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
Church forces school to close rather than join secular academy trust
Posted: Fri, 4 May 2018 11:23
A primary school in Surrey is to close after the local Church of England diocese refused to allow it to join a secular multi-academy trust (MAT).
In May 2017 Ripley C of E Primary School was ordered to join a MAT or face closure after an inadequate Ofsted review. The church's Diocese of Guildford declined to join the school to its trust, the Good Shepherd Trust (GST), and blocked an educational trust's proposal to take over the school.
The National Secular Society understands representatives of the South Farnham Educational Trust (SFET) assured the diocese that Ripley Primary's religious character would be maintained, but were unwilling to have 25% of their own governance appointed by the church. In response the diocese blocked SFET from investigating the possibility of taking over the school.
A memorandum of understanding between the C of E and Department for Education allows dioceses to decide which trust any of 'its' schools join. When a C of E faith school joins a non-church MAT the diocese typically requires the trust to have at least 25% of the trustees (who oversee the governance of all schools in the MAT) appointed by the church. The NSS has repeatedly criticised this situation.
Reporting by Get Surrey suggests the regional schools commissioner for the region, Dominic Herrington, had said the diocese was blocking SFET's chief executive from doing due diligence.
NSS education and schools officer Alastair Lichten said: "Different dioceses are taking different approaches to the memorandum of understanding, and how aggressively they are using it in pursuit of their own or the church's national agenda to increase religious control over 'their' faith schools."
The leader of Guildford Borough Council, which includes Ripley, has expressed his disappointment at the possible closure of the school. In a recent letter to the leader of Surrey County Council, Paul Spooner wrote that the closure would be "a great loss to the residents in the village". He also asked decision makers to "ensure that future development is considered before a decision is made to close a school".
Speaking to the NSS a local resident and parent, Catherine Bremford, criticised the closure.
"The diocese may be ready to give up on the school, but the community, Ripley Parish Council and Guildford Borough Council are not. Allow a non-church MAT to sponsor our village school. Safeguard the religious character (if you must), but don't allow our school to close just because GST chooses not to take it on.
"As a parent living in Ripley, I was outraged when we looked into state school options for our daughter. Of the five closest schools, four are C of E and we would not get a place in the fifth as we live too far away. We had no choice but to send our child to a church school despite our beliefs. This is unacceptable in this day and age.
"The local village school has a chance to survive but will inevitably close as the diocese do not believe the religious character of the school can be preserved. Yet the diocese have no worries about their own ability to safeguard the religious character of non-church schools that they sponsor."
The diocese's trust sponsors a non-church school and seeks to offer non-faith schools "the opportunity to affiliate within the diocesan school network".
Mr Lichten said: "Yet again we are seeing academisation entirely on the Church of England's terms. Decisions about school closures and reorganisations are always matters which elicit strong opinions. These difficult issues are only made more so when one organisation can veto decisions which don't suit their agenda.
"We won't know whether the South Farnham Educational Trust would have been the right option for the Ripley Primary – thanks to the diocese's veto. Had taking on the primary led to the trust being forced to accept church appointed members or trustees that would have also caused problems.
"The option that Ripley Primary School could simply drop the religious character and become a community school in a non-church MAT – or even that it join a non-church MAT as it is – appears to be entirely off the table. Perhaps the diocese's disinterest could be an opportunity to address the appalling lack of secular school provision in this area."
In January 2018 NSS research revealed systemic bias in favour protecting faith over non-faith schools during school reorganisations.
Most faith schools distorting sex education, NSS study finds
Posted: Tue, 1 May 2018 07:00
More than three-quarters of state-funded secondary faith schools in England are failing to teach Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) impartially, an exclusive National Secular Society report has found.
The NSS report, Unsafe Sex Education: The risk of letting religious schools teach within the tenets of their faith, found that 77% are instead teaching the subject in accordance with religious scripture.
The report drew on a study of over 600 state secondary schools. Out of the 334 schools where an SRE policy was found, 257 indicated that SRE is delivered according to the teachings of the school's religious ethos.
Many faith schools explicitly teach that same-sex relationships are wrong and criticise sex outside of marriage. Some condemn contraceptives and abortion and teach taboos around menstruation.
These teachings contradict advice from healthcare and education professionals and are inconsistent with the Equality Act 2010, which protects people from discrimination.
The NSS has written to Damian Hinds, the education secretary, to highlight the findings and to urge him to resist pressure from religious groups for leeway on the teaching of the subject.
"Government policy must endeavour to ensure all pupils at all schools, regardless of their religious ethos, are entitled to the same basic level of SRE," chief executive Stephen Evans wrote.
"We fear that your current approach will lead to unequal education and undermine efforts to ensure that every child has access to age appropriate sex and relationships education, in a consistent way."
In 2017 the government legislated to require all secondary schools in England to teach Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) but said "faith schools will continue to be able to teach in accordance with the tenets of their faith".
The NSS's report found that several schools have policies which say homosexual acts are wrong or homosexuality is "disordered". Many, particularly Catholic schools, try to justify this position by drawing a distinction between homosexuality as an orientation and homosexual activities.
For instance the policy of St Patrick's Catholic College, a Catholic academy in Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, says: "Being a homosexual person is neither morally good nor morally bad; it is homosexual genital acts that are morally wrong."
The policy of All Saints Catholic School and Technology College in Dagenham in Essex says the Catholic Church "does not believe that sexual acts between persons of the same sex are morally right in principle". But it adds that "the possibility of repentance and forgiveness for sexual sins is open to all".
Several other faith schools, including Church of England schools, do not explicitly teach that homosexuality is wrong but appear to imply homosexuality is a negative phenomenon – for example, because they teach about LGBT+ issues mainly by teaching about AIDS.
Catholic schools often stress that Christian marriage is a sacred part of "God's plan" – excluding other forms of marriage, including same-sex marriage. Many openly state that this means sex outside Christian marriage is wrong. For instance St James' Catholic High School in north-west London says: "God's holy gift of sexual intercourse is reserved for the permanent commitment of marriage, expressive of the bond of mutual love and open to God's gift of new life."
Many Catholic schools teach that divorce is unrecognised; that marriage with children is ideal and contraceptives are wrong; that abortion is wrong; or that masturbation is wrong. Several explicitly denounce secularism or "secularisation".
One Muslim school's SRE policy discourages the use of tampons. The Al-Hijrah School in Birmingham says they "may not be appropriate due to insertion".
In many faith schools SRE is delivered through the religious education curriculum or its equivalent.
The SRE policy was secular at just one of the 184 Catholic schools which had policies on their websites. There was evidence that religion had influenced SRE policies, where they were available, in more than half of Church of England schools and 16% of schools with a non-specific Christian designation.
Religion had influenced SRE policy in five of the six Jewish schools where policies were available, although its influence was generally less explicit than in Catholic schools. Al-Hijrah School was the only Muslim school where an SRE policy was available.
Responding to the report, Mr Evans said: "Our Unsafe Sex Education report demonstrates the ways that basing Sex and Relationships Education on religious scripture can harm young people.
"All of our students should have the right to access education that will give them clear and accurate information on topics that are so important to their wellbeing. Our report demonstrates that state-funded faith schools are letting young people down in this respect, and it is important that we protect their right to impartial Sex and Relationships Education.
"Allowing faith schools leeway to teach about sex and relationships in accordance with their faith will undermine plans to ensure that every child has access to age appropriate Sex and Relationships Education, taught in a consistent way. We therefore urge the Department for Education to resist pressure from religious groups to provide wiggle room for faith schools to promote religious ideology in SRE, or avoid aspects of SRE that conflict with their worldview."
The government is now preparing to respond to a consultation on changes to the teaching of SRE. The NSS is calling for these topics to be taught in a consistent and impartial way, based solely on recommendations from experts.
In its letter to Hinds the NSS recommended that: SRE must be based on recommendations from healthcare and educational professionals, not religious scripture; it must be consistent; it must be impartial; it must meet the requirements of the Equality Act; all state schools must visibly carry SRE policies on their websites; and the RE curriculum should not be the main mode of delivery for SRE.
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)
