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
Last chance to speak out against the Government’s faith school expansion plans
Posted: Thu, 8 Dec 2016 15:25
The Government's consultation on plans to open more faith schools and allow them to select up to 100% of their pupils on religious grounds is coming to a close very soon.
The National Secular Society is calling on all those who are concerned by these deeply damaging proposals to respond to the consultation before it closes on Monday 12 December.
At present, all oversubscribed faith free-schools are subject to a 50% cap, requiring them to keep at least half of their places open to local children, regardless of religion or belief. Because the Catholic Education Service insists on the ability to select all pupils on religious grounds, these rules have discouraged the opening of any new Catholic faith schools.
The Government now intends to give in to religious lobbying and scrap the cap to create additional school places in a new wave of fully religiously selective faith schools.
NSS campaigns director Stephen Evans said: "Religious selection in schools is discriminatory, entrenches religious segregation in wider society, and often leads to ethnic and socio-economic segregation as well. Faith schools also limit choice for the increasing proportion of parents, already a majority, who do not profess a faith and do want a faith-based education for their children.
"Rather than facilitating segregation along religious lines, we want to see the Government doing everything it can to ensure that children of all faiths and none are educated together in inclusive schools. Government policy should seek to break down barriers, not erect them.
"The limitation on places allocated on the basis of faith sends out the important message that state funded schools should be shared spaces, open and inclusive of children of all faith and belief backgrounds. The 50% rule is the only meaningful effort to promote diversity and address the problems caused by faith-based schooling.
"The consultation closes soon – next Monday 12 December – please don't miss this opportunity to let the Government know what you think."
In place of the cap, the Government says it will introduce 'strengthened safeguards' to 'promote inclusivity'. Mr Evans said these proposals were just "window dressing."
Earlier this week an independent review into integration carried out by Dame Louise Casey found that "segregation appears to be at its most acute in minority ethnic and minority faith communities and schools".
While the 50% cap hasn't prevented minority faith schools from being religiously and ethnically segregated, removing the 50% cap will do nothing to address this issue, the NSS has warned.
The Society said the measures proposed by the Government to replace the cap were "ineffective and tokenistic measures".
Mr Evans added: "Of course, in the long-term the only real solution is to have a secular and inclusive education system which isn't organised around the religious beliefs of parents. In the meantime, we must urge the Government to resist regressive demands to allow faith schools to select even more pupils on the basis of their parents' religious beliefs and activities.
"Whilst these proposals may create extra capacity in the schools system, they will do so by sacrificing equality and social cohesion. Please urge the Government to abandon them.
Faith school expansion plans ‘will not improve standards or boost social mobility’
Posted: Fri, 2 Dec 2016 06:25
Government proposals to allow a new wave of fully religiously selective faith schools will not improve standards and is unlikely to boost social mobility, new research has warned.
The Education Policy Institute research found that pupils in faith schools seem to do "little or no better than in non-faith schools" once attainment and progress figures are adjusted for disadvantage.
At present, new faith schools, set up as free schools, can only accept 50% of pupils on the basis of faith. Under plans currently being consulted on by the Government, such schools will be allowed to apply a faith test to all places when oversubscribed. The move follows lobbying from the Catholic Church, which has refused to accept any limitations on faith-based admissions.
The Government's green paper, Schools that Work for everyone, claims faith schools "consistently achieve higher performance in exam results" and that "pupils from poorer backgrounds perform better at faith schools than at other schools."
However, the new research warns that while raw attainment and progress measures for faith schools suggested their pupils did better, the gains "largely disappear after adjusting for pupil characteristics".
According to the Education Policy Institute, intake of pupils in faith schools are not, on average, representative of their local areas or of the national picture.
The research concludes: 'Given that the average faith school admits fewer pupils from poor backgrounds than the average non faith school, there is a risk that increasing the numbers of faith schools would come at the price of increased social segregation, with a risk of lower social mobility."
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns director, said: "It has long been known that a religious ethos is no magic formula when it comes to academic excellence. The perception of superiority comes from faith schools' unique ability to select on the basis of faith, which can also act as a form of socio-economic selection – and largely explains their apparent academic success.
"Instead of dividing young people by faith, and sometimes ethnicity, education policy should seek to strengthen social cohesion by creating more places in inclusive schools where young people of all religion and belief backgrounds can be educated together."
Key findings of the Education Policy Institute (EPI) research can be found here:
http://epi.org.uk/report/faith-schools-pupil-performance-social-selection/
The full report - faith schools, pupil performance, and social selection - can be found here:
You can respond to the Government consultation here:
https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/schools-that-work-for-everyone/
More information
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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)
