the tenets of their religions. The report was published in May 2018.
The NSS also raised the findings of the report when it previously met representatives from the DfE.
Explaining the society's decision to write the letter, Mr Evans said the government should "put the interests of children and wider society above those of religious groups who would undermine them".
"The government is entitled to regulate the way education is delivered. And the primary concern behind that regulation should be giving children the chance to grow up ready for life in 21st-century British society. Religious objections, which from groups such as Stop RSE are often steeped in bigotry, should not be allowed to override attempts to ensure that happens."
The NSS campaigns to ensure all children are given age-appropriate education about sex and relationships which is not restricted by religious concerns.
Government to crack down on illegal and failing independent schools
Posted: Tue, 12 Feb 2019 13:37
The National Secular Society has welcomed government plans to promote community integration by legislating against unregistered and failing independent schools which were announced in a strategy paper this week.
In its Integrated Communities Action Plan, the government announced its intention to legislate to strengthen the power of England's schools regulator Ofsted to act on unregistered schools. It will provide "up to £3m" in funding to selected local authorities to help them "tackle concerns in out-of-school settings".
It also said it intends to legislate to require independent educational settings attended by children full-time during the school day to register with the Department for Education (DfE).
The action plan is based on responses to the government's Integrated Communities Strategy green paper published last March. The NSS responded to the green paper in June and supported proposals to protect children's rights in home education, unregistered schools and independent schools.
The action plan says the government will consult on proposed changes to the law on unregistered settings later this year.
The NSS has been a leading organisation lobbying education ministers over many years to tackle the growing problem of unregistered faith schools, which often teach restricted curricula and are not inspected under the independent school standards. A large proportion of unregistered schools are faith based.
The Education and Skills Act 2008 makes it a criminal offence to run an unregistered school. However, at least 350 unregistered schools have been set up across Britain according to Ofsted without any proprietors facing prosecution.
Last year, a report from Hackney Council in London said that current legislation around unregistered schools "is at best patchy and at worst contradictory". It said council and other statutory bodies "find it impossible to satisfy themselves that the expected standards of safety and safeguarding are in place".
The action plan also announced legislation "to strengthen the enforcement regime for independent schools that fail to meet the required standards". It will also publish advice on independent school standards and a policy outlining circumstances in which the government would "move to enforcement action".
Many failing independent schools are faith schools. In 2017 it was reported that almost half of independent faith schools had been rated as 'inadequate' or 'requires improvement' since the introduction of new standards in 2014. Seven independent faith schools were issued warning notices in December.
The government said it would continue to support the teaching of British values and support local authorities in tackling concerns in out-of-school educational settings. It also said it would "publish revised guidance on home education", although it did not announce any new legislation in this area.
The NSS has called for a registration scheme to help safeguard the rights of home educated children. The action plan announced increased support for school nurseries for "disadvantaged children".
The NSS expressed caution on plans to work with Dar ul Ulooms (Islamic theological institutes) to "identify barriers" to achieving "higher education accreditation". In its response to the green paper, the NSS highlighted that Dar ul Ulooms are likely to adhere to "fundamentalist theology", and that all Dar ul Ulooms registered in England appear to be for male students only.
The action plan said schools should be "inclusive environments which enable students to mix and build positive relations with those from different backgrounds". But it did not directly address the segregation caused by faith school provision and discriminatory admissions criteria in faith schools.
Instead, it said it has "strengthened expectations" for new free schools to promote integration and will continue to support a "national school linking programme" for "different kinds of schools".
The government also praised faith schools in its summary of consultation responses to the Integrated Communities Strategy green paper, which accompanied the action plan. It said faith schools "play an important part in the school system" and are "some of our highest performing schools".
It did not refer to criticism of state-funded faith schools made by the NSS and other organisations who responded to the consultation.
NSS head of education Alastair Lichten said: "We welcome the rhetoric on education, and many of the proposals reflect the recommendations and concerns we have been raising with the DfE. However we need to see if actions and practice match these good words.
"A truly integrated society, where everyone can succeed regardless of their background, requires a genuine and deep commitment to integrated education. Religious control, segregation and discrimination needs to be addressed and rolled back, not accepted and worked around."
The NSS welcomed other aspects of the action plan, including announcements to "civic and democratic participation" of "marginalised women". This would include challenging "socio-cultural norms which can hold women and girls back" and tackling "social isolation". It also announced plans to tackle the issue of forced marriage.
The action plan also announced plans to "educate and inform" couples of the benefits of civilly registered marriages. It also said it would explore "limited reform to the law on marriage and religious ceremonies."
Megan Manson, campaigns officer at the NSS, said plans to increase awareness about the law regarding marriage were "encouraging", but expressed caution over the use of legislative powers to further regulate religious marriages.
She said: "It is a positive step that the government recognises that there is widespread confusion and ignorance regarding the rights and responsibilities involved in a civil marriage, and is working to tackle this.
"However, the laws themselves concerning marriage may hamper these efforts. The fact that English and Welsh law treat Anglican, Jewish, other religious and non-religious marriages differently has added to the confusion regarding marriage. Attempts to introduce more legal obligations on providers of religious marriage ceremonies may add further unnecessarily complexity, and join religion and state even further in the institution of marriage.
"We need a more secular approach to marriage, in which all couples regardless of their religion or belief background are treated equally and are fully aware of the legal implications of entering this arrangement."
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)
