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
UN children’s rights Committee calls on UK to abolish compulsory worship in schools
Posted: Fri, 10 Jun 2016 07:29
A United Nations committee has urged the UK to repeal laws requiring the provision of 'broadly Christian' worship in UK schools. It also called for pupils to be given the independent right of withdrawal from any religious worship held in schools.
In a report published this week, the UN also calls for age-appropriate sexual and reproductive health education to become mandatory in all schools, including faith schools.
The recommendations reflect concerns raised by the National Secular Society in a briefing submitted to the body leading up to the publication of the report.
Collective worship
In a section on Freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the UN reports states:
The Committee is concerned that pupils are required by law to take part in a daily religious worship which is "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character" in publicly funded schools in England and Wales, and that children do not have the right to withdraw from such worship without parental permission before entering the sixth form. In Northern Ireland and Scotland, children do not have right to withdraw from collective worship without parental permission.
The Committee recommends that the State party repeal legal provisions for compulsory attendance at collective worship in publicly funded schools and ensure that children can independently exercise the right to withdraw from religious worship at school.
Sex and relationships education
In a section on adolescent health, the Committee expresses concern that:
Relationships and sexuality education is not mandatory in all schools, its contents and quality varies depending on the school, and LGBT children do not have access to accurate information on their sexuality.
It calls on UK governments to:
Ensure that meaningful sexual and reproductive health education is part of the mandatory school curriculum for all schools, including academies, special schools and youth detention centres, in all areas of the State party. Such education should provide age-appropriate information on: confidential sexual and reproductive health-care services; contraceptives; prevention of sexual abuse or exploitation, including sexual bullying; available support in cases of such abuse and exploitation; and sexuality, including that of LGBT children.
The report also demands the decriminalization of abortion in Northern Ireland in all circumstances and calls for NI to review its legislation "with a view to ensuring girls' access to safe abortion and post-abortion care services".
Faith schools
The UN Committee also calls on Northern Ireland to "actively promote a fully integrated education system and carefully monitor the provision of shared education, with the participation of children, in order to ensure that it facilitates social integration".
Keith Porteous Wood, National Secular Society executive director, said:
"We're pleased that the UN Committee has endorsed our assertion that the UK's laws requiring worship are a breach of young people's rights. Our 70 year old statutes on collective worship were drawn up before any human rights charters and fail to recognise that pupils have human rights too. I hope the UN's endorsement of our long-standing concerns about children's rights on compulsory collective worship and minimal pupil self-opt-out will be a wakeup call to the Government to change our outdated legislation in this area.
"Laws that mandate worship are inimical to religious freedom and go beyond the legitimate function of the state.
"We also hope that the UN's intervention will encourage the Government to ensure that young people's long overdue right to objective, comprehensive and age-appropriate sex and relationships education is put on a statutory basis."
The NSS has been campaigning against compulsory collective worship for most of its 150 year history and worked with peers to put amendments before Parliament in 2011 very similar to those now recommended by the UN. They were rejected at the direction of Michael Gove MP when he was Secretary of State for Education.
The current right of withdrawal from worship for sixth form pupils follows an amendment proposed by the NSS in 2006.
Read the Committee on the Rights of the Child concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland here:
https://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/crcgbr.pdf
Read the National Secular Society's briefing to the Committee here:
https://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/uncrc-pswg72-nss-submission.pdf
Our supplementary evidence to the Committee is available here:
http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/GBR/INT_CRC_NGO_GBR_23793_E.pdf
NSS criticises council proposal to expand faith school provision
Posted: Fri, 3 Jun 2016 09:16
The National Secular Society has called on Milton Keynes Council to rethink plans to meet increasing demand for school places by significantly expanding faith school provision.
Under the Council's proposal, St Mary's – a tiny church school with "a distinctive Christian ethos" – would be relocated and expanded to serve 2,700 homes on a new housing development.
Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns Director, said: "Given Britain's rapidly changing religion and belief landscape it's hard to see how a Christian faith school would meet the needs and wishes of families moving to the area.
"It should be possible for local parents to have their children educated at their local school without other people's religion being foisted upon them.
"Building a new inclusive school without a religious designation is the only sensible option if Milton Keynes Council wants to ensure that its future educational provision is appropriate and equally welcoming and respectful to all children and families, irrespective of their religious outlook."
According to the school's latest Anglican inspection report, the "Christian foundation of the school permeates all aspects of school life". All children at St Mary's take part in daily Christian worship.
The Council argue that the plan to expand and relocate St Mary's "will provide further choice and diversity in the local community". However, in September 2015 the church school admitted just 2 pupils living in its catchment into the reception year group, suggesting minimal demand for church school provision in the area.
According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, parents of school children are some of the least religious sections of society. 60% of 35-44 year olds describe themselves as non-religious with a further 11% describing themselves as religious but non-practising.
The 2011 Census shows that those in Milton Keynes in this age range are 4-5% points less Christian and more non-religious than national figures for England.
In its response to the Council's consultation the NSS argued that the character of new school should be established with these trends in mind.
The NSS also criticised the council for prejudicing the outcome of the consultation on the provision for a new primary school in favour of expanding church school provision.
The consultation failed to give equal weight to an alternative option of building a new school and running a national competition to determine who will run it – describing the option to expand the Christian faith school as the "sensible" option.
Mr Evans added: "The apparent lack of even-handedness regarding these proposals is startling. The Council has failed to explain why it favours the expansion of an unpopular church school over the possibility of creating a new school that promotes commonly shared societal, rather than religion-specific values.
"Under the council's plans many parents could be left with little option other than to send their child to a school with a religious character that runs counter to their own beliefs. This clearly isn't acceptable."
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)
