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
Mixed-sex schools shouldn’t segregate children, says DfE
Posted: Thu, 28 Jun 2018 14:57
Mixed-sex schools in England should not generally separate pupils by sex or faith, the government has said.
In new non-statutory guidance, the Department for Education (DfE) has advised schools not to segregate children by characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010, which include faith, sex and race.
The guidance comes in the wake of a landmark ruling in the Court of Appeal last year that an Islamic school's policy of segregating boys from girls amounted to unlawful sex discrimination. Al-Hijrah school in Birmingham segregated boys and girls from year five upwards for religious reasons for all lessons, break and lunchtimes, school trips and school clubs.
The guidance says separating pupils in a way that "denies them the choice or opportunity to interact socially, or to interact in an educational setting, with pupils of the other sex" is likely to be unlawful.
When pupils are separated school leaders and governors will be expected to justify their policy to Ofsted and other inspectors, parents and the wider community.
The guidance says schools may take proportionate action when they reasonably think girls or boys suffer a disadvantage related to their sex, have different needs or participate disproportionately little in an activity.
It adds that schools should check there are no practices that could result in less favourable treatment of a boy or a girl because of his or her sex.
Schools will be allowed to use single-sex sports teams on the basis of physical disadvantage, provided there are comparable sporting activities on offer for the other sex. They remain obliged to provide separate toilet and washing facilities for boys and girls aged eight and over. Existing statutory exceptions also allow schools to provide separate boarding accommodation.
Alastair Lichten, the National Secular Society's education and schools officer, said the guidance was "mostly just common sense interpretation of existing equalities legislation".
"There may be some limited circumstances in which gender segregation is justified but it is reasonable to ask schools to justify it. For some schools – particularly faith schools – gender segregation is a way of preparing boys and girls for different roles and advancing unhealthy attitudes towards girls and women. Where that happens it is unacceptable, so we're pleased to see the DfE making this clear.
"But it's disappointing that the guidance doesn't explicitly address RE. Gender segregated RE implies that students are being prepared for religious roles, rather than being educated about religion and beliefs."
In 2017 the NSS wrote to the DfE after its research found a number of state-funded Jewish schools where pupils receive different religious education lessons according to their gender.
At the time of the Al-Hijrah ruling around 20 mixed-sex Christian, Jewish or Islamic faith schools in the UK practised gender segregation. Shortly afterwards Hasmonean High School, a secondary high school for pupils from orthodox Jewish families, announced its intention to split into two schools to evade the implications of the ruling.
Ofsted: Jewish school failing on safety, curriculum and tolerance
Posted: Tue, 26 Jun 2018 14:13
Ofsted has deemed a state-funded Jewish school inadequate after finding it deliberately undermined pupils' safety, taught a narrow curriculum and failed to promote tolerance.
A report published this morning severely criticised the leadership of Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls' School, a Chasidic school in the Stamford Hill area of north London. The school has previously been caught censoring textbooks and questions on exam papers.
Inspectors said the school's leaders had restricted pupils' access to advice and guidance about how to keep safe, including by redacting helpline numbers from books.
Leaders had also "limited the range of books available to pupils" and stopped them from learning about particular topics. They had not fulfilled their statutory duty to provide sex and relationships education. The majority of the school's personal, social, health and economic education was taught through the religious curriculum.
The school redacted large sections of an English GCSE course text book and sections of texts such as Sherlock Holmes after deeming them inappropriate. Photographs portraying men and women on the same page were redacted, along with pictures in books about major artists such as Picasso.
Pupils were not allowed to study animal or human reproduction in science, while areas such as global warming were restricted. Leaders said extra-curricular activities were restricted and girls would not be allowed to visit an art gallery such as the Tate Modern in London.
Inspectors said the curriculum did not "prepare pupils adequately for life in modern Britain".
They also said the school's policies failed to "acknowledge the existence of all groups of people with protected characteristics", meaning they did "not encourage respect for all citizens living in modern Britain".
"While there is an ethos of respect and tolerance for each other within the school environment, pupils have few opportunities to explore how these would extend to those who do not share their beliefs or faith."
Ofsted rated the school 'inadequate' overall, on its leadership and management and on pupils' personal development, behaviour and welfare. It rated its quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes for pupils as requiring improvement.
The report said the principal, Rabbi Avraham Pinter, had "an over-generous view of the quality of education the school is providing". The governors had "an over-inflated view of the school's strengths" and did not "hold the principal to account for the quality of education provided or robustly manage his performance".
"The principal and governors judge the school's effectiveness in terms of the school's own values, reflecting the expectations of their immediate community, rather than their statutory obligations as prescribed by the Department for Education."
Alastair Lichten, the National Secular Society's education and schools officer, called the details in the report "damning".
"It's scandalous that a school – particularly a school funded by the taxpayer – should be able to censor books, deliberately restrict pupils' knowledge, pretend LGBT people do not exist and undermine pupils' safety. Schools must put children's rights before the religious sensitivities of those who run them. And the government and Ofsted should get tough on those that do not."
The report is the latest damning revelation about Yesodey Hatorah. In 2013 the NSS exposed the school blacking out questions on GCSE science exam papers and asked an exam board to investigate. The practice was eventually stopped.
Earlier this year it was revealed that the school had censored sections of GCSE textbooks which mentioned homosexuality (including passages on LGBT targets of the Holocaust) and examples of women socialising with men. When it was criticised over this the school said Ofsted "continuously jumps to the tune of small pressure groups like the humanists [Humanists UK] and the National Secular Society that have a very clear anti-Jewish agenda".
In response the NSS said the school was "erroneously employing accusations of bigotry to hide from criticism".
Today Mr Lichten added: "The bigotry on display here is entirely from the school.
"For a Jewish school's disdain for LGBT individuals to be so great that it verges into Holocaust denial is shocking enough. But this school's approach also shows a prevailing bigotry of low expectations. Its leaders seem to assume girls from minority religious backgrounds are simply tools of religious leaders, not holders of independent rights, and deserve nothing better than an education that moulds them only into a narrow religious role.
"Those so desperate to defend the 'religious freedom' of such schools to impose this narrow education would you well to reflect on the religious freedom and right to open education all our children should deserve."
Last week almost 7,000 orthodox Jews in north London gathered for a communal prayer to show their opposition to secular requirements in education. One rabbi at the event warned of "influential secular forces seeking to impinge on our rights" and praised the prime minister for pledging to "safeguard religion and religious practice".
Yesodey Hatorah was rated 'good' at its last inspection. It has previously been rated 'outstanding'.
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)
