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
100% faith-based admissions leads to increased levels of segregation, says schools inspectorate
Posted: Mon, 24 Jul 2017 08:52
The chief inspector of schools Amanda Spielman has criticised Government proposals to allow some faith schools to select all of their pupils on the basis of faith and suggested the plans may be dropped.
Ms Spielman told the Sunday Times "Admission 100% on faith leads to increased levels of segregation within communities" and said she was "uncomfortable with anything that leads to increased segregation."
The chief inspector said she wasn't sure if the Government plans were "still on the cards", leading to reports that they may be dropped.
The National Secular Society has opposed the plans from the outset. In its response to the Government consultation on the plans, the NSS urged the Government to abandon them, arguing that whilst the proposals may create extra capacity in the school system, they would do so by "sacrificing equality and social cohesion".
The Government is facing widespread opposition to the plans, which were drawn up to facilitate an expansion in religiously selective faith schools.
Last week Sir Nick Weller, head of an academy chain in West Yorkshire, said it was "unhealthy" for a city such as Bradford to have two communities living "separate lives" and for children already segregated along ethnic or religious lines to be educated at different schools.
Professor Ted Cantle CBE, founder of the Institute of Community Cohesion Foundation, has been an outspoken critic of the plans, arguing that religious selection in school admissions is "utterly deleterious for integration". Linda Woodhead, Professor of Sociology of Religion at Lancaster, has argued that the Government's changes to faith schools "side with hard-line religion whilst undermining the religious centre ground."
At present, all new academies and free schools with a religious designation can only select 50% of students on the basis of religion. 50% of admissions must be open to pupils from all faith and belief backgrounds. The cap was intended to continue to allow faith schools and "to support inclusivity and tolerance" while preventing segregation.
The Government is now under intense pressure to drop the admissions cap from the Catholic Church and some Jewish groups who are refusing to open new publicly funded schools unless they can apply 100% faith-based selection when oversubscribed.
A Government rethink could potentially jeopardise around 30-40 new Catholic schools planned by the Church, partly to cope with the influx of Catholic families from Poland and other east European countries.
Stephen Evans, National Secular Society campaigns director, said: "The more diverse we become as a country, the more integrated we need to be. Where additional capacity is needed, the Government should commit to opening inclusive secular schools that are equally welcoming to pupils of all backgrounds.
"We can't allow religious organisations to dictate education policy. These unfair and ill-thought out proposals may benefit religious organisations but will undoubtedly have profound and negative implications for our increasingly religiously diverse and secularised society.
"A diverse society need not be a divided one. Any further expansion of religiously selective faith schools would be the antithesis of inclusive education and we again urge the Government to drop these divisive and dangerous plans."
Ofsted head criticises segregation as Islamic school is taken over
Posted: Tue, 18 Jul 2017 13:31
The chief inspector of the schools inspectorate Ofsted has spoken out against gender segregation in mixed-sex schools.
Amanda Spielman's words came as she announced that an Islamic school at the centre of a segregation row would be taken over by an independent academy trust.
"I am deeply concerned about the idea that total segregation of children within a mixed school is acceptable," Spielman said.
"Segregating boys and girls in a mixed school feels as though it is depriving both boys and girls of a big part of the benefits of a school.
"We have single-sex schools and I am not challenging that. But the idea that you have… a mixed school and yet you do not have social development, stimulation, all the things that come from mixing the sexes, makes me uncomfortable."
This weekend Spielman announced that the Al-Hijrah school in Birmingham would find new management on the Department for Education's orders. The decision follows the publication of an Ofsted report which rated the school as "inadequate" – the worst possible ranking.
Al-Hijrah, which has around 750 pupils, was one of England's first state-funded Muslim schools. The school originally opened in Birmingham Central Mosque in 1998 to address the "problem" of Muslim children "not receiving a satisfactory standard of instruction in Islamic moral and religious matters" in state schools. In 2001 the school ceased being a private school and became a publicly funded voluntary-aided faith school within the state sector.
Boys and girls there are segregated throughout the day from the age of nine to 16.
Last year Ofsted inspectors visited the school and raised concerns about many leadership failings, including "too heavy involvement" by governors in the day-to-day running of the school, and concerns over gender segregation. They said the school had an unchallenged culture of discrimination against girls and LGBT people.
They also found religious books promoting rape, violence against women and misogynistic attitudes in the school library. Among them were books stating that a husband can beat his wife and insist on having sex with her. Some girls anonymously complained that gender segregation was hindering their ability to integrate into wider society.
In November a judge ruled that Ofsted had been wrong to punish the school for segregating its pupils, on the grounds that the children were "separated equally".
Last week the High Court heard an Ofsted appeal against that decision. The court has yet to deliver its verdict. If Ofsted wins, it will re-inspect up to 20 faith schools that teach boys and girls separately and could force them to change their arrangements.
Spielman said she decided to appeal because the case raised "a really important point of principle".
"What pupils were missing out on in Al-Hijrah was the chance to interact with the opposite sex, to prepare them for adult life."
The National Secular Society urged Ofsted to appeal the original ruling. The NSS also supported interventions by two women's groups, Southall Black Sisters and Inspire, which highlighted the role that Islamist ideology was playing at the schools.
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)
