Supporter comments

My son is been placed into a faith school at the secondary school allocations. This was not one of my 6 choices, but no other school is available. The school say that they must attend all Catholic services i.e. Mass, even if they don't pray!

"We have taken the very hard decision to remove our children from our local but C of E school. The attempted indoctrination and divisive nature of the school became too much."

"Over subscription in our area means the catchment area for us is tiny. We have a Catholic school and a C of E school, both of which require additional forms signed off by priest or vicar and church to confirm your attendance. The school we got for our child is a 40-minute walk from our house, so we have to drive every day.

"Although it's a wonderful infant school, it feeds into a C of E junior school which for the sake of my son and the friendships he has made I will send him to. I feel I have no choice and I can't believe more parents aren't outraged that our taxes majority fund a school that actively discriminates against our children based on religion. Our local Catholic school has 13 levels of entry. These were Catholic looked after children from local parish, siblings of children in the school, other children from parish. It then went through these three groups but anywhere in borough, any Christian children, any other religion and at the very bottom non-religious children."

"My son recently started reception at a faith school. Not because I'm religious, but because I had no choice. This is our local school; most other local schools are also faith schools. As a result, I will be forced to navigate challenging conversations with a four-year-old whether I feel he is prepared for them or not. Religious families will already be speaking to their children about religion at home, and non-religious families will not appreciate having to contradict what their children are taught at school."

"As a teacher I see a lot of schools, often in areas where there is no educational choice, adding the weight of respected adult support to a set of beliefs they expect very young children to follow. This should not be done using public money!"

"Everyone should be entitled to have their children educated at the school that is nearest to them, regardless of whether or not they subscribe to a particular religion or other superstition. No one should be discriminated against on the grounds of "faith". I object to having to contribute to funding the local school to which my own child was denied access on religious grounds while also having to pay for him to be educated privately as a result."

"I'm a Christian but I believe faith schools cause big problems in society. They cause segregation and reduce school choice for parents. It is so much better for all children to learn together, mixing with all the children in their community. It is wrong that children are turned away from a school or prioritised for entry based on what their parents happen to do on a Sunday! I know a number of people who've told me they faked faith to get a school place, and I know one rather corrupt C of E primary school that helps out children who fail the 11-plus with their secondary application, so they go to a faith school not a regular high school. These sorts of problems are avoided by having all schools open to all local pupils."

"Parents attend church just to get them into their most convenient school, not because of their devotion to the religious orientation. We have a school five meters away from our house, but our son can't go there because we refuse to attend the local church. This should not be happening in today's society. Children should be able to make their own choice when they are able to make that choice."

"I was gobsmacked and outraged when they told me I didn't get any of my six chosen choices of schools… I didn't want her to go to a Hindu school so I am surprised the council would think I would accept a faith school which I didn't even apply for."