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
Sex education reforms: faith schools to keep special exemptions
Posted: Wed, 1 Mar 2017 13:15
The National Secular Society has welcomed moves to make sex and relationship education statutory, but urged the Government to rethink de facto exemptions for faith schools.
Justine Greening, the Secretary of State for Education, has announced the Government's intention to give a statutory basis for sex and relationships education (SRE) and provide for "age appropriate provision" of SRE in all primary and secondary schools in England.
However, the Government said it was taking an approach that would be "sensitive to the needs of the local community."
Stephen Evans, the campaigns director of the National Secular Society, said: "This sounds like children from minority faith groups will be totally left behind by the Government's proposals. Under this approach, children who happen to be born into conservative religious groups will still be without proper sex and relationships education."
The NSS has been lobbying Justine Greening to make sex and relationship education statutory in all schools, including those with faith-based ethos.
In a written statement Justine Greening said that "faith schools will continue to be able to teach in accordance with the tenets of their faith".
The Government has also made clear that parents "will continue to have a right to withdraw their children from sex education."
The Secretary of State also said that schools will have "flexibility" over the delivery of SRE and how it is taught. In 2015 the NSS reported on how some faith schools had blocked an NHS Community Education Sexual Health team after pressure from their religious governors. The NSS has also raised other concerns about teaching of SRE within a faith ethos.
Mr Evans continued: "Whilst we welcome news that SRE is to be made compulsory, the proposed wriggle room for faith schools needs to be reconsidered. All children, irrespective of their religious or cultural background or the type of school they attend, deserve the same protection from harm that balanced and accurate SRE offers.
"Given the vital importance of good quality SRE to the lives and of children and young people, the special arrangements for faith schools serve as an example of how religion's role in state education is impeding children's independent rights and interests. The school curriculum should serve the needs of pupils, not education providers."
Mr Evans said the NSS would also be pressing for the parental opt-out to be removed:
"Allowing parents to withdraw young people from sex education lessons also undermines the right of the child. Given that many of those exercising the right of withdrawal, often on religious grounds, may not be providing this information at home, it is vital that faith schools teach the same SRE as other schools. Anything less would be a betrayal of the pupils attending religious schools, often through no choice of their own."
The Department for Education has promise a "comprehensive programme of engagement to set out age-appropriate subject content and identify the support schools need to deliver high-quality teaching."
The move has been welcomed by the Sex Education Forum – of which the NSS is a member – and follows a number of amendments related to SRE being tabled for the Report Stage of the Children and Social Work Bill. The Government has also been under pressure with a slew of reports from Parliamentary committees, and the UN's children's rights committee calling on them to act.
Fresh ‘Trojan Horse’ claims plague Oldham schools
Posted: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 16:16
The Sunday Times has reported on allegations of two new cases of attempts to foist a strict Islamic ethos on non-religious state schools.
The paper saw a copy of a confidential report by Oldham council which found that the headteacher of Clarksfield Primary School faced "threats to blow up her car", "verbal abuse" and had been physically attacked by a parent at the Pakistani-majority school.
One parent governor, the Sunday Times reported, held "Islamic teaching sessions" on schools premises and his wife "made remarks to Asian staff members that they should, as Muslim women, be wearing a veil and covering their heads."
The couple campaigned against "lewd and inappropriate activities" such as sex education.
The governor, Nasim Ashraf, is also accused of trying to "intimidate school staff" and change the school to "reflect their interpretation of Islam".
There was an "organised effort" to "change the ethos of the school", according to one source with what the Sunday Times described as "close knowledge" of the situation, but the council report concluded that Ashraf himself was "not part of any wider conspiracy".
National Secular Society spokesperson, Benjamin Jones, commented: "In some ways it is far more worrying if this was not a 'plot' but arose organically from the local community and parents. This points once again to the serious divisions which exist in parts of the country. There is no easy solution to promote integration and break down these barriers, but a move away from faith-based schooling would be an obvious start."
Andrew Gilligan of the Sunday Times then reported the claims of a second headteacher, Rick Hodge, who came forward after the Clarksfield case was reported and said he faced a "campaign of harassment" to force him from the leadership of the Phoenix Free School orchestrated by the school's founder, Affan Burki.
Hodge said he became suspicious about the project to open the free school after overhearing discussions about proposals for a dress code for female staff. Hodge said that Burki "went completely off on one about how not wearing a hijab would effectively turn all Muslim women into whores."
Ultimately the school had its funding withdrawn by the Department for Education and never opened.
Meanwhile it emerged that the Government is considering opening a new wave of Christian free schools in Muslim-majority areas, including in Oldham, to promote integration.
The NSS rejected this approach and called for inclusive, secular schools free from any religious ethos, where children of all backgrounds can be educated together.
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)
