Supporter comments

"As an atheist, my children are automatically not eligible for a great number of local schools in my area because I refuse to attend church to get them in. I am paying for these schools as a taxpayer but am not allowed to benefit from them."

I am currently in the process of researching primary schools for my daughter. We are an atheist household, though my daughter will be free to follow any religious she choses, or none, when she is old enough to make such a choice. As such, I would prefer for her to attend a secular primary. Additionally, I do not want to give her the message that access to education for any child should be affected by religious beliefs.

However, I find myself in the catchment of a catholic school and a CoE school in my London borough. In order to find a non religious school I am having to apply to schools in a different borough, which we are less likely to get into. Despite living in a place with plenty of local state funded schools, I find myself in the position of looking to move house, at great expense and emotional upheaval, in order to secure for my daughter a secular education, despite living in a largely secular community in all other respects. In no other area of life do my religious beliefs limit my daughters options.

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!

"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 and my children had no choice but to attend church of England primary schools and, in my case, a grammar school with compulsory worship, compulsory church attendance and compulsory education in Christian mythology.

"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 went to Church of England schools all my life, meaning I was forced to go to church. Religion should only be through choice not indoctrination. I knew I didn't believe from a young age and was still forced to go by older people up to the age of 15!"

"I am an atheist raised by atheists, the only school in the village I lived in was C of E. I had to go participate in Christian rituals in a church several times a year, was regularly told off for not praying and was taught that Hindu and Muslim legends are "myths" whilst Noah's ark literally happened. Aside from the obvious issues of indoctrinating impressionable children and encouraging tribalism and exclusion, when state schools become faith schools, they actively impinge on the right of anyone who is in that catchment area but not of that faith to raise their children with their own beliefs."

"My daughter can't go to her local school because she hasn't been christened. This is discrimination, no matter how it is dressed up!"