With two secular petitions on Religious Observance in play in Scotland, Alistair McBay blogs about the problematic relationship between religion and Scottish schools.

With the shortage of primary school places becoming more acute, NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans draws attention to the scandal of families being left with no option other than to send their children to 'faith' schools.

Terry Sanderson on Ireland's education minister Ruairi Quinn who, bit by bit, is challenging the stranglehold that the Catholic Church has over education in the Republic.

Last month the local press reported that a Sikh free school "remains on course to open in Hounslow in September": but there has been no reporting of the secrecy and subterfuge surrounding its establishment.

Rebecca Sharkey argues that a popular shoebox gift scheme run by evangelicals highlights the dangers of mixing humanitarian work with the promotion of a religious agenda.

As head teachers put the Church's plan to intensify the religious input into lessons into action, Stephen Evans asks: isn't it time to rethink the role of religion in our public education system?

It is time Michael Gove — and the Government — stopped being so tolerant of 'faith' schools and started thinking about putting the brakes on their malevolent spread.

During Education Questions in the House of Commons on Monday, Michael Gove, the Education Secretary (for England) intimated that the Government is working with the Church of England to bring about its ambition to open hundreds more church schools.

It's a Bank Holiday, half the staff in the newsroom are on leave, but news editors still have to somehow fill their papers and their broadcast bulletins. What easier way to do it than to draw on the ready-made Easter sermons of various bishops and Cardinals around the country?

The Churches love to tell us how "popular" religious studies are in schools. Keith Porteous Wood suspects the popularity may have more to do with the course being ridiculously easy, rather than any desire for a deeper understanding of religion.

The signs have been there for some considerable time – religion around the world is reviving, and it is not the benign, let's-be-good-to-each-other kind of religion that the propagandists would have us believe.

We are seeing the new crop of academy schools beginning to advertise for chaplains