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.
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1. Write to your MP
Please call on your MP to support a secular, inclusive education system for all.
2. Share your story
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3. Join us
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Latest updates
C of E school services grow as congregations decline
Posted: Thu, 19 Oct 2017 14:36
The number of children attending Church of England services during school time has risen for at least the third consecutive year, as the long-term decline of Church congregations has continued.
According to the Church's latest Statistics for Mission, 179,300 children attended weekly school services in 2016 – up from 168,900 in 2015. The figure has risen every year since 2013, when the Church first recorded it and it stood at 125,700.
Meanwhile the long-term drop in regular church attendance continued. On average 927,000 people attended church services or 'fresh expressions' – less conventional church services designed to attract young adults – each week in October 2016. This was down from 961,100 in 2015. The figure fell below one million in 2013.
Most of the Church's key measures of attendance fell between 10% and 15% between 2006 and 2016. Average Sunday attendance reached a new low of 779,800 last year – a fall from 813,000 in 2015.
Chris Sloggett, the National Secular Society's communications officer, said the rise in school service attendance was "a cause for concern".
"Just as the country is becoming less religious, more children are being taken to Church services – ostensibly as part of their education.
"Children should be able to grow up and make their own decisions about religion. They should not be used as props in the Church's attempts to arrest its long-term slide into irrelevance."
The falling church attendance figures appeared to fit broader trends in British society. Last month figures from the British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey showed that more than half of British people now say they have 'no religion'. Just 15% of respondents called themselves Anglican – half the number that did so in 2000.
Shortly afterwards a ComRes survey for the Church of England found that just 6% of British adults met the Church's definition of 'practising Christians'.
The rise in school service attendance contrasts sharply with the attitude of the young to Anglicanism: just 3% of those aged 18-24 described themselves as Anglican in the BSA survey. Mr Sloggett said this was "clear evidence that the Church's level of interest in the young is not reciprocated".
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Government ‘obfuscates’ over faith schools' teacher discrimination
Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2017 09:09
The National Secular Society has accused the government of obfuscating over the extent to which schools with a religious character can discriminate when hiring teachers.
Responding to a parliamentary question about English faith schools' ability to discriminate against teachers on faith grounds, education minister Anne Milton MP said faith schools "must comply with employment law and their responsibilities under the Equality Act when making appointments".
The NSS described the minister's response as "misleading", pointing out that a specific exemption within the Equality Act gives schools with a religious character carte blanche to discriminate against teachers who don't share the faith of the school.
Section 60 of the School Standards Framework Act (SSFA) allows voluntary aided religious schools and academies with a religious designation to apply a religious test in appointing, remunerating and promoting all teachers. Teachers can also be disciplined or dismissed for conduct which is "incompatible with the precepts of the school's religion".
The NSS has now written to education ministers, urging them to ensure that the Equality Act applies to all faith schools.
NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans said: "The freedom granted to faith schools to discriminate against teachers who don't share the school's faith outlook is unreasonable and unacceptable. The minister, quite rightly, seems embarrassed by the current law. But instead of pretending the law doesn't do what it clearly does do, we would urge the government to amend it.
"If it is the government's intention that teaching jobs in faith schools should fall within the scope of the Equality Act, and discrimination only permissible where a genuine occupational requirement can be established, then it should amend the law to reflect this."
The current law has been the subject of considerable controversy. Earlier this year, a review of the effectiveness of equality and human rights legislation on religion or belief by the Equality and Human Rights Commission found that the provisions in the SSFA were "too broad". It called for the appointment of teachers by faith schools to be "modelled on the current occupational requirement exception set out in the Equality Act".
The law was also subject to a European Commission investigation after the NSS complained to the Commission about its incompatibility with European Directive 2000/78/EC, which establishes a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation.
See also: Teachers shouldn't be the victims of religious discrimination
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)
