2011 'faith' schools campaigner appeal

The British Humanist Association is the national organisation leading the opposition to state-funded ‘faith’ schools. In particular, since 2007 the BHA has employed the UK’s only dedicated campaigner against ‘faith’ schools. This campaigner works hard to oppose their discriminatory, divisive nature in the media, to government and in support of local campaigns across the country.

We need your help to continue to support this important post. Please donate today at http://justgiving.com/nofaithschools.

There are over 7,000 such schools in England and Wales, and this number is rising at an alarming rate. Most ‘faith’ schools are able to apply religious criteria discriminate in admissions and in employing all teachers and even some non-teaching staff. The religious groups running them can set their own RE curriculum and they can teach sex and relationships education from their perspective.

The results are well-documented: socio-economic as well as religious segregation, and children being taught an unbalanced, divisive curriculum denying them vital knowledge for later life.

And with many existing schools converting to Academies and the first new Free Schools opening as we speak, ‘faith’ schools are gaining more control over their curricula, which they now entirely set themselves. Those that cannot currently discriminate in their admissions criteria are often gaining the ability to do so. And teachers at Academies and Free Schools are not required to hold qualified teacher status.

This represents further segregation of our education system – a deterioration of the position we were in before, and therefore increasing importance of our campaign.

The BHA’s Campaigns Officer (Faith Schools and Education) works towards a situation where ‘faith’ schools are reformed to the extent that they are absorbed back into the mainstream inclusive schools system; and those inclusive schools, in turn, teach high quality religious education, personal, social, economic and health education, and do not hold a daily act of collective worship. Towards these ends, his work includes:

• Briefing MPs and peers, in particular members of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, on legislation and other debates taking place in Parliament
• Responding to relevant consultations run by the Government and other organisations
• Working through the media to raise awareness of our issues and ensure our perspective is heard
• Continuing to research issues surrounding ‘faith’ schools and relevant areas of education
• Supporting parents, teachers and pupils dealing with issues they may experience surrounding admissions, collective worship, RE, sex and relationships education and creationism
• Supporting local campaigns against ‘faith’ schools and in favour of inclusive alternatives
• Working closely with the Accord Coalition, an alliance of religious and non-religious groups for the reform of ‘faith’ schools, of which the BHA is a founding member
• Representing non-religious and secularist views in meetings with external stakeholders
• Campaigning to ensure there is a Humanist representative as a full voting member of every Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE)

Donations will be used to ensure we can employ our dedicated campaigns officer for another year and fund his campaigning activities. Any money donated beyond our target will be spent on BHA education campaigns.

This work is more important than ever before. Please donate generously at http://justgiving.com/nofaithschools to help us continue to fight a well-resourced, deeply entrenched opposition.