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
Turkish mother’s insult at Greek orthodox faith school allocation
Posted: Wed, 9 Jul 2014 15:42
A Turkish Cypriot parent from London has branded the offer of a Greek orthodox faith based free school to her son as "wholly unacceptable" and an "insult".
Sonya Karafistan's son was allocated a place at the St Andrew the Apostle Greek Orthodox School in Barnet despite the family not listing it in their list of preferences.
Members of Ms Karafistan's family lost their lives in the civil conflict in Cyprus between Greeks and Turks between 1963 and 1974. Ms Karafistan said "if the offer weren't so offensive it would be comical."
The family refused the place, but have been told by Barnet Council that her son has not received a second round offer for any of the six secondary schools she applied for. Their son has now been offered a place at what Ms Karafistan describes as a 'sink school' three and a half miles away from where the family live.
In order to secure an appropriate secular education the family have now opted to educate their son privately, but say this will have a serious impact of their family budget and lifestyle choices, and should not be necessary.
Ms Karafistan has written to the Department for Education to express anger at how the presence of a Greek Orthodox school has limited her family's choice of local school.
The family say they are aware of others in their position and say a Greek Orthodox faith school fails to meet the needs of the local community.
A Freedom of Information response has revealed that of 18 families offered places at this school who did not list the school in their admissions application form (for September 2014), just 6 have accepted the offer.
Ms Karafistan told the NSS: "We are a secular family. We do not believe that faith has any place in education. It is an abomination that tax payer money is being used to fund the creation of niche religious schools that fail to serve the community as a whole."
Secularism is fundamental to our family beliefs and morality, while we respect the view of others and the choice they make to send their children to religious schools, we hold the firm belief that religion has no place in education and shouldn't be funded by the state.
"Any religious school would offer an education inconsistent with our family beliefs and our son's moral education to date. A Greek Orthodox school is ideologically and culturally unacceptable to us, so to be offered it as our local state school is very offensive to us."
St Andrew the Apostle Greek opened in September 2013 as a free school, and is the first state funded secondary Greek Orthodox school in Britain. The school was been established jointly by Russell Education Trust, the Greek Orthodox Church and the Classical Education Trust.
The school says its ethos is based on Christian beliefs of the Orthodox Church but is open to families of all faiths and none.
In other parts of the country, parents contacting the National Secular Society have been angered by the allocation of places at Christian, Jewish, Sikh and Hindu schools that have an ethos that runs counter to their own religious or philosophical convictions.
Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns manager, said: "The Government claims that most free schools are in areas in need of school places, but there are serious questions as to whether faith based schools adequately meet the needs of local parents who don't share the faith character of the school.
"With a finite number of places available, a state education system made up of schools delineated along religious lines is clearly inefficient and impractical. It also spells trouble for social cohesion, and makes it difficult to ensure all parents' beliefs are equally respected during their children's education.
"The best way to ensure everyone's rights are protected is to have truly inclusive secular schools that are equally welcoming to pupils regardless of their religion or belief background. A religious upbringing should be the responsibility of parents that want that, not the role of the state."
Parents told faith school or no school by local council
Posted: Fri, 4 Jul 2014 10:02
Eleven children whose parents refused places at a Hindu faith school in the London borough of Redbridge have been left with no school place for September.
Families of children allocated places at Avanti Court Primary School in Essex refused the places, saying the school's religious ethos is at odds with their own beliefs and values.
Redbridge Council has sought to evade responsibility for the lack of suitable school places by saying that none of the children would be of statutory school age before January. Under current law children in England must be in education from the term after their fifth birthday, but the law also allows for pupils to start school earlier.
Naz Qureshi, the Muslim mother of a four-year-old daughter from South Woodford, said: "I was gobsmacked and outraged when they told me I didn't get any of my six chosen choices of schools."
"I didn't want her to go to a Hindu school so I am surprised the council would think I would accept a faith school which I didn't even apply for."
Ms Qureshi told BBC Asia Network that the family would now have to consider paying for private schooling as a last resort.
Liz Beck, whose four-year-old son was due to start school in September told the BBC: "Culturally it's quite different and even though we don't want to shelter our son from other cultures, we feel it would be difficult for him to be in that environment where it's quite different from what we believe".
"I feel really angry and just let down, you would expect your child to get into a school they can at least walk too."
Research by the Department of Education recently found primary schools in Redbridge must expand by the equivalent of eight new schools to meet demand by 2018.
Like other local authorities, Redbridge Council does not take the religious ethos of the school into consideration when allocating places to local children. This year it offered places to 21 children whose parents hadn't named the school on their list of preferences.
Parents are not requested to state their religious beliefs when applying for schools via the local authority, but in correspondence seen by the National Secular Society, Redbridge Council say if parents explain their philosophical reasons for their preferred schools when completing their admissions applications, those reasons could be considered when identifying alternative school places.
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society, said: "It should come as no surprise that schools with a specific religious ethos have limited appeal to parents who don't share that faith.
"The presence of faith schools limits choice for many parents, and in this case, has resulted in no suitable places being available at all, leaving parents and children seriously disadvantaged.
"The focus needs to be on creating places in inclusive schools that serve the whole community rather than using public money to satisfy niche demands for schools that teach religion specific beliefs and values."
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)
