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
Faith schools selecting pupils from more affluent backgrounds
Posted: Fri, 15 Apr 2016 16:23
A new report by the Sutton Trust has revealed how the most socially selective schools are likely to be faith schools using oversubscription criteria to select disproportionately wealthy pupils.
Analysis of primary schools by Dr Rebecca Allen and Dr Meenakshi Parameshwaran has shown that over 1500 schools in England are "highly socially selective" and that Catholic faith schools are particularly selective in their intake.
"It is generally true that non-religious schools are not particularly socially selective and that Roman Catholic and other religious primary schools are, regardless of governance status," the researchers said.
They found that the "socially selective primary schools are more likely to be found in London and other urban areas" and that they are "often schools with a religious character who have chosen to apply religious oversubscription criteria."
Faith schools are able to use particularly complex oversubscription criteria when allocating places, and one school was found to be using 18 different criteria.
The Sutton Trust said that the most socially selective schools "tend to use lengthy and more complex oversubscription criteria to decide who is allocated a place" and these can be "complex for parents to navigate."
According to the research, "There are well over 1,000 primary schools where the free school meals proportion is over 10 percentage points lower than that found in the neighbourhoods from which they recruit," meaning these schools have selected pupils from disproportionately affluent backgrounds, leaving the school population unrepresentative of the surrounding area.
Analysing the results, Conor Ryan of the Sutton Trust wrote that the "pattern seems strongest in some – though not all – London boroughs and in areas outside London where there are strong faith-based, particularly Catholic, state schools."
In response to the findings, the Trust has recommended that faith schools "should consider prioritising pupil premium pupils ahead of others in their admissions criteria" and that the Admissions Code is "properly enforced."
Secretary of State for Education Nicky Morgan recently announced a clampdown on complaints about faith schools admissions and the Department for Education said that "secular campaign groups have targeted faith school admissions as part of a particular agenda. We plan to put a stop to this by restricting who can object to school admissions arrangements to local parents and the local authority."
The result of this will be that challenges to faith schools can only be made by parents; and civil society organisations will not be able to identify and complain about problems on their own.
NSS Campaigns Director Stephen Evans commented: "The Admissions Code needs to be enforced but the Secretary of State seems determined to make that harder despite evidence of widespread abuses."
The Sutton Trust has proposed that "All religious schools should make places open to the local community with simple and consistent religious admissions criteria."
Mr Evans said that while that would address some of the issues around social selection, it would not be a solution to the problems caused by faith schools, "because it would leave, for instance, a Catholic ethos being imposed on non-Catholic pupils and families in a taxpayer funded school."
The researchers called for "greater scrutiny" of legacy criteria at existing faith schools – a recommendation the NSS has welcomed.
NSS urges schools commissioner to reject church plan to control community schools
Posted: Tue, 5 Apr 2016 16:25
The National Secular Society has called on the Regional Schools Commissioner for the North of England to oppose plans for a Church of England takeover of four Newcastle schools.
The Commissioner, Janet Renou, is currently considering a proposal to form a multi-academy trust (MAT) which would include one Church of England school and four non-religiously designated schools.
According to one city councillor, the Church would have three out of five seats on the trust's board, despite just one of the five schools currently having a religious ethos.
In a letter to the Schools Commissioner, Stephen Evans, NSS Campaigns Director, urged Ms Renou to preserve local provision of secular education and protect children's rights to religious freedom by blocking the proposal.
Despite MATs being under a contractual obligation to protect schools' individual character the NSS says it has "little confidence" that in reality the ethos of the community schools will be protected through the funding agreement with the Secretary of State.
The letter invites the Commissioner to "consider how non-religious schools can realistically be protected from an encroaching religious ethos if the most senior people in the trust are all advancing the interests of the Church."
The Newcastle Diocesan Education Board claims that the ethos of the individual schools will be protected – despite representatives of the Church controlling the trust's board.
Newcastle City Council is seeking assurances that the schools will continue to adopt a "fair approach to school admissions."
In the letter to Ms Renou the National Secular Society also noted its broader concerns about forced academisation potentially resulting in even more schools falling under the control of religious groups.
Mr Evans added: "In the long-term, there is nothing to prevent non-religious schools in [faith-based] multi-academy chains from taking on a religious designation provided they gain the approval of the Secretary of State.
"At the National Secular Society we are frequently contacted by parents, teachers and governors concerned about Church of England controlled schools seeking to assert an overbearing religious ethos in its schools."
The NSS has repeatedly raised concerns with the Department for Education about religious organisations using academisation to further their own interests by gaining greater control of publicly funded education, including non-religious 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)
