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
Church of England bids to open school on major new housing development
Posted: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 09:36
The Church of England is bidding to run the first primary school which will be built on a major new housing development in Kettering.
It is proposed that 5000 new homes will be built on the East Kettering development where it is anticipated that at least three new primary schools will be required.
The Church of England is preparing a bid to run the first primary school, which is scheduled to open within the next couple of years.
The Diocese of Peterborough, in partnership with local churches, is proposing that this school should be a Church of England Voluntary Aided (VA) School.
Voluntary Aided church schools are their own admissions authority and are allowed to select or discriminate against prospective pupils on religious grounds if oversubscribed. In addition, the governing body employs the staff and can apply a religious test when recruiting teachers. Voluntary Aided faith schools are also free to devise their own religious education syllabus rather than follow the locally agreed syllabus.
The Diocese of Peterborough say the proposed school would be open to all pupils living on the estate, regardless of whether their family had a church or faith background or not. It insists the schools will be inclusive and teach he locally agreed syllabus for RE.
The Diocese says the schools will be founded on values, such as respect, compassion, service, friendship and justice, which it describes as "Christian values".
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society, commented: "Schools intended to serve the whole community should not have a distinctive religious ethos. However 'inclusive' church schools claim to be, the fact remains that an education provided in a Christian context will not be appropriate for many within the community.
"With dwindling congregations, the Church knows that its involvement in schools is the only way for it to appear relevant to children and their families. The local authority should bear in mind that schools are there to serve the local community, not vested interests."
The Diocese anticipates making a formal application to Northamptonshire County Council in late April. It is seeking the views of all interested parties via an online survey. Public meetings to discuss the proposal will be held on Tuesday 1 April.
Meanwhile, the Bishop of Ely, Rt Revd Stephen Conway, is reported to have been so upset that the Church was not selected to take control of a new primary school located on another major housing development in Ely, that he telephoned education minister, Lord Nash, to complain.
According to local reports, the bishop said he told the minister that "he ought to be supporting us in our ambition to make a difference". As a result of his call, the bishop was invited to London to meet the minister and Theodore Agnew, a Government advisor on academies.
The Bishop said: "I believe passionately that we should rejoice in the church's engagement in education as we know it since the early nineteenth century and in other patterns like the monastery schools for fifteen hundred years."
Government response to exam censorship neglects children's independent interests, says the NSS
Posted: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 12:35
The National Secular Society has accused the Government of neglecting the best interests of children after it refused to intervene following revelations that some faith schools have been blacking out questions on exam papers, depriving pupils of the ability to score the maximum marks.
Responding to a parliamentary question from Lib Dem peer Lord Avebury, the Conservative education minister Lord Nash said: "This is a matter for Ofqual".
Responding to a further question which asked the Government what representations they had made to the Children's Commissioner regarding the right of pupils to see all questions in exams they are taking, Lord Nash confirmed: "Neither Ofqual, the independent exams regulator, nor the Department for Education, have made any representations to the Children's Commissioner."
The redaction by teachers of exam questions in science papers deemed by schools to be incompatible with their religious character was exposed by the National Secular Society last year after it obtained evidence of the practice at Yesodey Hatorah Jewish Voluntary Aided Girls' School in London.
The exam board concerned, Oxford Cambridge and RSA (OCR), admitted to the NSS that because of the blacking out of questions at Yesodey Hatorah, pupils were denied the possibility of receiving full marks in their GCSE science papers. Pupils were unable to access 3 marks out of 75 for a unit in a higher GCSE science exam, and 1 mark out of 75 for a unit on a lower paper.
A more recent freedom of information request made by the NSS to Ofqual disclosed that the practice was more widespread than this example. It also revealed that OCR proposes to permit faith schools to redact questions they don't approve of, provided that it is done in collaboration with the exam board. The Department for Education describes this as a "proportionate and reasonable response".
It has since emerged that exam boards have met with the Board of Deputies of British Jews to discuss issues relating to religious sensitivities around examination questions. According to the Board of Deputies': "It was agreed that the panel would continue to advise the exam board through vetting texts and facilitating choice around coursework and exams to ensure that cultural sensibilities of religious groups are fully met."
The National Secular Society called the Department for Education's failure to condemn the censorship of formal exam questions "deeply lamentable".
Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns manager, said: "Redacting questions on exam papers fails pupils by denying them vital marks, but the broader concern is that this attitude extends to science classes, where children and young people are being deprived of vital scientific knowledge. Both represent the intellectual betrayal of children who are entitled to such information.
"There is also a concern that children and adolescents' sexual and reproductive health rights are being impeded by the refusal to teach such key areas of the National Curriculum as human reproduction."
In addition to making representations to Ofqual, the National Secular Society has written to the Children's Commissioner calling on her to investigate pupils being disadvantaged by being shielded from key scientific principles and denied the right to achieve the best results that they can in examinations.
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)
