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.
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DfE issues new guidance for promoting “fundamental British values”
Posted: Tue, 2 Dec 2014 09:25
The Department for Education (DfE) has published new guidance for schools on the promotion of "fundamental British values".
The non-statutory advice calls on schools to "encourage respect for democracy" in their promotion of students' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSC).
The note stresses that children must be "made aware of the difference between the law of the land and religious law." It added that a school's ethos and teaching "should support the rule of English civil and criminal law and schools should not teach anything that undermines it."
The note restated the Government's policy that "schools should promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs."
The DfE's note says that schools and teachers should encourage respect for the civil and criminal law of England and "enable students to acquire a broad general knowledge of and respect for public institutions and services in England."
Additionally, schools are to "further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling students to acquire appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures."
Schools are also to "encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England".
The advice stresses that pupils must understand that "the freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law" and that other people "having different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour."
However, the note also advises that meeting the requirement for "collective worship" is a way of ensuring pupils' SMSC development.
The advice also states that "it is not necessary for schools or individuals to 'promote' teachings, beliefs or opinions that conflict with their own, but nor is it acceptable for schools to promote discrimination against people or groups on the basis of their belief, opinion or background."
Separate advice for independent schools, academies and free schools means there is now a sector wide requirement for schools to promote "fundamental values" actively – a move welcomed by the National Secular Society.
Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns manager, said: "It's essential that all pupils educated in the UK, regardless of the type of school they attend, learn about those values considered key to contributing to mutual understanding and a cohesive society.
"Unfortunately, the advice issued by the DfE appears contradictory. It encourages schools to impose worship on pupils and leaves the problem of some religiously-led schools teaching illiberal views completely unresolved. Such schools are being told that they cannot promote discrimination on the basis of 'belief, opinion or background,' but also that they will not be forced to advocate teachings that conflict with their own beliefs. As has been revealed in recent months, many schools are teaching about religion in a wholly partisan way, and sometimes in a way that promotes ideas that are counter-cohesive and contrary to the values outlined in the standards.
"The latest measures also do nothing to address the separatism fostered by the very presence of faith based schools. Without reform in the very structures of the schools system, such as in terms of faith ethos and admissions, these new standards are unlikely to deliver any meaningful change."
Ofsted reveals “serious risk” to students’ physical and educational welfare in faith schools
Posted: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 11:15
A series of Ofsted investigations have exposed serious failings in six Islamic schools. The head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw has warned the Education Secretary that pupils "may be vulnerable to extremist influences and radicalisation."
According to Sir Michael Wilshaw: "All schools focused intensively on developing Islamic knowledge and understanding at the expense of other important areas of the curriculum." Ofsted found that "pupils' physical and educational welfare is at serious risk."
At Mazahirul Uloom School inspectors found pupils were unable to tell the difference between sharia law and English law.
The six independent Muslim Schools, all in Tower Hamlets, are failing to provide pupils with "an appropriately broad and balanced curriculum." In one school the curriculum was focused "entirely on Islamic themes."
Commenting on the findings, Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns manager, said: "For too long the rights of young people have been neglected by the willingness to allow religious communities to use schools to impose their own values and traditions on children.
"These findings demonstrate that there is an urgent need to apply a rights based approach across all educational settings, with every school recognising each individual pupil's right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and their right to a broad, objective and balanced education."
The National Secular Society has previously urged the government to do more to tackle "extremism in areas where it has control, such as in independent and religious schools."
Inspectors were concerned that the schools' narrow curriculum and intense focus on Islamic studies were not preparing pupils for life in modern Britain. The schools "failed" to develop pupils' understanding of faiths and cultures other than Islam and creative subjects were "rarely taught" in some schools and entirely absent in others. In one school pupils told inspectors they believed it would be wrong to learn about other religions.
In the same series of visits, carried out between 8 and 17 October, Ofsted also inspected a state-funded voluntary-aided Church of England secondary school, following concerns about the activities of social media sites related to an Islamic sixth form society at the school.
Four of the six independent schools were found not to be completing statutory background checks on staff and other welfare concerns were raised in all six, including their child protection policies and physical condition. Three of the schools were found to have insecure access as they were based in mosques open to the public, another school shared access with a public café. Facilities, including for proper first aid, were lacking in all six schools and one of the schools had moved premises without approval from the Department for Education (DfE).
Inspectors noticed a marked difference between the "quality" of Islamic teaching and that of other areas, such as English and Maths, in all six schools. Inspectors noted that "pupils were making good progress" in memorising the Quran but that, "errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar were left uncorrected by teachers."
At the Al-Mizan school, teachers accepted "that their information about pupils' progress in English, mathematics and science is inaccurate", but in contrast, Ofsted found that "a rigorous system is in place to track pupils' progress, homework and fluency in memorising the Qur'an."
At the East London Islamic School, "A pupil in Year 1 explained to inspectors that he would 'go to hell' if he participated in music or dance." The inspection also found that "male teachers and boys make a daily visit to The East London Mosque. The girls are required to wait for their return before lessons can resume. Girls do not have equal opportunities and some learning time is lost."
The Ebrahim Academy was said to have a "relative strength" in "the progress made by students in learning to read, recite and memorise the Qur'an."
Ofsted's inspection of Sir John Cass's Foundation and Red Coat Church of England Secondary School found the school to be inadequate and requiring special measures. The "behaviour and safety, leadership and management" and the sixth form were all judged inadequate. Many pupils from the six independent schools inspected attend sixth form at Sir John Cass's Foundation and Red Coat.
According to the inspection report: "Leaders have organised separate boys' and girls' entrances and exits to the school. Although there are mixed dining and study areas, segregated boys' and girls' outdoor and indoor spaces are provided at breaktimes and lunchtimes. As a consequence, boys and girls do not have equal access to the school's facilities."
Inspectors were particularly concerned about the school leadership's "failure to respond appropriately to serious concerns raised about social media sites relating to the sixth form Islamic Society."
Sir Michael's advice note to the Secretary of State, Nicky Morgan MP, can be read here.
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)
