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
Gov’t drops proposal to scrap 50% admissions cap – but plans discriminatory faith school expansion
Posted: Fri, 11 May 2018 07:38
The government has abandoned plans to lift the 50% cap on faith-based admissions to new free schools – but will pave the way for a new wave of religiously selective voluntary-aided faith schools.
The National Secular Society, which has campaigned vigorously to keep the cap, said the U-turn on the lifting of the admissions cap was "positive news for integration" but called plans to provide funds for local authorities to create more VA faith schools "regressive".
Stephen Evans, NSS chief executive, said: "The decision not to scrap the 50% cap for faith admissions in free schools is positive - and a victory for the work the National Secular Society and our supporters have done to campaign against it.
"However, encouraging more voluntary-aided schools, which are able to select up to 100% of pupils on the basis of faith, is a regressive step and a back-door attempt to expand faith school education and increase the number of school places allocated on the basis of faith.
"Facilitating more voluntary-aided schools will lead to a negative impact on social cohesion, foster the religious and social segregation of children, and undermine choice and equality.
"Voluntary-aided faith schools are discriminatory, antithetical to British values and harmful not only to cohesion, but also the standard of education and well-being amongst their pupils.
"Children from all faith backgrounds should be educated together and allowed to develop their own beliefs independently."
Just last week the NSS wrote to education secretary Damian Hinds to express our strong opposition to the plan to expand voluntary-aided schools, which can select up to 100% of pupils on the basis of faith.
Voluntary-aided (VA) schools are almost exclusively run by religious groups, predominantly the Church of England or the Catholic Church. In addition to imposing religious criteria on 100% of admissions, governing bodies can also apply a religious test on all teaching positions – a degree of discrimination the NSS believes to be wholly unreasonable.
Rather than providing broad, balanced and inclusive education about religious and non-religious worldviews, VA schools teach confessional RE in accordance with the teachings of their religion. A recent NSS investigation into sex and relationships education in faith schools also found that many VA schools are failing to provide pupils with clear and accurate information.
Mr Evans warned that any local authority planning to open a discriminatory faith school would "face opposition every step of the way".
DfE warned 12 more private faith schools over failures in one month
Posted: Thu, 10 May 2018 14:38
The Department for Education warned 12 independent faith schools that they were failing to meet the standards expected of them in November 2017, newly-published letters have revealed.
The DfE told the schools to address "serious regulatory failings" issues including gender segregation, the breadth of curricula and the preparation of children for life in British society. In some cases the schools had broken equality law.
Six of the schools were offering an Islamic education; three a Jewish one; and three a Christian one. The failings came to light during recent Ofsted inspections.
At Fig Tree Primary School in Nottingham, which says it provides an "Islamic education", inspectors noted failings in all eight categories of the independent school standards.
One of the Islamic schools was Olive Secondary School in Bradford, where separate notices were issued to the boys' and girls' schools. At Olive Secondary Boys and Olive Secondary Girls around 200 boys and girls are educated separately by staff of their own gender.
Ofsted found that boys and girls at Olive were treated differently enough to affect their personal development. It said girls did not get regular opportunities for physical education and boys did not get the same quality of English teaching as girls. It also criticised the school for violating equality law by not accepting pupils with special educational needs.
Fig Tree, Olive Tree School (an Islamic school in south-east London) and Talmud Torah London (an orthodox Jewish school for boys aged five to seven) had failed to "encourage respect for other people".
Talmud Torah London was also criticised for failing to promote "fundamental British values", "tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions". Hope House School in Barnsley, which has a Christian ethos, was also subject to those criticisms.
The other Islamic schools were Tayyibah Girls' School in north London, Al-Furqan Community College in Birmingham and Date Valley School in Surrey. The other Jewish schools were Beis Soroh Schneirer and Beth Jacob Grammar School for Girls, both in north London. The other Christian schools were Luton Pentecostal Academy in Bedfordshire and Felixstowe International College in Suffolk.
All of the schools were criticised over the quality of their leadership and management. Ten were instructed to improve the quality of education they were providing. Six had failed to meet the standards on pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Six had failed to safeguard pupils' welfare, health and safety.
The notices called on the schools to submit action plans, explaining how they intended to respond, by December. They were to be implemented by February and could be rejected at the secretary of state's discretion.
The DfE also published warning notices which were sent to 14 religiously unaffiliated independent schools.
A National Secular Society spokesperson said the faith schools "should be held to the same standard as those which are not religiously affiliated".
In 2014 the NSS supported the introduction of new independent school standards. In November 2017 Ofsted said almost half of independent faith schools had been rated as 'inadequate' or 'requires improvement' since the introduction of the new standards.
This is the third round of warning notices to independent schools which the DfE has published this year. In March the reports outlined failings at six Islamic schools in London, Leicester and Wolverhampton. In February the notices covered nine schools, three of which were Islamic, one Orthodox Jewish and one Christian.
All private schools are measured against the independent school standards. Ofsted only inspects around 1,000 small schools in the private sector, as these do not belong to the Independent Schools Council.
Schools Week reported that Olive Secondary School was approached for comment.
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)
