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
Priest criticises Catholics-only school bus policy for faith school pupils
Posted: Tue, 31 Mar 2015 13:12
Flintshire Council has come under attack from a priest over its policy of only funding school bus travel to faith schools for pupils who can provide evidence of their religious affiliation.
Canon Joseph Stewart has described the school bus policy of Flintshire Council as discriminatory.
Currently, free transport to faith schools is only provided by Flintshire Council to pupils who are of their same faith as the school's religious ethos. This means that free buses to Catholic faith schools are only provided for Catholic pupils, and non-Catholic pupils are not given free transport.
Stewart said: "These are children who live in the same streets. There's one policy for Catholics and another entirely for the others."
Seemingly unaware of the fact that most Catholic schools discriminate in their admissions policies, he said, "discrimination in this day and age is unacceptable."
Under the policy, students must have proof of their denomination, such as a note from a Catholic Priest or a baptism certificate for the Council to fund their transport to school.
Stewart said "I feel very strongly they shouldn't be asking me to perform that sort of policing."
News North Wales reports that Stewart has written to the Council on behalf of an 11 year-old pupil who is not entitled to free transport, because he was not christened.
National Secular Society campaigns manager, Stephen Evans, commented: "We certainly agree that the policy is discriminatory. We have raised concerns about this case with the Welsh Education Minister and are strongly critical of any policy which uses the faith of a child's parents to determine whether children can use a school bus.
"However, what Fr Stewart is arguing for is for the local authority to fund every parent's decision to send their children to a religious school rather than schools closer to home. It still seems unfair that parents who choose to send their children to more distant faith schools are financially supported, when parents who may choose more distant schools for other reasons receive no such support.
"But rather than looking at this from a position of self-interest, Fr Stewart should perhaps realise that, particularly in the current economic climate, local authorities have more pressing things to spend their money on than assisting parents to send their children to faith schools when other schools are available more locally."
Social Integration Commission calls for limits on new faith schools
Posted: Mon, 9 Mar 2015 14:02
A new report by the Social Integration Commission has warned of segregation in Britain and called on the Department for Education (DfE) to place limits on new faith schools.
The report, Kingdom United? Thirteen steps to tackle social segregation', warns that "highly diverse areas are not necessarily integrated" and that "school-age young people are segregated by ethnicity." The report notes that "increased numbers of children [are] being educated in peer groups dominated by a single faith group or community" and makes a number of recommendations to avert further social division in the UK.
Given the dangers of segregation in a country which is on the whole becoming more diverse, the report argues that the DfE should only approve applications for new faith schools "when the petitioners have a clear plan for pupils to meet and mix with children from different faith backgrounds and communities." The Commission says that "every school should provide opportunities for their pupils to interact with children belonging to different ethnic groups and income backgrounds."
The report was welcomed as "a step in the right direction" by the National Secular Society, which campaigns for inclusive schools underpinned by secular principles.
NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans commented: "The long-term impact of dividing children by their parents' religion should be obvious. This report demonstrates the huge potential damage to our society if children are divided by the religion of their parents, and the very real danger posed by lack of integration between different religious and ethnic groups.
"Religion is a matter for parents and family life, the state should have no role in perpetuating religious divisions through schooling."
"The solution is clear, parents have the right to raise their children in a religious tradition, but they should not have a right to isolate their children from other groups on the basis of faith, or to ask the taxpayer to fund the furtherance of their religious beliefs in schools. Children have the right to an education which prepares them for life in modern Britain."
The Commission also calls upon the DfE to investigate "the potential benefits of requiring all schools to devise a social mixing strategy." The report attributes the increase in pupils being educated in faith schools to "the recent drive to open free schools", and raises the alarm over the potential consequences for social integration. The Commission argues that the increase in free schools needs to be reconciled with a "commitment to social integration".
The report suggests faith schools from different religions could build new facilities for shared use, or "co-locating" faith schools "within shared campuses." One such school, believed to be the first in Europe, was recently approved to open in Scotland. The campus will be a joint site shared between Jewish and Catholic schools.
The report argues that "all children should be taught about faiths and cultures other than their own" and that "all schools should seek to include opportunities within their religious studies programmes for pupils to mix with and study religious practices and ethical questions alongside children of different faiths and backgrounds."
The Commission also found that "the small number of Muslim faith schools in the UK are experiencing particular difficulties in ensuring their pupils are able to meet and mix with children from different backgrounds."
Citing "public anxiety regarding religious extremism in our schools" the Commission argues that "we must make promoting social integration an important element of our approach to education."
In addition to its findings on faith schools, the report also argues that "publicly-funded moments of celebration should be open to people from all religions and none." The Commission found that "it is not uncommon for people to feel alienated by and unwelcome at nominally-public celebrations rooted in religious and cultural traditions other than their own." The National Secular Society campaigns for all public celebrations, such as the coronation, to be secular in nature, so that they are accessible to all.
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)
