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
Jewish school may place requirements on families, adjudicator rules
Posted: Thu, 9 Aug 2018 16:17
A Jewish state school is not breaching the school admissions code by requiring families not to wear leather or lycra, access the internet or use online entertainment, an adjudicator has ruled.
This week the office of the schools adjudicator partially upheld a complaint against Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls School in north London, which has been at the centre of several recent scandals.
The adjudicator said that a requirement for pupils' fathers to belong to a Charedi synagogue was contrary to the law.
It also said its admissions rules lacked clarity and objectivity. It said rules on children's families wearing "flashy" coloured clothing, "discreet" make-up, "unsuitable home entertainment", "trendy" shoes and "very long" skirts were ill-defined.
The adjudicator said some parts of the school's requirements were "not sufficiently clear that parents can 'easily understand' if they meet these requirements". But it allowed the substance of almost all of these rules to stand once the governing body had clarified the meaning behind them.
For example, the adjudicator accepted the governing body's decision to remove the word "flashy" in the sentence "the wearing of flashy or very brightly coloured clothing is forbidden". It also accepted its definition of "trendy" shoes as those made of "leather and lycra".
It said the school's governing body had responded "very constructively" to its objections on clarity and objectivity. The only suggested change to the rules which the adjudicator rejected was on make-up, where it said a new requirement to be "conservative" was "no more objective" than the requirement to be "discreet".
The adjudicator's report also said the fact there were differing requirements on the dress of fathers and mothers did not breach the 2010 Equality Act.
"Within some religions, there are different practice requirements for men and women. There is nothing in the legislation that says that such practices cannot be taken into account, provided the requirements of the code, relating, for example, to their clarity and objectivity, are adhered to."
Yesodey Hatorah's admissions code forbids the families of applicants from wearing short skirts, long wigs, bright clothes, low-cut blouses, short sleeves and casual clothes. It also bans families from watching television and accessing the internet.
The school says that the requirements are in line with "the spirit of modesty and holiness" demanded by "the ethos of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations".
In June the schools inspectorate Ofsted found that Yesodey Hatorah had deliberately undermined pupils' safety, taught a narrow curriculum and failed to promote tolerance.
Earlier this year it was also revealed that the school had censored textbooks, including by removing references to homosexuals from a section of a textbook about Nazi policies and removing pictures of women socialising with men.
In 2013 the exam board OCR found that the school had obscured questions on evolution in 52 papers in two GCSE science exams, meaning they could not be answered, after the National Secular Society raised concerns.
The following year the schools minister wrote to the school after the NSS raised new concerns that it had advised pupils not to answer exam questions on topics such as evolution and human reproduction.
NSS education and schools officer Alastair Lichten said the adjudicator's decision was "an astonishing reminder of both the litany of failures at this school and their contempt for the educational and religious freedom of their pupils and families".
"It defies belief that a state-funded school can be allowed to impose such draconian and discriminatory standards on children's families and to shield children from life in modern Britain to this extent.
"The adjudicator's decision also shows the folly of allowing religious groups to run schools. The admissions code only allows schools to make such ludicrous demands because it allows them to adopt policies which fit within a religious ethos. If faith schools were rolled back the state could hold schools to consistent standards on admissions regardless of religion."
The NSS campaigns for a moratorium on state-funded faith schools, followed by the rolling back of religious control in schools, through its No More Faith Schools campaign.
NSS welcomes Ofsted head’s opposition to faith-based exemptions
Posted: Fri, 27 Jul 2018 18:41
The National Secular Society has welcomed the chief inspector of schools in England's expression of opposition to faith-based "carve-outs" in regulations for independent schools.
In an interview this week with the JC, Amanda Spielman said the education watchdog Ofsted expected faith and independent schools to follow guidelines requiring them to "pay particular regard" to "protected characteristics" covered by the 2010 Equality Act.
She said the inspectorate had taken legal advice and was confident schools were required to pay attention to all the characteristics. This includes sexual orientation, which has been the subject of a particular backlash from some leaders of Charedi Jewish schools.
Spielman said the dilution of these regulations would "make me profoundly uncomfortable because that would be saying this is all right for one child and not all right for another".
"The Equality Act is a relatively new thing. Like all significant pieces of legislation, it has taken time for the ramifications to be fully understood. And when you have got something designed to enforce a number of different rights, of course there are places where they can bump into each other."
She said anyone could find parts of the law which "we are uncomfortable with but we do nevertheless as responsible citizens have to accept and go along with".
But she added that there was a need for "compromise".
"It is not for us to impose our views on what's right for children. We have to make sure we do what we are required to do without adding any layer of our own preferences."
The NSS campaigns to protect children's rights to faith-free sex education, including sex education which covers LGBT+ issues. In May an exclusive NSS report found that more than three-quarters of state-funded secondary faith schools in England were failing to teach sex education impartially.
In recent months some orthodox Jewish groups, particularly Charedi school leaders, have criticised Ofsted's enforcement of the requirement to promote 'British values' such as tolerance. Last month almost 7,000 Orthodox Jews in north London gathered for a communal prayer to show their opposition to secular education requirements. In January a delegation of orthodox leaders told schools minister Lord Agnew they would make "no compromise" with requirements to teach children about gender and sexuality.
Spielman said she had regularly met "a wide range of Jewish organisations to discuss the difficulties and tensions that can come up around inspection and I think we have approached it in a very constructive spirit and want to continue to do so".
She said some faith schools were meeting existing requirements by teaching that while same-sex marriages may not be in accord with the tenets of their faith, they are permitted by secular law.
She said teaching that some families in Britain have two mums or two dads was "absolutely sufficient" for primary schools to meet requirements on LGBT relationships.
She said state schools were expected to "go further than" independent ones because of the equality obligations facing public sector institutions.
The NSS supported the introduction of new standards for independent schools in 2014 and broadly welcomed revisions to them earlier this year.
Spielman also called for measures to regulate out-of-school educational settings in next year's queen's speech.
"The last thing we want is to extend inspections to every little Saturday or Sunday school. But where children spend many hours a week in a space where nobody knows what really goes on… beside the children and the staff that work there, then those places should be subject to scrutiny."
In April the government abandoned plans for the compulsory registration of out-of-school education under pressure from faith groups. The NSS, which had called for plans for better safeguarding in response to a consultation on the subject, described the decision as a "betrayal of children's rights".
The NSS campaigns to protect the rights of all children to a proper education, including in out-of-school educational settings.
In response to the interview NSS education and schools officer Alastair Lichten said Spielman's position was "far more reasonable than those of many of her critics".
"Amanda Spielman is right to put the interests of children and society before those of the religious groups that run schools. Some faith school leaders appear determined to resist any effort to hold them to the same standards as those who run other schools.
"Dealing with independent schools requires a balance to be struck between children's rights and the freedoms of the schools themselves. Ms Spielman is right to say different rights will inevitably clash and she is right not to allow spurious demands for 'religious freedom' to override all others."
In the interview Spielman also said some reports of Ofsted inspectors asking children inappropriate questions have not matched reality: "There's a bit of an industry sometimes in misrepresenting what Ofsted inspectors have said."
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)
