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 broadly welcomes changes to RE and RSE in Welsh curriculum
Posted: Wed, 1 May 2019 15:07
The National Secular Society has expressed broad support for reforms to the teaching of religion, relationships and sex which have been announced in the new curriculum for schools in Wales.
The curriculum includes an explicit reference to pupils learning about "non-religious worldviews" for the first time and moves religious education (RE) into a wider area of Humanities study.
It also includes a statutory requirement on schools to teach Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), which it describes as "a key enabler of health and well-being".
But the NSS has warned the curriculum will allow faith schools to continue to use RE to promote their worldview and to distort RSE.
The NSS has engaged with Welsh education ministers and officials throughout the drafting process.
The curriculum, which will be introduced in 2022 for all children currently in Year 3 or below, will see teaching organised around six "areas of learning and experience" (AoLEs).
RE will remain a statutory requirement and be contained in an AoLE on Humanities.
Humanities
The Humanities AoLE is described as "central to learners becoming ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world through engaging with contemporary and historical issues, exploring human experiences on their own doorstep and across the globe, and contemplating different perspectives".
The new curriculum means that RE must cover a range of religious views and "non-religious worldviews" that are "analogous to religions". This replaces a requirement that RE syllabuses reflect that "the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian, whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of other principal religions in Great Britain".
The curriculum will allow faith schools to continue to teach RE from a religious perspective.
It will also continue to allow religious groups to inspect RE in voluntary aided faith schools and some voluntary controlled (VC) faith schools. The Welsh education inspectorate Estyn will inspect RE in other VC schools.
Under the proposals bodies which determine RE curricula locally – Standing Advisory Councils for RE (SACREs) and Agreed Syllabus Conferences (ASCs) – will adapt and oversee, rather than create, the RE curriculum. SACREs, ASCs and faith schools will still have significant influence over syllabuses.
The NSS campaigns for the abolition of SACREs and ASCs and the introduction of a national entitlement to an impartial curriculum about the diversity of religious and non-religious worldviews.
Through the RE element of the Humanities AoLE, pupils will be expected to:
- engage in philosophical enquiry considering the diversity, complexity and plurality of religious and non-religious world views.
- understand that ultimate questions are complex, and answers are often partial and inconclusive.
- appreciate, empathise with and critically evaluate sources of wisdom and authority, and religious and non-religious world views, in order to form their own reasoned conclusions.
- observe and investigate forms of religious expression.
- critically evaluate how aspects of religion and belief impact upon them, other individuals, local society and global society.
National Secular Society education and schools officer Alastair Lichten said: "We welcome the move away from religious exceptionalism and opportunity for a fresh approach by embedding religion and belief education within a wider humanities area of learning. Policy makers in England, where even modest reforms have been blocked by religious interests, should take note.
"The focus on the real world impact of a diverse range of beliefs on issues from the local to the international should improve the relevance and esteem of this often maligned or confused subject."
Despite the new curriculum, faith schools will retain existing powers to teach their RE syllabus from a faith perspective or to promote their religious ethos. In voluntary aided schools RE will continue to be inspected by religious groups and in voluntary controlled schools by both Estyn and religious groups.
Alastair Lichten said this split inspection regime would "lead to continuing confusion over whether RE is designed to teach children about different beliefs or to inculcate religious views".
"While including non-religious worldviews is essential in a modern, religiously diverse and increasingly non-religious Wales, limiting this to those 'which are analogous to religions' risks giving students an impoverished understanding of the diversity of non-religious and irreligious worldviews.
"The retention of SACREs means that RE content will continue to be unduly influenced by those selected for their religious or Humanist views rather than educational experience. We hope this continues to be re-examined and alternatives such as local education networks made up of teachers and educational experts explored."
Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE)
A new statutory RSE requirement will be provided through an AoLE on Health and Wellbeing and recognised as a key enabler of wellbeing.
Despite the new curriculum, draft RSE guidance makes clear that faith schools will continue to be allowed to teach RSE from their own perspective. Last year the NSS revealed that all 12 of the secondary state faith schools in Wales with sex and relationships education (SRE) policies were teaching the subject within the tenets of Catholicism or the Church in Wales.
Alastair Lichten said: "The commitment of the Welsh government and the new curriculum take a significant step towards our aim of a non-discriminatory, inclusive approach to RSE which prepares students with an age appropriate understanding of the diversity of human relationships and the rights and responsibilities they entail.
"However, despite our positive engagement with education officials, we remain concerned that a lack of clarity and core content could mean that faith schools continue to distort the subject, denying pupils comprehensive non-discriminatory information about sexuality, contraceptives and reproductive choices.
"While a non-proscriptive approach which focuses on what matters and leaves independence for schools has much to recommend it, this should not lead to large gaps and inconsistencies between schools based on religious designation."
What's next?
Public consultation on the draft curriculum (statutory guidance) is open till 19 July 2019. The Welsh government is also expected to publish its response to consultations on the legislative changes necessary for the new curriculum (NSS response) and the draft guidance on relationships and sexuality education (NSS response).
Peer raises shortage of religiously neutral schools in Lords debate
Posted: Tue, 30 Apr 2019 17:19
A peer has highlighted the shortage of religiously neutral schooling in England during a House of Lords debate, referencing figures from a major National Secular Society report on the issue.
Joan Bakewell, of Labour, highlighted the fact that almost three in 10 families in England live in areas where most or all of the closest primary schools are faith schools on Monday.
She also highlighted the fact that 53% of rural primary schools are faith based.
The NSS exclusively revealed these figures in its groundbreaking report The choice delusion in December.
The report revealed that between 111,000 and 136,000 applicant families lived in areas where the availability of secular schools was highly restricted in September 2018. A further 45,000 to 60,000 lived in areas where it was extremely restricted.
The NSS also found that more than one in five families who missed out on their first choice of a non-faith primary school were assigned a faith school.
In Monday's Lords debate Bakewell highlighted figures which suggest 52% of British adults now have no religion.
"Almost three in 10 families in England live in areas where most or all of the closest primary schools are faith schools.
"So what has the government to say about children effectively being forced into faith schools against their parents' wishes?"
In response education minister Theodore Agnew said: "Where parents are not offered a place for schools they expressed a preference for, the local authority must offer them a place at another suitable school with places available."
He also said admissions authorities "must ensure that their arrangements are clear, fair and objective and will not disadvantage unfairly a child from a particular social or racial group".
The government is currently planning to open a new wave of 14 voluntary aided faith schools, which can potentially select all their children on the basis of their parents' religion.
In December a Department for Education (DfE) assessment found that opening the new schools would disadvantage families who did not share the schools' religion.
The NSS's No More Faith Schools campaign is urging the government and local authorities to reconsider these plans and to open inclusive community schools where there are shortages of places.
NSS education and schools officer Alastair Lichten said: "Baroness Bakewell has made an important intervention. Our figures seriously undermine the narrative that faith schools are good for parental choice.
"Ministers should now reflect on their plans to expand faith schools, particularly fully selective voluntary aided ones. These plans will mean more families will be forced into a faith based education for their children against their wishes.
"Ultimately the government should roll back faith based schooling. All state funded schools should be free from religious control, be open to all children and credibly attempt to give children a religiously neutral education.
"And while the state continues to fund faith schools the government must monitor the ways they impose on school choice to mitigate the harm they cause."
The NSS wrote to the DfE when the report was published in December. The society urged minister to monitor faith-based restrictions on school choice and suitability and ensure that all parents have reasonable access to a non-faith-based school.
The NSS has since met with DfE officials to discuss the findings.
Image: Joan Bakewell giving the Holyoake Lecture 2018 in Manchester, via Wikimedia Commons, © User: Rathfelder [CC BY-SA 4.0]
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)
