Thousands of children are languishing in unregistered faith schools.
These schools prioritise fundamentalist religion over the education and welfare of children.
The scandal of unregistered schools must be addressed.
Some religious institutions operate schools which are not registered with the Department for Education, despite this being a legal requirement.
Schools are left unregistered to avoid regulations and inspections, so they can teach a very narrow, religion-based curriculum without oversight. This severely limits children's future options, as children leave these schools with very poor literacy, no formal qualifications and no skills or experience for life in modern Britain.
The lack of scrutiny also presents major safeguarding concerns. Children have been taught in unsafe conditions and subjected to physical punishment in these schools. The curriculum may also teach extremist, regressive and discriminatory dogma.
In 2019, Ofsted estimated as many as 6,000 children were being educated in unregistered settings. But the number could be even higher. Approximately 86,300 children and young people were electively home educated nationally during the year 2019/20. There is little regulation of home education, so many of these children could in fact be attending an unregistered school.
Some unregistered schools exploit loopholes in the law to avoid registration and operate at the margins of the law as an "out of school educational setting". Although many out of school settings, including tuition centres and supplementary schools, provide an excellence service, a minority put children's welfare at risk.
We are working to end the harms caused by unregistered schools by campaigning for greater powers for Ofsted tackle these settings, the elimination of loopholes to force more schools to register, and improved regulation of elective home education.
Take action!
1. Suspect an unregistered school? Report it!
Unregistered schools are illegal and pose a serious threat to children's wellbeing. If you think you know of a possible unregistered school, please report it to the schools inspectorate Ofsted.
If you are aware of children in imminent danger, please call 999 and inform the police.
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
Thousands of children “hidden away” in illegal faith schools at risk of indoctrination and extremism
Posted: Wed, 18 May 2016 13:43
Ofsted has found over 50 suspected illegal faith schools since January, prompting renewed fears about thousands of children being taught in unregistered schools with no oversight.
An Ofsted crackdown on unregistered, illegal schools has found "more than 100" illegal schools since January, of which around half were faith-based.
A disproportionate number of the schools, one-third, were Islamic and one-in-six were Christian or Jewish. Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw said the institutions were "putting children at risk of harm, including the risk of exposure to extremism and radicalisation."
Sir Michael told Education Secretary Nicky Morgan that he was "extremely concerned about the number of children and young people attending these schools who may be at significant risk of harm and indoctrination."
The effort to identify the unregistered schools was undertaken by "a new taskforce within Ofsted" set-up explicitly "to investigate suspected illegal schools and pursue those individuals responsible for operating them."
Seven inspectors identified 100 illegal 'schools' in less than five months, but Sir Michael said that the number found already "is likely to represent only a small proportion of the illegal schools operating across the country."
The Ofsted chief said that the number already found confirmed his fear that "there are many more children hidden away from the view of the authorities in unregistered schools across the country than previously thought."
Seven warning notices have now been sent to the suspected illegal schools and Ofsted has said it will support the Crown Prosecution Service in "vigorously" pursuing cases against those who run unregistered schools.
The Chief Inspector also issued a warning about parents using home schooling as a cover to send their children to illegal faith schools.
Sir Michael wrote that local authorities need to show "vigilance" to make sure suspected illegal schools are identified "as quickly as possible."
Bradford Council was recently accused of being in "denial" over illegal religious schools – which can allow extremism and separatism to ferment.
In the Queen's Speech the Government announced that it will "consult on powers to enable government to intervene where councils fail to tackle extremism."
The Government has also said it will stand up for "our liberal values" by "taking on the extremists" and "protecting young people in unregulated schools," plans which were welcomed by the National Secular Society.
Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns director, said: "It is very welcome that action is being taken now, but it has been far too slow and a generation of children have already passed through these so called 'schools'. Many of those pupils will have been denied a secular education, indoctrinated or exposed to extremist and separatist ideas, so for those pupils this action has come too late.
"This isn't just about security and extremism. These children all have the right to a proper education. Society has failed to protect that right."
Concerns about Jewish children disappearing from the education system were raised by the Jewish Chronicle as early as 2008.
See also: Allowing children to languish in illegal religious 'schools' is the bigotry of low expectations.
“Denial” in Bradford Council over illegal religious schools
Posted: Fri, 4 Mar 2016 11:40
Naz Shah MP has told Bradford Council that they are in "denial" over unregistered religious schools that are operating illegally.
Her comments came after Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw suggested to council staff that they were being "naive" about the standards of education in the city and after he challenged them over the lack of "intelligence" the council had accumulated on unregistered schools in the area, the Yorkshire Post reported.
The Ofsted chief was so concerned about children in supplementary schools and illegal religious schools that he held a series of three meetings in Birmingham, Bradford and Luton.
In the meeting in Bradford Sir Michael also raised with council staff the significant numbers of children in the city who are 'missing' from the local education system.
Across the country it is thought that thousands of children have 'vanished' from the school system and entered into unregistered religious schools. At the end of 2015 Ofsted announced that it was preparing to prosecute the staff of several unregistered religious schools and Sir Michael warned at the time that "hundreds of children" in England were in unsafe conditions.
Bradford West MP Naz Shah said: "Mr Wilshaw called it naivety. I feel that would be a nice way to put it. I would say that there's some denial here."
In response to their concerns Bradford Councillor David Green said the council was "not aware of any" unregistered and illegal schools.
Despite widespread reporting of concerns about unregistered schools and a recent Department for Education consultation on the regulation of supplementary schools, Councillor Green said "Ofsted are concerned that there is a tendency for groups of parents to get together to jointly educate their children in an establishment or somebody's house, and that would be an illegal and unregistered school - and we are not aware of that happening".
He said he was not in denial or being naive, but was "concerned", and that Bradford had "real challenges" related to child safeguarding.
He conceded Sir Michael's point that "that there were questions about whether we were getting information and intelligence, and acting on that intelligence".
Councillor Green added, "Having seen that information and evidence, if [Ofsted] feel there are any shortcomings in our processes we will act on their advice.
"I am not naive or in denial, I am concerned about it. We need to be clear that Bradford in terms of education and child safeguarding has got real challenges, and we are tackling this issue."
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager of the National Secular Society, said that "across the country it is very clear that a deeply troubling number of students are being denied their right to a proper education, and that many are studying in unregistered schools and in unsafe and unhygienic conditions. We have been warning about this for some time and welcome government plans to tackle this unacceptable state of affairs."
