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
Gay children should repent, Muslim parents told at conference
Posted: Fri, 3 Feb 2023 08:15
A speaker at an anti-LGBT education group's conference told attendees that gay children must be taught to repent.
Yusuf Patel (pictured) said children must be taught that "sexual attraction / desires" are "external drives" which "are not part of you" at a conference by Parents United, according to notes from the conference which took place in November.
He added: "You can and must come back from sinful behaviour through TAWBA – Do tawba after every sin ASAP". Tawba is the word for repentance in Islam.
Around 100 people are reported to have attended the conference. Parents United report that '100% of those who attended were Muslim"
Parents United, who describe themselves as a "Muslim parent action group", formed in 2020 in Redbridge. They campaign for "faith-appropriate" relationships and sex education (RSE) which excludes lessons about same-sex relationships. Their conference was held in November at the Alhuda Welfare Foundation in Romford.
Parents United's homepage was taken down after the Romford Recorder published these findings.
Patel said "every behaviour is changeable - if your favourite football team can change, a night person can change into a morning person, " adding that the idea that sexuality cannot be changed is "not correct".
The notion that sexual orientation can be changed through repentance underpins so-called 'gay conversion therapy', a practice which the government aims to ban due to the serious psychological harms it can inflict on gay people.
Attendees were also told "same-sex relationship tendencies" stem from a "lack of a father figure", a father who is "too strict" or a "lack of masculine role model due to absent fathers".
Patel added: "…man-made terms like 'sexual orientation, gay, lesbian' are fully-loaded terms and not real - When you use these labels, you give life to the false premises, so don't use them."
He said: "We are sitting on a ticking time bomb with schools and society imposing their values on sexuality on our children."
Patel is the founder of SREIslamic, an organisation set up to resist the teaching of sex education in UK schools. He is also a former member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an international extremist Islamist group which the Home Office has recognised as holding "anti-semitic, anti-western and homophobic views".
Other speakers included Ryan Christopher of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)an anti-LGBT Christian activist group that also campaigns against reproductive rights.
Christopher encouraged attendees to raise complaints "constantly" about RSE as this "takes up staff time" and will "encourage the school culturally to remove that [LGBT relationships]" from the RSE lessons.
He suggested that "[I]nappropriate conversations between staff and student that are unnecessarily sexual" might take place, including "stuff that could be on the grooming end spectrum potentially". The conference notes provide no evidence for this claim.
Another speaker, Layla Aitlhadj of Prevent Watch, claimed the government's counter-extremism initiative Prevent is "Islamophobic" and warned parents they could face referrals to the programme, despite admitting there have been no recorded cases of referrals relating to RSE curriculums.
Parts of the conference's presentation also promoted resources from Muslim Engagement and Development' (MEND). Multiple MEND employees, including members of the senior leadership, have faced accusations of extremism, including legitimising the killing of British troops in Iraq, promoting antisemitic conspiracies, and downplaying acts of terrorism.
Conference Report
Parents United issued a report following the conference, which was sent to a number of local and national politicians, as well as schools in Redbridge.
The report provided several examples of what the group considers objectionable:
- "A Muslim LGBT activist picked as a female role model on International Women's Day"
- "From all the minority ethnic backgrounds present in Redbridge, parents reported only Muslim LGBT personalities were disproportionately presented to children as LGBT role models"
- "Parents have reported safeguarding concerns with sexually explicit science lessons"
- "Schools have not allowed religion to be at the forefront for a child who is religious"
In December an LGBT equalities campaigner, Khakan Qureshi, was sent death threats after speaking to school students in Birmingham about being a gay Muslim.
NSS: Parents United promote "harmful homophobic views"
NSS campaigns officer Jack Rivington said: "Although Parents United like to portray themselves as nothing more than a group of concerned parents, the reality is that it has platformed religious fundamentalists and Islamists with a wider political agenda, whilst also promoting harmful homophobic views.
"Politicians, schools, and the media should bear this context in mind and treat Parents United with according scepticism.
"It is important that all children receive age-appropriate and inclusive sex and relationships education, for their own well-being and their interactions with wider UK society. The religious beliefs of parents should never be privileged over the teaching of accurate science and acceptance of all people regardless of sexual orientation."
Still from Yusuf Patel's December 2022 lecture at Masjid Tawhid Leyton on LGBT-inclusive education
Faith school prevents pupils from sitting exams to avoid “offence”
Posted: Thu, 26 Jan 2023 11:43
A faith school is not allowing its pupils to sit any public exams in case the content is 'offensive' to religion.
A recent Ofsted report for Bnois Jerusalem Girls School, an independent Orthodox Jewish school in Hackney, describes how students are not permitted to "take examinations to achieve any nationally recognised qualifications at the end of key stage 4".
The school forbids this due to "the risk of content in the examination papers causing offence".
In 2018, Ofsted reported similar practices by the school, with textbooks and other classroom resources censored for material "deemed not to be in line with the traditions and religious teaching of the Jewish faith".
The most recent report said that, as a result of these limitations, pupils continued to "lack readiness for life in modern British society", with school leaders "significantly restrict[ing] pupils' personal development".
Ofsted noted that pupils' options for studies after the age of 16 are limited to institutions that would admit them without the qualifications they were forbidden from obtaining. It also described how pupils do not receive "impartial advice and guidance about the wide ranging options available to pupils beyond progression to a seminary".
The report further described how, in science, "any references to sexual reproduction or scientific theories behind the origins of life" are forbidden. The report said that creationism is taught "as part of a belief system" in the school.
Relationships and sex education is similarly limited, with key concepts such as the importance of "being safe" and "sexual consent, harassment or abuse" omitted entirely.
Although all parents and carers had exercised their right of withdrawal from sex education in the secondary years, no "suitable arrangements to provide sex education" had been provided in the case that any parents, or pupils of the relevant age, chose not to withdraw.
Despite being criticised for doing so in previous reports, Ofsted noted that the school's proprietors continued "to forbid any coverage of different religions, faiths and beliefs" with pupils not learning about "any religions other than their own".
Respect for others, including those with protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010, is not encouraged.
Since September 2021, the school has been subject to a restriction order from the Department for Education. Schools are not permitted to admit any new pupils when subject to such orders.
Despite this, Ofsted found evidence the school's proprietors were not complying with the restriction order. Information about the restriction order was also not included in the school's admissions policy or prospectus as required.
Ofsted further criticised the school's proprietors for continuing to "inappropriately" use the school admission register as a waiting list.
Although finding safeguarding measures to be effective, Ofsted said "the recruitment process lacks rigour and does not reflect statutory safeguarding guidance".
Bnois Jerusalem has fallen below the required standards since 2014, with the latest report highlighting this repeated failing.
NSS: 'Schools should not enforce religious censorship'
NSS campaigns officer Jack Rivington said: "Schools should be places of discovery, learning, and exploration, not religious indoctrination and censorship.
"A 'school' which forbids its students from sitting any public examinations, thereby severely restricting their future prospects beyond further religious institutions, violates these fundamental values of education.
"It is shameful that children can be deprived of an education in this way in UK society."
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)
