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
Cross-party call by MPs for more inclusive faith school admissions
Posted: Wed, 20 Apr 2016 15:59
A cross-party group of MPs has called on the Government to make faith school admissions more inclusive and bolster social cohesion.
Five parliamentarians from the Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats and Green MP Caroline Lucas have signed the Early Day Motion which aims to tackle exclusive admissions policies which discriminate on the grounds of religion.
The motion calls on the House of Commons to acknowledge "that mutual trust and understanding between people of different backgrounds grows when they are schooled together, which also benefits social cohesion in society at large".
The motion "therefore urges that the current policy where new faith free schools in England cannot select more than half their pupils on faith grounds is extended to all types of state-funded faith schools."
NSS Campaigns Director Stephen Evans urged supporters of the National Secular Society to write to their MP asking them to sign the motion.
"It's vital that the Government come to understand the long-term damage to society being caused by social segregation. School is a chance to build a more cohesive future. Sadly we're squandering that opportunity.
"If you want to see a more cohesive society, without the division of exclusive faith schools, this is a good place to start."
The motion was signed by Conservative MPs Crispin Blunt and Peter Bottomley, LibDem MP Norman Lamb, Caroline Lucas and Labour MP Barry Sheerman.
In 2005 Barry Sheerman, an honorary associate of the NSS, warned about the rise of a "ghettoised education system" and said that "Schools play a crucial role in integrating different communities and the growth of faith schools poses a real threat to this. These things need to be thought through very carefully before they are implemented."
In 2015 Demos said that there was de facto ethnic segregation in minority faith schools and that many British schools are "highly segregated" with some faith schools effectively excluding other ethnic groups.
Early Day Motions (EDMs) are rarely debated in the House of Commons but allow parliamentarians to draw attention to particular areas of concern. Mr Evans added that it was "important to take every opportunity to highlight the problems caused by dividing our education system along religious lines."
Orthodox school bans mention of “evolution or prehistoric events”
Posted: Tue, 19 Apr 2016 13:53
Ofsted have written a scathing criticism of an independent orthodox Jewish school which has a policy of not referencing "evolution or prehistoric events" that would "predate the creation of the world 5776 years ago".
The Getters Talmud Torah School was found to not be meeting the standards required of independent schools when it was inspected by Ofsted in March 2016, after previous inspections found a string of serious failures.
The school's curriculum "contains no reference to cultural and aesthetic subjects" and teaching of non-religious subjects is "restricted to between 45 minutes and 1 hour per day for the older year groups, with no provision for the younger years."
There was "very limited" teaching which even "reference" "aspects of geography, history and citizenship" and pupils had "not heard of drama" and were not taught any music or art.
Ofsted accused the school of promoting "the teaching of incorrect content" and noted that the school's own policy states that "our curricula for Science, Geography and History will not reference evolution or prehistoric events that would de facto predate the creation of the world 5776 years ago".
There was no reference whatsoever to sex and relationships education because senior leaders said it would "contravene the precepts of their faith" and any mention of homosexual people in the school was 'prohibited'.
The school was failing to prepare pupils for future careers and "Pupils demonstrated stereotypical views on the roles of men and women, with men 'going to work' and women 'cooking and cleaning'."
Inspectors found that "Classroom resources have everyday images of children singing and swimming obscured."
The alarm was also sounded about pupils' safety and the inspectors learnt that the school doesn't use an application form for recruitment, doesn't check the employment history of applicants and was ignorant of some safeguarding checks.
The quality of the teaching was found to be very poor, and the inspection found that "Teachers continue to lack guidance on how to structure learning in the secular curriculum or plan for different ages or aptitudes. As a result, lessons are unstructured and do not promote learning."
NSS Campaigns Director Stephen Evans said: "Action needs to be taken against independent schools like this which are continuing to fail countless children who deserve an education that prepares them for adult life. It is appalling that so many are given a sub-standard education and are left totally ignorant about life in modern Britain, science, history, and a whole range of subjects.
"Individuals should of course be free to practice their religion, but the state should step in when young people's rights and freedoms are being curtailed in the name of religion, tradition or culture."
The school currently has 241 pupils, all boys aged from three to 13 years old.
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)
