Tags: Faith schools
Classrooms should be free from an overbearing religious ethos
Posted: Mon, 15 Feb 2016 by Stephen Evans
With the Church seeking to extend its influence over the management of schools, Stephen Evans argues that religious groups' demands shouldn't outweigh parental rights and children's independent interests.
In 2013 the former chair of the Church of England's... Read More »
Let Ofsted inspect religious education in faith schools
Posted: Wed, 09 Sep 2015 by Stephen Evans
Religious education should receive the same scrutiny as any other area of the curriculum – and be inspected by Ofsted, argues Stephen Evans.
I recently came across a local newspaper headline about a school being praised for its religious education. As... Read More »
Students forced to lead prayers and made to attend Mass – the reality of faith schools for non-religious pupils
Posted: Thu, 03 Sep 2015 by A Pupil
A Sixth Former gives a student's account of what it's like to attend a faith school if you aren't religious, and shows the reality of some faith schools for pupils who don't share the school's enthusiasm for religion.
One might be forgiven for thinking that... Read More »
Christians shouldn’t put self-interest above Britain’s need to better integrate
Posted: Fri, 31 Jul 2015 by Stephen Evans
The long history of Christian involvement in state education shouldn't stand in the way of a more integrated education system, argues Stephen Evans.
No sooner had David Cameron finished delivering his landmark speech on extremism which stressed the need for... Read More »
Why have I never taught a Jewish child?
Posted: Tue, 14 Jul 2015 by Dennis O’Sullivan
Is this the way to unite society – with faith schools teaching the supremacy of their ideology and how wrong the rest of us are, asks Dennis O'Sullivan, a headteacher with thirty-five years of experience in education.
Teaching British Values is now compulsory... Read More »
Faith schools: education’s sacred cow
Posted: Fri, 19 Jun 2015 by Stephen Evans
Faith-based schools have been part of Britain's educational landscape for a long time. But as Britain's religious outlook changes, the time has come for some people to come to terms with their fear or unwillingness to question them, argues Stephen Evans.
Britain's... Read More »
Don’t ban women drivers – ban faith schools
Posted: Sat, 30 May 2015 by Oliver Kamm
In a pluralist and diverse society, it's an invitation to ignorance for children to be segregated by their parent's religious affiliation – so why, asks Oliver Kamm, is the state entrusting the education of huge numbers of children to religious bodies?... Read More »
Let’s stop confusing education with religious inculcation
Posted: Fri, 03 Apr 2015 by Stephen Evans
The blurring of the distinction between education and religious inculcation in British schools is preventing young people from receiving good quality objective education about religion and belief, argues Stephen Evans.
The Supreme Court of Canada recently ruled... Read More »
Even the chief architect of the expansion of religious schools is now having doubts
Posted: Wed, 01 Apr 2015 by Terry Sanderson
With the public, of all faiths and none, increasingly recognising the problems caused by faith schools, NSS president Terry Sanderson calls out politicians who complain about religious separatism on one hand while deliberately promoting it on the other.
Tony... Read More »
GP Taylor: Why faith has no place in our schools
Posted: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 by GP Taylor
Many principled people of faith oppose religious privilege in state schools. Former Anglican priest GP Taylor makes an impassioned case for secularism as a basis for equally inclusive education.
As a priest, I was always suspicious of the new parent lurking... Read More »
Operation Christmas Child
Posted: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 by Alastair Lichten
Every year the National Secular Society is contacted by parents upset to discover that a festive charitable project in their children's school is unwittingly making them tools for evangelisation. Alastair Lichten looks at some of their concerns.
It seems to... Read More »
Transport to faith schools: Local authorities shouldn't be subsidising religious segregation
Posted: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 by Stephen Evans
A "hideous form of discrimination" or the justifiable removal of a religious privilege? NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans takes on Conservative MP Nigel Evans over the removal of transport subsidies to faith schools.
Last week, during Education Questions... Read More »
A contested subject: religious education and faith schools
Posted: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 by Alastair Lichten
Reports of a Cabinet row over plans to require faith schools to teach more than one religion at GCSE level show that even baby steps towards greater objectivity in religious education will face fierce opposition, argues Alastair Lichten.
Secularists have had... Read More »
Teachers shouldn’t be the victims of religious discrimination
Posted: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 by Stephen Evans
The degree to which we tolerate discrimination against teachers in state-funded faith schools would be totally unacceptable in almost all other areas of public life, argues Stephen Evans.
Parents with children at a primary school in East Sussex expressed outrage... Read More »
It’s not only Islamists who have Trojan Horses
Posted: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 by Terry Sanderson
Those with a vested interest in the continuation of 'faith schools' have started their fight back against the growing number of critics, says Terry Sanderson.
After the furore of the Birmingham Trojan Horse affair, a lot of commentators reached the conclusion... Read More »
A “religious ethos” is not why faith schools succeed – it’s selection that does it
Posted: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 by Terry Sanderson
Rather than a faith-based ethos, Terry Sanderson argues that it's selection that allows faith schools to outperform other schools – and calls for fairer admissions policies to ensure a level playing field for all.
The headline in the Coventry Telegraph... Read More »
Yes, “faith schools” really are the problem
Posted: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 by Terry Sanderson
Politicians are in denial over the problems caused by "faith schools" and religious influence in education, argues Terry Sanderson.
The National Secular Society has been saying it for years – "faith schools" are a bad idea. And despite the events of the... Read More »
Religious schools are the problem, not the answer
Posted: Mon, 14 Apr 2014 by Terry Sanderson
One could almost be tempted to say "Hallelujah" to the news that Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, has at last recognised that there is a problem with dangerous religious proselytising in schools – particularly, but certainly not only, in Muslim-dominated... Read More »
We must give up our faith in religious schools
Posted: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 by Philip Collins
If social integration is the aspiration, we should start in schools and remove faith schools' right to religious selection, argues Philip Collins.
The task of living together well is the dilemma of the diverse modern city. I saw this at its most acute in the... Read More »
Faith schools: whose education is it anyway?
Posted: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 by Stephen Evans
Education policy and practice should focus more on children's independent interests and building a shared society rather than pandering to religious groups motivated by self-preservation, argues NSS campaigns manager, Stephen Evans.
According to a comprehensive... Read More »
The Church of England’s unrelenting exploitation of the nation’s schools
Posted: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 by Stephen Evans
The Church of England's intention is clear. State funded schools will be regarded as churches – and serve as pulpits for evangelisation, argues Stephen Evans.
Parents and their children may have deserted the pews in droves – but that doesn't really... Read More »
Job applications should not be a matter of faith
Posted: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 by A Teacher
A teacher's perspective on why faith schools should not be able to select staff and students based on their religion.
I am about to begin a role at a state-funded faith primary school, having had a successful start in teaching at an independent Catholic primary.... Read More »
Research or propaganda? How the apologists for faith schools are fighting back
Posted: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 by Terry Sanderson
Faith schools have been getting a bit of a bad press lately. Despite the fact that successive Governments have encouraged them, parents are far from convinced.
The churches and mosques, of course, are taking full advantage of the Government's enthusiasm and... Read More »
Why is the state funding the indoctrination of children in schools with dangerous ideologies?
Posted: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 by Terry Sanderson
The Prime Minister, David Cameron, made a statement last week about the Nairobi shopping mall massacre which almost beggars belief. He said:
"These appalling terrorist attacks that take place where the perpetrators claim they do it in the name of a religion... Read More »
A secular society is the key
Posted: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 by Oliver Kamm
Teaching science to Jewish children is not the enemy of knowledge but the prerequisite of it, declared the Jewish Chronicle in its leader last week. It was a reference to disquiet among Charedi Jews about the GCSE science curriculum. Michael Gove, the education... Read More »
