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
NSS welcomes action on illegal faith schools
Posted: Fri, 19 Nov 2021 11:02
The National Secular Society has welcomed a new government service allowing the public to report unregistered schools they believe to be operating illegally.
This comes as Ofsted published updated data on their investigation and inspection of unregistered schools from 2016 to 2021.
Ofsted warned children in hundreds of such settings are in danger of being "robbed of their life chances" in unreliable and "squalid" environments and called on citizens to inform them of unprofessional educational practices.
Currently, only one in 10 referrals comes from the public, and just one in six from local authorities.
The inspectorate said many were operating openly, charging customers thousands of pounds, with some children are being taught in disused office blocks and semi-commercial units on "drab industrial estates".
Thirteen per cent of unregistered settings investigated were centres of religious teachings, and 22% had an explicit faith ethos, though such data is extremely patchy.
The NSS, which campaigns to protect children's rights in independent and unregistered schools, has continuously called for local authorities and communities to be better supported to tackle the prevalence of illegal schools. The tackling of unregistered faith schools has often been slow, despite some being registered as charities and known by local authorities.
Head of Education at the NSS, Alastair Lichten, said "We welcome the renewed action to tackle illegal faith schools. There is a difference between practically, and ideologically unregistered settings. The former may be unregistered through mismanagement or misunderstanding the law, and in most cases can change their services to comply. The latter group, overwhelmingly made up of religious schools, remain unregistered largely to avoid regulation or oversight.
"The number of young people falling out of the education system into unsafe, unregulated, and dogmatic 'schools' is a national scandal, fundamentally undermining children's human rights."
Ofsted are also concerned about 115 settings with home educated children. The NSS has previously warned of legitimate elective home education being used as a cover for illegal schooling.
Faith school to change all-white ethnicity form after NSS complaint
Posted: Tue, 16 Nov 2021 15:01
A faith school that put only white ethnic groups on an application form must change its admissions policy after the NSS raised concerns.
The Office of the Schools Adjudicator (OSA), which clarifies the legal position on school admissions policies, said it "shared the concern" expressed by the NSS that an "application form" on Lubavitch Girls Primary School's website implied certain ethnicities "cannot be prioritised, or cannot apply at all".
The school, which is a state-funded Orthodox Jewish school in north London, asked for pupils' "ethnic background" on the application form on its admissions page, but only listed "White – Orthodox Jewish", "White – British", "White – European" and "White – Other" as possible answers.
The NSS alerted the OSA to the form in May.
The OSA said that although the form was more likely to be a "post-admission form" rather than an application form, it "must be considered as part of the admission arrangements" because the school did not deny parents were expected to provide it at the point of application.
The OSA therefore upheld the NSS's objection that the form did not comply with the school admissions code regarding supplementary information.
It also expressed "serious concerns" about some of the details asked on the form in terms of data protection.
The OSA also upheld the NSS's objection to the school's oversubscription criteria, which state: "Priority in admissions will be given to children who are Jewish according to Halochah (Orthodox Jewish Law)."
The NSS said this was in breach of requirements that oversubscription criteria must be "clear" and "objective", because the criteria did not explicitly state what "Jewish according to Halochah" means.
The OSA upheld this objection as it "would not be possible" for an ordinary member of the public to understand which pupils were prioritised.
The NSS also expressed concerns that the oversubscription criteria could breach equality law under the grounds of race, because Orthodox Jewish law is sometimes interpreted to mean only those who are born to ethnically Jewish mothers are considered Jewish.
In 2009 the Supreme Court found the Jewish Free School (JFS) in London had broken the law by refusing to admit a boy whose mother was a convert to Judaism. The school had directly discriminated against the boy on the basis of race under the Race Relations Act 1976.
Although the OSA could not conclude that the school had ever interpreted Jewish law in this way, it said: "For the avoidance of doubt the school is bound by the precedent set in the JFS case and must ensure that its arrangements do not fall foul of the finding in the case".
The school must make the necessary changes to its admission arrangements by the end of February, the OSA said.
Lubavitch Girls Primary School describes itself as "strictly orthodox" and says it aims to provide a "Torah-true education". It became state-funded in 2004.
NSS comment
An NSS spokesperson said: "We welcome the findings of the OSA, and are glad that it takes the issues we raised seriously.
"No school should ever imply that only children from certain ethnicities need apply.
"Unfortunately, the link between faith-based admissions criteria and ethnic segregation is well-established. Religious discrimination in admissions must be abolished to ensure children suffer no barriers in attending their local school due to their ethnicity."
Racial discrimination and segregation at Jewish schools
- In April the OSA upheld a complaint against Menorah Primary School, also in north London, which asked rabbis to confirm that applicants were "halachically Jewish".
- Research consistently demonstrates that faith schools tend to be more ethnically segregated. In 2013 Humanists UK found that Asian pupils are under-represented in Jewish schools. And a 2017 report found more than 84% of non-Christian faith schools were considered to be segregated because of their disproportionate ethnic makeup.
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)
