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
Local anger over discriminatory new Catholic school in Peterborough
Posted: Wed, 25 Nov 2020 14:53
Residents of a housing development in Peterborough have expressed dismay at the implications of plans to open a discriminatory, state-funded Catholic school in the area.
Hundreds of people have been moving in to new homes in Hampton Water, only to find that many families are likely to be denied places at the school.
The primary school, which is set to open in 2022, will have voluntary aided (VA) status. It will be allowed to select 80% of its pupils on a religious basis in its first year, and could potentially select up to 100% on that basis after that.
The final proposal to open the new school says "the Catholic ethos will permeate all areas of the curriculum and underpin the school's work and objectives".
It adds that it is "essential that the Catholic character of the school's education be fully supported by all families in the school".
VA schools have sweeping powers to enforce a religious ethos, including by practising religious discrimination if they are oversubscribed.
Local anger
Local activists have told the No More Faith Schools campaign that anger has grown as new residents have learnt they may not be able to access the local school.
Tracy Butler, a local resident who opposes the plan, said: "As Hampton Water grows, so does the anger as parents find out the local school will be a selective school. We need an inclusive school which the whole community can support."
She added that she felt her concerns had been ignored throughout the process of approving the plan to open the school.
Residents who have signed a NMFS campaign petition on the subject, and who have responded to the issue on a local Facebook group, have raised various objections.
One signatory to the petition wrote: "It is ridiculous to create a local school that can prioritise children out of area based on faith, when a clear desperate local need exists."
Some have said the discriminatory Catholic school will undermine the cohesion of the community and affect their children's friendships with other local children.
One Facebook commenter wrote: "I cannot see how this segregation is allowed, still encouraged, by people within modern society."
Others expressed concerns about having to travel to take children to school and being offered an unsuitable school place during a current round of applications.
And one petition signatory described Peterborough City Council's decision to approve the school earlier this year as "a slap in the face for democracy", given the opposition among local people and the lack of adequate reasoning for overriding it.
During a council consultation over its plans a year ago, 127 people in the local postcode disagreed with the decision to open the school, with just 17 agreeing.
A significant number of local residents also voiced their opposition to the plans in comments to the NMFS campaign at the time.
Pressure on school places
There is significant pressure on school places in Hampton Water. Earlier this month the Peterborough Telegraph reported that the city council was planning to require housing developers to provide more local school places.
In 2018, 100 children were reportedly on a waiting list to attend one of the existing schools in Hampton Water.
How the school was approved
The government and the council approved the plan to open the school despite an alternative proposal to open an inclusive academy with a community ethos on the same site.
The Department for Education approved the plans in principle last year. The council gave the go-ahead in January and rejected a challenge to its decision the following month.
Temporary changes should prompt fairer school admissions, says NSS
Posted: Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:16
The National Secular Society has said temporary changes to many faith schools' admissions policies should prompt lasting change to create a fairer admissions system and make schools more inclusive.
Faith schools across much of England are altering admissions provisions which give priority to children who attend places of worship, as a result of closures prompted by the coronavirus outbreak.
Earlier this month the Office for the Schools Adjudicator, which clarifies the legal position on admissions policies, approved a change of policy at a C of E school in Nottinghamshire.
Lowdham Church of England primary will not require pupils to have attended church for the 12 months before their application. Instead arrangements will only apply to "the period when the church or alternative premises have been available for public worship".
According to Schools Week, C of E diocesan bodies in London and Sheffield have confirmed that many of the schools they are responsible for have made similar changes to admissions rules.
In July the government published guidance for faith schools in England, advising them to make changes to their admissions arrangements for the September 2021 intake.
Many faith schools' admissions criteria prioritise children based on their attendance at places of worship when places are oversubscribed.
The NSS has long campaigned against religious discrimination in school admissions.
NSS comment
Alastair Lichten, the NSS's head of education, said: "This year's closures have made it even more complicated and unworkable to base admissions policies on attendance at places of worship. But it's absurd and unfair to use that criterion to assess children's suitability for school admission in the first place.
"Religious discrimination in admissions means families can be turned away from their local schools because they aren't religious, they have the wrong religion, or they haven't played the system well enough.
"State-funded schools shouldn't be treated as religious communities and should have no need to know how often families go to church, mosque or synagogue. Discriminatory faith-based admissions should be scrapped for good."
Notes: religious discrimination in school admissions
- Exemptions within the Equality Act of 2010 make it lawful for faith schools to discriminate against pupils on the grounds of religion or belief. The NSS has called for these exemptions to be removed.
- Oversubscribed voluntary aided faith schools and many academies are allowed to prioritise children on a religious basis in up to 100% of their places.
- In a 2018 poll by Censuswide just 17% of respondents said they agreed with the statement: "Publicly funded schools should be able to select pupils on the grounds of their religious beliefs."
- In 2016 an analysis for the Sutton Trust found it was "generally true" that non-religious schools were "not particularly socially selective", while "Roman Catholic and other religious primary schools are, regardless of governance status".
Read more: Let's scrap discriminatory faith-based school admissions for good, blog by Megan Manson for the NSS's No More Faith Schools campaign.
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)
