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Events News

London Humanist Hustings: European Elections 2014

On Tuesday 6 May, the British Humanist Association (BHA), Conway Hall Ethical Society, the Central London Humanist Group (CLHG) and the European Humanist Federation (EHF) will be hosting a humanist hustings for the upcoming European parliament elections (22 May 2014).

We are delighted that Labour Humanist Mary Honeyball MEP will be taking part. The hustings will be a chance to question candidates from across Parties about how they will (or won’t!) be working on issues of interest to humanists, such as secularism, science, human rights and equality.

About Mary Honeyball MEP

“Democracy and religion do not mix… Politicians are voted in to represent their electorates. People who vote for me and my colleagues expect us to further the interests of the public at large, not those of any particular religion, church, mosque, synagogue, temple or indeed any other interest group. We go against the democratic foundations of our country at our peril.”

Mary entered the European Parliament in 2000, following three decades of involvement in Labour politics. Since becoming an MEP Mary has taken a special interest in women’s issues, and acts as the Labour spokesperson for women’s rights and gender equality.

Mary is a supporter of Labour Humanists and a Vice President of the British Humanist Association (BHA). Find out more about Mary here and here.

Visit the BHA website to find out more about the hustings, the other candidates, and register online now to attend.

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News

Initial review of Labour’s core policy papers

Following a review of its core policies, Labour has published a number of policy papers for consultation. The eight papers will form the basis of Labour’s One Nation Manifesto so it is crucial that humanists and secularists within the Party have their say on the papers, and encourage their CLPs to do the same. Here is our initial review of four of the papers most relevant to our work.

Better Politics 

We strongly support the direction of this paper. As humanists, we are committed to human rights, democracy, equality and mutual respect. We support moves to increase understanding of democracy and active civic participation. We believe the community should provide education that helps children and young people to develop knowledge, judgement and skills – including skills of moral thinking and citizenship – so we are pleased to see those sentiments reflected in a commitment to quality citizenship education in schools and beyond.

We want a society where there is a culture of respect for human rights. We are glad to see a commitment to strengthening human rights and to defending the Human Rights Act (HRA). The law is vital for protecting rights such as freedom of expression and speech, currently under attack from some religious groups.

We would like to Labour to commit to ensuring all organisations, including religious groups, providing statutory public services on behalf of the state are bound by the HRA, in order to provide much better protection for service users. Read more on our approach to secular public services below under ‘Safer, Stronger Communities’.

We are pleased to see a strong focus on equalities. However, we would like Labour to go much further and commit to tackling the many exemptions from equalities legislation afforded to religious groups which allow them to discriminate even when operating in the public sphere such as in employment, in the provision of public services and in schools. The exemptions from the law to which all other organisations are bound are unnecessary, unjust, privilege religious groups, and are completely against Labour’s commitment to equality.

Parliament. We submitted a paper to the policy review specifically on Bishops in the Lords. We’d like Labour to be more specific in the commitment to House of Lords reform and have a clear and principled policy against religious privilege in our Parliament, to include the following:
• End the undemocratic ‘right’ for the Church of England to sit in our parliament
• No reserved seats for any religious representatives
• Allow Church of England bishops, and any other clergy or religious representatives, to stand for election or be eligible for appointment to a reformed Lords but let that be on the same basis as everyone else
• Promote equality and campaign against privilege in our democratic arrangements

Education and Children

A third of state-funded faith schools have a religious character. These are commonly known as faith schools. Given their significance, it is surprising and disappointing that there is no specific mention of faith schools in the policy paper. We will be urging for a number of amendments to be made to make tackling discrimination by state-funded faith schools a core policy priority for One Nation Labour.

We would like to see a commitment from Labour to ensure all state-funded schools uphold principles of equality and do not discriminate on religious grounds in employment or admissions. We support a broad and balanced curriculum including teaching: about non-religious beliefs such as Humanism as well as different religious beliefs; comprehensive PSHE and SRE; science including evolution. We would like Labour to oppose any teaching of creationist theories as valid scientific theories.

Together with Tom Copley, Labour London Assembly Member, we made a submission on faith school admissions. All types of state-funded schools with a religious character are permitted to select in their admissions by discriminating on religious grounds. This even includes those whose admissions are controlled by the local authority if that authority allows it, faith Academies and Free Schools. Labour should guarantee that children will not be turned away from their local school on the basis of their parents’ beliefs. We firmly believe this would be a popular policy and likely vote winner. We would like Labour to consider the following policy options:
• No new faith school allowed to discriminate in its admissions
• No existing faith school allowed to discriminate in admissions in the future
It is vital that a commitment to inclusive admissions with no religious discrimination by faith
schools permitted is in Labour’s 2015 manifesto.

Quality teaching. In a recent article and in a joint submission with the British Humanist Association (BHA) to Labour’s call for evidence on improving teacher quality, we make clear that faith-based discrimination in employment is unfair on teachers and pupils, unnecessary, and in all likelihood usually unlawful.

All types of faith schools (around a third of state-funded schools), from those under Local Authority control to Academies and Free Schools, have the ability to place religious requirements on teaching positions. In reality, some religious authorities think that they have the right to know the intimate details of teachers’ private lives and to use that information to determine whether they can have a job or get a promotion. Or at worst and regardless of how well qualified a teacher is, use personal information to discipline and dismiss on the grounds that her conduct outside of work is ‘incompatible with the precepts’ of the school’s religion.

We support Labour’s moves to improving teacher quality but if the Party is serious about the value quality teaching it must address urgently the issue of discrimination against teachers in state-funded faith schools.

Britain’s Global Role

We support Labour’s commitment to internationalism, to tackling poverty and to promoting social justice in our country and abroad. Regarding human rights specifically, we would like to see a commitment to defending freedom of thought and belief. The Freedom of Thought report, published earlier this year by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), surveys the discrimination and persecution against non-religious people in every country in the world and finds that ‘ the overwhelming majority of countries fail to respect the rights of atheists and freethinkers’. Freedom of thought and belief – including religious and non-religious beliefs – are human rights and the cornerstone of any free and democratic society and should be robustly defended.

Stronger, Safer Communities

This paper covers a number of areas, from criminal justice to tackling violence against women and girls, and local public services. We support the direction of this paper regarding building stronger communities. We want a society where all individuals feel empowered as members of a democratic community to influence decisions made about their lives. We believe this can only happen in a society where people are not labelled or divided by their beliefs and where all voluntary and community groups and all volunteers are treated equally.

We made a submission to this Commission focusing on human rights and equalities, public services and religious organisations. However the importance of non-discrimination in services is not especially highlighted in Labour’s policy paper. We strongly believe that Labour should take action and have a clear policy to ensure public services are equal, inclusive, and protect and promote human rights. All organisations, including religious groups working under public contract to provide public services, must operate in an inclusive, secular way. In practice that would mean:
• No discrimination on religious or other grounds in employment
• No discrimination on religious or other grounds against service users
• No religious element part of the service, including prayers or proselytising
It is vital that a commitment to inclusive public services with no religious discrimination is in Labour’s 2015 manifesto.

We will soon draft some suggested amendments which you can take to your CLP. In the meantime, if you have suggestions for specific amendments, please do let us know.

Please follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Please join us.

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Labour’s policies out for consultation

Following a review of its core policies, Labour has published a number of policy papers for consultation. The eight papers will form the basis of Labour’s One Nation Manifesto so it is crucial that humanists and secularists within the Party have their say on the papers, and encourage their CLPs to do the same.

As well as submitting your own comments online, every CLP is entitled to propose up to ten amendments, which National Policy Forum representatives can then choose to bring forward to a meeting of the NPF in July. The final papers will then be adopted by Annual Conference in September as Labour’s official policy programme ahead of the election next year.

The deadline for you to submit your comments is 13 June.

We will be drafting suggested amendments. Please see our initial review of four of the papers most relevant to our work.

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News

Labour Humanists & BHA respond to Labour on improving teacher quality

‘Faith-based discrimination in employment is unfair on teachers and pupils, unnecessary, and in all likelihood usually unlawful’. That is the key message Labour Humanists and the British Humanist Association (BHA) have put across in our joint submission to Labour’s call for evidence on improving teacher quality.

We make comments both on qualified teacher status and the issue of reserving teaching posts in state-funded schools for suitably religious teachers.

All types of faith schools (around a third of state-funded schools), from those under Local Authority control to Academies and Free Schools, have the ability to place religious requirements on teaching positions. In reality, some religious authorities think that they have the right to know the intimate details of teachers’ private lives and to use that information to determine whether they can have a job or get a promotion. Or at worst and regardless of how well qualified a teacher is, use personal information to discipline and dismiss on the grounds that her conduct outside of work is ‘incompatible with the precepts’ of the school’s religion.

We support Labour’s moves to improving teacher quality but if the Party is serious about the value quality teaching it must address the issue of discrimination against teachers in state-funded faith schools.

Read our submission.

Join us!

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Now is the time for Labour properly to support teachers

If Labour is serious about supporting teachers and improving quality in classrooms, it must have a change in policy to say that no state-funded school is allowed to place a religious requirement on any teaching or non-teaching job. That is the key message set out in an article published on LabourList, Labour’s biggest independent grassroots e-network.

All types of faith schools (around a third of state-funded schools), from those under Local Authority control to Academies and Free Schools, have the ability to place religious requirements on teaching positions. This means in practice that many state schools are able to hire, fire and promote (or refuse to promote) teachers simply on the basis of their personal beliefs and behaviour outside of school, no matter how well qualified they are. We think this is totally wrong.

Labour’s values should be firmly in favour of equality and inclusion. We are working within the Party and seeking to influence policy at this crucial time to ensure that under the next Labour Government, no teacher’s job prospects could be determined by whether she believes in god or not.

Join us today and help to get our position heard.

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Blog News

Working for a more compassionate law on assisted dying

Assisted dying has been raised again as a major social, political and media story over the past few months, so we thought it would be helpful to set out our position as a group working for a more equal, ethical and secular Labour Party.

We want to see a more ethical and compassionate law on assisted dying in the UK that would protect the vulnerable but also allow mentally competent adults the right to die with dignity in a time and manner of their own choosing.

For people who are terminally ill or who are permanently and incurably suffering, who have made a clear decision, free from coercion, to end their lives and who are physically unable to do so themselves, we support a change in the law to legalise assisted dying and euthanasia.

We want to support Labour elected representatives working for a change in the law on assisted dying.

We agree with the British Humanist Association’s assessment of the current situation and its case for change:

Currently, the needs and autonomy of patients are often disregarded. Many people are in fact helped to die by doctors or nurses but without the safeguards that legislation would bring. Compassionate doctors, who follow the wishes of their terminally ill or incurably suffering patients by assisting them to die, risk being charged with assisting suicide or murder. The current system also results in close relatives being faced with the immensely difficult choices of whether, knowing that it is unlawful, to assist a loved one who is begging for help to put an end to their suffering or not to act and hence prolong their suffering.

We do not believe that anyone should be put into the position of having to make such choices, or indeed into a position where they believe that they have no other option but personally to end the life of someone they love. The few terminally ill and suffering people who are able to travel abroad to die often do so before it would be necessary if they did not need to be still able to travel.

Being able to die, with dignity, in a manner of our choosing must be understood to be a fundamental human right – a position supported by the landmark judgment in the Purdy case, where our highest court ruled that European Convention on Human Rights can be invoked in relation to the end of life.

Legalising assisted dying would ensure that strict legal safeguards are in place and empower people to make rational choices over their end of life care, free from coercion. The choice of an assisted death should not be instead of palliative care for terminally ill people, but a core part of comprehensive, patient-centred approaches to end of life care.

Time and again courts have said that a change in the law is a matter for parliament to enact – this is, necessarily, a political as well as moral issue. Despite strong public support for a change in the law, the majority of parliamentarians have so far been reluctant to support moves to legalise assisted dying.

However, there are many humanist and Labour MPs and Peers who do support a change to a more compassionate law. This year, we will brief on the ethical case for changing the law to allow assisted dying, with appropriate safeguards. We will support Labour elected representatives who seek to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill and permanently and incurably suffering people who wish to die with dignity in a manner of their choosing.

 

 

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News

Groundbreaking research shows extent of religious discrimination in state schools

Research published today by the Fair Admissions Campaign has shown the extent to which state-funded faith schools discriminate in their admissions on religious grounds and its effect on social and ethnic inclusiveness. Labour Humanists is affiliated to the British Humanist Association (BHA) and supports the Fair Admissions Campaign.

The research has been launched in map form and, for the first time, scores how religiously selective, socio-economically inclusive and ethnically inclusive every mainstream state secondary school in England is. Users are able to see profiles for individual schools, compare and rank different schools in their area and nationally, and see how segregated different denominations, dioceses and local authorities are. It can be viewed at http://fairadmissions.org.uk/map

The research finds that there is a clear correlation between religious selection and socio-economic segregation; one of the key findings is that schools with no religious character admit 11% more pupils eligible for free school meals than would be expected given their areas, while state schools with a Christian, Jewish or Muslim character admit far fewer eligible for free school meals than would be expected given their areas. See notes for more key findings.

Labour Humanists’ Chair Naomi Phillips commented, ‘Religious leaders often claim that faith schools – paid for by the state – are inclusive and serve the local community. This latest research which maps every state secondary school in England shows that is often not the case. Labour principles mean that whichever family you are born into, whatever your background, you have the right to high-quality and inclusive education. Support for the present system of state-funded faith schools clearly goes against those principles, and we urge Labour to change its policy to guarantee that children will not be turned away from their local school on the basis of their parents’ beliefs.

‘Even if religious selection in school admissions was not a proxy for class discrimination – which it demonstrably is – Labour Humanists would still oppose it because we do not believe any state school should refuse children on the basis of whether their parents believe in a god or not.’

Notes

It is our firm belief that state-funded faith schools (about a third of all schools) should be inclusive: we believe that is a Labour value too. We believe that discrimination in admissions by state-funded faith schools is unnecessary, unjust, disastrous for social cohesion, and completely against Labour values. We therefore ask for a commitment to inclusivity and opposing discrimination in admissions by faith schools to be included in Labour’s manifesto for the 2015 general election.

Fair Admissions Campaign full press release:

Groundbreaking new research maps the segregating impact of faith school admissions

The Fair Admissions Campaign has today published groundbreaking research into the extent of religious selection in state schools and its effect on social and ethnic inclusiveness. Launched in map form, for the first time it scores how religiously selective, socio-economically inclusive and ethnically inclusive every mainstream state secondary school in England is. Users are able to see profiles for individual schools, compare and rank different schools in their area and nationally, and see how segregated different denominations, dioceses and local authorities are. It is hoped that the tool will prove useful to parents, schools, and individuals concerned about segregation in school admissions. It can be viewed at http://fairadmissions.org.uk/map. The research combines data from five main sources and hundreds of admissions directories. The map details the proportion of pupils each school is allowed to religiously select in its oversubscription criteria; how many pupils at the school are eligible for free school meals by comparison with its local area; and how many speak English as an additional language. Key findings include:

  • Comprehensive secondaries with no religious character admit 11% more pupils eligible for free school meals than would be expected given their areas. Comprehensive Church of England secondaries admit 10% fewer; Roman Catholic secondaries 24% fewer; Jewish secondaries 61% fewer; and Muslim secondaries 25% fewer.
  • There is a clear correlation between religious selection and socio-economic segregation: Church of England comprehensives that don’t select on faith admit 4% more pupils eligible for free school meals than would be expected, while those whose admissions criteria allow full selection admit 31% fewer.
  • 16% of schools select by religion but they are vastly overrepresented in the 100 worst offenders on free school meal eligibility and English as an additional language. They make up 46 of the worst 100 schools (and 67 out of 100 if we exclude grammar schools) on FSM eligibility and 50 of the worst 100 (55 if we exclude grammar schools) on EAL.
  • The most segregated local authority as a result of religious selection is Hammersmith and Fulham. While 15% of pupils nationally are eligible for free school meals, the segregation between the religiously selective schools and other schools is almost double that (27 percentage points).
  • The map represents the first time any data has ever been published on the degree of religious selection by faith schools. We estimate that 16% of places at state schools (or 1.2 million) are subject to religious selection criteria. This compares with 5% of secondary places in grammar schools and 7% of all places in independent schools.
  • More in depth findings can be found in our briefing.

Chair of the Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain MBE said, ‘This new research exposes the hypocrisy of those who claim religiously selective schools serve the community at large. It reveals that they not only further segregate children on religious and ethnic grounds, but also are skewed towards serving the affluent at the expense of the deprived. Crucially, the research also shows that the more a school is permitted to select children by faith, the greater the extent to which it is likely to socio-economically segregate. The data poses some very awkward questions for the state funded faith school sector, especially as many people of faith are appalled that schools that should focus on the poor have become so elitist.’

Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association, commented, ‘Today’s findings make clear like never before the devastating effects that faith-based admissions have in segregating communities along socio-economic and ethnic lines. The Archbishop of Canterbury recently commented that Church of England schools are moving away from religious selection. We are yet to see if this is true, but at the same time believe it cannot come true soon enough. In any case, the scale of the problem demands not voluntary effort by religious groups but legislation – government should act now to make these divisive effects impossible by removing the possibility of religious selection in state-funded schools.’

Professor Ted Cantle CBE chaired The Cantle Report into the 2001 race riots, and founded the Institute of Community Cohesion. Professor Cantle commented, ‘This research clearly demonstrates the increasing balkanisation of our school system, with children growing up in separate communities with little chance of learning about others. It shows that education has done nothing to break down the “parallel lives” I described in 2001, rather they have been reinforced.’

Jeremy Rodell is Chair of the Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign, who last year took a judicial review against two proposed Catholic schools in the hope of establishing more inclusive admissions policies. Mr Rodell commented, ‘The evidence presented by this new data is very clear. We already knew that it is unfair for state-funded schools to discriminate on the basis of religion. But we can now see that the unfairness is compounded because it also disadvantages children who are already disadvantaged. Perversely, those who are the strongest advocates of choice in schooling are apparently happy to defend admissions policies that give some parents far more choice than others simply because of their religious practices, genuine or otherwise. Surely no government, of any political complexion, should allow this to continue.’

Notes For further comment please contact Accord Coalition Chair Jonathan Romain on 07770 722 893, BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson on 07534 24 8596 or email info@fairadmissions.org.uk. For further information about the map please contact Richy Thompson on 020 7324 3072. The map can be viewed at http://fairadmissions.org.uk/map and a more in depth briefing at http://fairadmissions.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Fair-Admissions-Campaign-map-in-depth-briefing.pdf. Note that unfortunately the map doesn’t work on mobile devices due to the fact that they can only handle about 100 pins (there are over 3,300).

Figures comparing different religious denominations and Dioceses can be seen on the ‘Overall averages’ tab of the map. For a fuller methodology (including how schools’ local area figures are calculated), details of the sources used, responses to possible criticism and answers to other questions please see the ‘FAQs’ tab.

The Fair Admissions Campaign wants all state-funded schools in England and Wales to be open equally to all children, without regard to religion or belief. The Campaign is supported by a wide coalition of individuals and national and local organisations. We hold diverse views on whether or not the state should fund faith schools. But we all believe that faith-based discrimination in access to schools that are funded by the taxpayer is wrong in principle and a cause of religious, ethnic, and socio-economic segregation, all of which are harmful to community cohesion. It is time it stopped.

Supporters of the campaign include the Accord Coalition, the British Humanist Association, Professor Ted Cantle and the iCoCo Foundation, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, British Muslims for Secular Democracy, the Campaign for State Education, the Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education, the Christian think tank Ekklesia, the Hindu Academy, the Green Party, the Liberal Democrat Education Association, Liberal Youth, the Local Schools Network, Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign, the Runnymede Trust, the Socialist Educational Association, and the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches.

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Tories and the Church speak out in support of discriminatory faith schools

Just days after a Tory Minister confirmed the Government’s commitment to expanding the number of state-funded faith schools, the Archbishop of Canterbury has made a statement in support of allowing schools to discriminate in their admissions including on religious grounds.

Despite a front page interview in The Times newspaper today where he seemed to support inclusive admissions to faith schools, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has subsequently said: ‘I fully support the current policy for schools to set their own admissions criteria, including the criterion of faith. Nothing in my wider comments to The Times on this subject should be seen as “revealing” any changes nor dissenting from current policy.’ In practice, the Church of England’s policy allows state-funded faith schools to discriminate against children and families on grounds of religion.

Earlier this week, in a speech at Cambridge University, the Tory Minister for Faith, Baroness Warsi, spoke out against secularism and stated, ‘We didn’t just get behind faith schools, we created more. And of our flagship free schools, one in four are faith-based: Sikh, Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Christian, Muslim and Hindu.’

All types of state-funded schools with a religious character are permitted to select in their admissions by discriminating on religious grounds, including the faith Academies and Free Schools. Evidence shows that schools selecting pupils on the basis of the professed faith of the parents are segregating children and young people along religious, socio-economic, cultural, and even ethnic lines.

Naomi Phillips, Chair of Labour Humanists said, ‘Both the Tory-led Government and the Church of England are promoting religious privilege and making an assault on social cohesion and equality through their policies to increase the number of faith schools and to allow them to discriminate in their admissions on religious grounds.

‘Dividing up more and more young people along religious and class lines through selection by the ever-expanding faith schools sector cannot be good for society. It’s time for Labour to take the lead and stand up for a truly inclusive school system.’

Notes

Contact Naomi Phillips at chair@labourhumanists.org.uk

Read Labour Humanists’ submission to Labour’s policy review on faith school admissions

Read the Fair Admissions Campaign’s response to Justin Welby’s statement

Read BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson’s comment

Tories collude to hand secular schools over to the Church

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AGM & Meeting Report

Labour should care about the selective and discriminatory admissions policies of state-funded faith schools – that was the resounding message from our meeting. However, more work needs to be done on what would be the most effective actions for Labour to take to address the worsening situation.

We had a fantastic turn out for our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 30 October 2013. This was our first AGM since Labour Humanists was ‘revived’ in 2012 and was a celebration of the activities, growth and successes we have had in the past 18 months. Read the chair’s and the treasurer’s report, as well as the minutes.

Following the AGM we welcomed members and non-members to our meeting on Labour and selective faith schools – it was so popular it was standing room only. We were delighted to be joined by four fantastic speakers: Tom Copley, London Assembly Member; Andrew Copson, Chief Executive, British Humanist Association; Andrew Harrop, General Secretary, Fabian Society and Joan Smith, feminist, author and columnist.

We are grateful for all of their contributions and recommendations for future work on selective faith schools and wider issues, including religious bias in the curriculum and the importance of teaching Sex and Relationships Education in schools, with no opt-outs for faith schools.

Read a detailed report of the meeting by the Fair Admissions Campaign.

Read a Storify of the event, which also includes some photographs.

 

Tom Copley, London Assembly Member Naomi Phillips, Chair, Labour Humanists Joan Smith, feminist and author
Tom Copley, London Assembly Member
Naomi Phillips, Chair, Labour Humanists
Joan Smith, feminist and author
Naomi Phillips, Chair, Labour Humanists
Naomi Phillips, Chair, Labour Humanists
Andrew Harrop, General Secretary, Fabian Society Tom Copley, London Assembly Member Naomi Phillips, Chair, Labour Humanists Joan Smith, feminist and author Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive
Andrew Harrop, General Secretary, Fabian Society
Tom Copley, London Assembly Member
Naomi Phillips, Chair, Labour Humanists
Joan Smith, feminist and author
Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive
Joan Smith, feminist and author
Joan Smith, feminist and author
Andrew Harrop, Fabian Society General Secretary
Andrew Harrop, Fabian Society General Secretary

 

Julia Mundy, Treasurer Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive
Julia Mundy, Treasurer
Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive
Adam Harrison, Secretary
Adam Harrison, Secretary
Guest with Labour Humanists badge 'Separate Church & State'
Guest with Labour Humanists badge ‘Separate Church & State’
Guests
Guests
Guests
Guests
Guests
Guests

 

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We write to Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary

We have written to Dr Tristram Hunt, Labour’s new Shadow Secretary of State for Education. In our letter to Dr Hunt we set out our position as relates to education and we also ask for a meeting.

We warmly welcomed Labour’s commitment to making Sex and Relationships Education compulsory in schools but urged that there should be no opt-out for faith schools.

We outlined our concerns about discrimination against, and unequal treatment of, teachers and teaching staff in state-funded faith schools.

We also took the opportunity to send Dr Hunt our submission to Labour’s policy review on faith school admissions, which we made jointly with Tom Copley, London Assembly Member.