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
Last local authority-run school in Blackpool to be taken over by Islamic education group
Posted: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 11:14
Highfield Humanities College, the last secondary school in Blackpool under local authority control, is to be taken over by the Tauheedul Education Trust (TET).
The Blackpool Gazette reports that the school, rated "inadequate" by Ofsted at its last inspection in October 2014, will be converted into an academy sponsored by the TET in a bid to improve standards at the failing school.
The TET describes itself as being inspired "by progressive Islamic and British values".
Alan Fisher, chair of governors at the College, praised the TET and said that they were the "clear and outstanding choice" to sponsor the school.
While the Tauheedul Education Trust stresses that it welcomes non-Muslim students, it describes itself as having "roots in the Muslim faith".
The Trust's website says it is "keen to welcome non-Muslims pupils into our faith-based schools".
John Girdley of the NASUWT teaching union said that even though the College will not become a faith school, a "number of parents in the Highfield area will be alarmed at having a religious group suddenly imposed upon them."
The National Secular Society recently warned that Government plans contained in the Education and Adoption Bill to speed-up the process of turning struggling local authority schools in England into academies could increase the proportion of faith schools in the education system.
NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans commented: "We are very concerned that the academisation of local authority-controlled schools could result in a loss of secular school provision.
"In schools that don't currently have a religious designation, there is a real danger that a faith-based academy sponsor will introduce religion by stealth into the schools they take over. Parents and local communities must be consulted if non-faith-based schools are taken over by academy sponsors with a religious ethos, even if the school doesn't technically become a faith school as a result.
"This is a troubling grey area, but in this day and age we ought to be dislodging religion from a role running schools, not expanding its share of the education system. Highfield College is an early example of what may become common if the Government's Education and Adoption Bill becomes law."
An amendment to the Education and Adoption Bill to require consultation with a school's community before a decision on the identity of an academy sponsor is made has been tabled by Labour MP Louise Haigh. It is due to be debate at the Bill's Third Reading on 15 September.
Muslim school slammed by Ofsted as former pupil says the College was “utterly cruel”
Posted: Tue, 8 Sep 2015 15:20
An independent Muslim girls' school with a "strong emphasis" on Islamic studies has been downgraded to "inadequate" by Ofsted.
Ofsted inspectors found that the Jamia Al-Hudaa Residential College did not give pupils sufficient access to books about "different faiths or British history" and it strongly criticized the management of the school.
The report noted that "half the curriculum" is "devoted" to Islamic studies and the school's website says that it aims to "develop the Islamic personality in our students so that they will be able to apply the Qur'an and Sunnah in their daily lives."
The school was praised for "good" pupil behaviour but inspectors noted the use of "disproportionate sanctions", including £20 fines for having chewing gum and "fixed-term exclusions for possession of a mobile phone".
One former pupil said the school management was "utterly cruel".
Aliyah Saleem, who now campaigns for secular education and for pupils to be protected from religious dogmatism in independent and state schools, welcomed the College's downgrading by Ofsted but warned that "very little was said in regards to how restrictive the curriculum is with subjects such as music, art, history and geography not being taught".
She also that the Government had "stood by and ignored the utterly appalling imposition of conservative religious ideologies on British school children".
Saleem wrote that she was branded "Islamophobic" by other pupils who attended the school after she criticized it.
The Ofsted report praised Islamic studies at the school, which takes up half of the school day, while criticizing the restrictive provision of library books: "The library has a limited range of books for pupils to use for personal reference and study. There are insufficient books about religions, other than Islam. History books are also limited to Islamic history".
The report said there was a "strong emphasis on Islamic studies".
NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans commented: "Ofsted inspectors frequently praise religious studies at independent faith schools like this, downplaying how badly students are let down by an absence of a proper education in the humanities, arts and science.
"It's clear that an over-emphasis on religious instruction at this school has prevented students from receiving the kind of broad and balanced education they should expect from any educational establishment. Schools should broaden students' horizons, not limit them with narrow teaching and rigid religious rules."
Careers guidance was an area of particular weakness, with the College offering "no impartial advice" and pupils receiving "little or no information about careers other than those related to teaching Islamic Studies."
The school was praised for its students doing "exceptionally well in GCSE Arabic" and Arabic was also said to be one of the "best examples" of teacher marking, with pupils receiving "detailed correction of their work". However in other subjects marking is "less good" with the use of "ticks only" in some lessons, and inspectors even found that "on occasion the marking is inaccurate".
While the teaching of both Islamic studies and Arabic is repeatedly praised by Ofsted, other subjects are neglected at the school and pupil "misunderstandings" in English, mathematics and science are often left unclarified by teachers, the inspectors said.
The school's mission statement says the College aims to "provide the best possible education in an Islamic Environment through the teachings of Islamic Sciences and the National Curriculum".
Ofsted also made numerous critical observations about staff competence at the school, noting that "leaders are unclear of all their responsibilities" and that background checks had not been performed at the time of the inspection.
They wrote that before inspectors arrived "school leaders had not completed all the necessary checks on every member of school and boarding staff."
Though school leaders "remedied most of these by the end of the inspection" the report raised the alarm that "safe recruitment checks are missing for staff who have lived overseas and those that have gaps in their employment history."
Inspectors said that the "school's arrangements for safeguarding do not meet requirements."
In a testimonial on the school's website, one student is quoted saying; "I am running out of words to describe it [the school]. I do have a spirit to live and die for Jamia. So my life and death lie in Jamia. Jazakallah Jamia."
See also "Life Inside An Islamic Boarding School" by Aliyah Saleem.
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)
