MP letter: No more faith schools

No more faith schools

Ask your MP to support phasing out the UK's publicly funded faith schools.

Hints and tips

- Personalising your letter will make it more likely to have an impact.

- Keep your thoughts fairly brief. MPs are busy and get a lot of correspondence.

- Use clear and simple language.

- If you have an interesting perspective which helps to support the arguments, consider sharing it.

Name*:

Email*:

Postcode*:

Address:

Message*:

Dear {{name}},

I am writing as a constituent to ask you to support phasing out the UK’s publicly funded faith schools.

As our society becomes more irreligious and religiously diverse, people from across the political spectrum and of all faiths and beliefs are turning against faith-based schools.

Schools which bring children from all backgrounds to learn and grow together are key to building a truly inclusive and equal wider society.

Despite this, around one third of state-funded schools in England and Wales have a faith designation,. eEducation in Northern Ireland is highly religiously segregated, and denominational schools still divide children in Scotland.

While religious organisations played an important historical role in the development of state education, it is now time to move beyond this archaic settlement. A community ethos school system would respect the rights of families from all backgrounds and end the discrimination and inequity in our current system of faith schools.

Faith schools are inherently divisive and disadvantage children from minority communities and lower income families. The most high-profile harm caused by faith schools is that of religious discrimination in admissions, which entrenches division and locks too many families out of their local taxpayer-funded schools.

Faith schools are often justified in terms of choice. But in many areas, families have little practical choice but a faith school, even if it conflicts with their beliefs. The long-term decline in Christian affiliation coupled with increasing religious diversity and irreligiosity means this situation will only worsen.

With government policy encouraging the growth of faith schools, schools from a variety of faiths are becoming more aggressive in promoting their own doctrine and ideology. In some cases, schools have hidden behind their faith ethos to promote harmful and discriminatory ideas.

Research consistently reveals that dividing children by faith enables other forms of segregation. Schools of minority faiths are largely monocultural, while CofE and Catholic schools admit fewer children with special educational needs and disabilities.

The state should not allow public money to be spent on schools which advance a particular religious agenda. I urge you to take action to promote the expansion of inclusive community schools and roll back the encroachment of faith on our education system.

For more information, please visit: https://www.secularism.org.uk/faith-schools/.

I look forward to hearing your views on this matter.

Yours sincerely,

* Required Field

MP letter: No more faith schools

No more faith schools

Sign up for our newsletter