Thousands of children are languishing in unregistered faith schools.
These schools prioritise fundamentalist religion over the education and welfare of children.
The scandal of unregistered schools must be addressed.
Some religious institutions operate schools which are not registered with the Department for Education, despite this being a legal requirement.
Schools are left unregistered to avoid regulations and inspections, so they can teach a very narrow, religion-based curriculum without oversight. This severely limits children's future options, as children leave these schools with very poor literacy, no formal qualifications and no skills or experience for life in modern Britain.
The lack of scrutiny also presents major safeguarding concerns. Children have been taught in unsafe conditions and subjected to physical punishment in these schools. The curriculum may also teach extremist, regressive and discriminatory dogma.
In 2019, Ofsted estimated as many as 6,000 children were being educated in unregistered settings. But the number could be even higher. Approximately 86,300 children and young people were electively home educated nationally during the year 2019/20. There is little regulation of home education, so many of these children could in fact be attending an unregistered school.
Some unregistered schools exploit loopholes in the law to avoid registration and operate at the margins of the law as an "out of school educational setting". Although many out of school settings, including tuition centres and supplementary schools, provide an excellence service, a minority put children's welfare at risk.
We are working to end the harms caused by unregistered schools by campaigning for greater powers for Ofsted tackle these settings, the elimination of loopholes to force more schools to register, and improved regulation of elective home education.
Take action!
1. Suspect an unregistered school? Report it!
Unregistered schools are illegal and pose a serious threat to children's wellbeing. If you think you know of a possible unregistered school, please report it to the schools inspectorate Ofsted.
If you are aware of children in imminent danger, please call 999 and inform the police.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join us
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
NSS welcomes action on illegal faith schools
Posted: Fri, 19 Nov 2021 11:02
The National Secular Society has welcomed a new government service allowing the public to report unregistered schools they believe to be operating illegally.
This comes as Ofsted published updated data on their investigation and inspection of unregistered schools from 2016 to 2021.
Ofsted warned children in hundreds of such settings are in danger of being "robbed of their life chances" in unreliable and "squalid" environments and called on citizens to inform them of unprofessional educational practices.
Currently, only one in 10 referrals comes from the public, and just one in six from local authorities.
The inspectorate said many were operating openly, charging customers thousands of pounds, with some children are being taught in disused office blocks and semi-commercial units on "drab industrial estates".
Thirteen per cent of unregistered settings investigated were centres of religious teachings, and 22% had an explicit faith ethos, though such data is extremely patchy.
The NSS, which campaigns to protect children's rights in independent and unregistered schools, has continuously called for local authorities and communities to be better supported to tackle the prevalence of illegal schools. The tackling of unregistered faith schools has often been slow, despite some being registered as charities and known by local authorities.
Head of Education at the NSS, Alastair Lichten, said "We welcome the renewed action to tackle illegal faith schools. There is a difference between practically, and ideologically unregistered settings. The former may be unregistered through mismanagement or misunderstanding the law, and in most cases can change their services to comply. The latter group, overwhelmingly made up of religious schools, remain unregistered largely to avoid regulation or oversight.
"The number of young people falling out of the education system into unsafe, unregulated, and dogmatic 'schools' is a national scandal, fundamentally undermining children's human rights."
Ofsted are also concerned about 115 settings with home educated children. The NSS has previously warned of legitimate elective home education being used as a cover for illegal schooling.
Headteacher sentenced for continuing to run illegal faith school
Posted: Tue, 12 Oct 2021 12:26
The National Secular Society has welcomed the second prosecution of two people for continuing to run an unregistered faith school.
Nadia Ali was convicted on Monday for running Ambassadors High School, an Islamic institution in south London, as headteacher despite it failing a pre-registration inspection. Her father Arshad Ali was named as the proprietor.
They had been previously convicted of the same criminal offence.
Nadia was given an eight weeks' imprisonment suspended for 12 months. This is the first time a prison sentence has been imposed for running an unregistered school.
She was also sentenced to 120 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £500. Arshad was fined £300 and ordered to pay costs of £200.
Ofsted inspectors visited Ambassadors High School in 2018 and warned Nadia they believed the school was operating illegally.
Following an application from the school to register, Ofsted carried out a pre-registration inspection in February 2019. The inspection found the school was "unlikely to meet all the independent school standards".
According to the inspection report, the school had not prioritised the safety and welfare of pupils. They had not checked staff were suitable to work with children, and neither the admissions register nor the daily attendance registers met legal requirements.
The school had no strategy for teaching British values or for checking that pupils would not encounter "the teaching of partisan political views". It also failed to provide pupils with careers education.
Despite failing the inspection, the school continued to operate. Nadia and Arshad Ali were found guilty of running an unregistered school in September 2019.
Following their conviction, Ofsted found the school was still open when inspectors made return visits. Inspectors were informed that children attending the setting were home-educated. But they found evidence the school was continuing to provide full-time education to at least five pupils of compulsory school age, meaning it was legally required to register.
Ofsted's chief inspector Amanda Spielman called Nadia and Arshad Ali's decision to continue running Ambassadors High School "breathtaking arrogance".
She said: "Unregistered schools deny children a proper education and put their safety and well-being at risk."
She added that the case demonstrates the need for "legislation to be strengthened so that we can take action against these places quickly and conclusively."
The NSS's head of education, Alastair Lichten, said: "When so called 'schools' actively seek to evade registration and any oversight, it is clear they are placing ideology before pupils' welfare or right to an education.
"The action Ofsted have initiated reflects their growing seriousness in addressing unregistered schools, after years of campaigning by the NSS.
"However, far more needs to be done, to ensure known perpetrators are tackled, legitimate home-schooling isn't used as a front, and no child is denied a genuine education and the associated life chances, by their religious community."
Notes
- Under section 96 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 a person must not conduct an independent educational institution unless it is registered.
- Since January 2016, Ofsted's unregistered schools taskforce has inspected around 390 settings where inspectors had reasonable cause to believe an unregistered school was operating.
- Approximately 25% of inspected settings have a faith ethos. Twelve per cent are Muslim, 5% are Jewish and 5% are Christian.
- Safeguarding concerns were found in around a third of inspected settings, while health and safety concerns were found in around a quarter.
- To date, there have been 5 successful prosecutions for running an unregistered school.
Image by Juraj Varga from Pixabay.
