Tag: faith schools

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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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News

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.

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Selective faith schools: should Labour care?

18.45 – 19.45, Wednesday 30 October, Camden Town Hall, Judd Street London WC1H 9JE
Please RSVP info@labourhumanists.org.uk or via Eventbrite.

The religiously selective admissions policies used by faith schools have been under the spotlight, with a particular focus on their effect to segregate children and families by not only by religion but on socio-economic grounds. If they really are grammar schools by the back door, should Labour support them?

Can schools being allowed to discriminate against children whose parents are not of the ‘right’ religion, and those of no religion, fit with Labour values of equality, human rights and social cohesion?

Join us to discuss religiously selective admissions policies by state-funded faith schools, what a One Nation school admissions policy should look like, and if there is room in the Manifesto 2015 for a commitment to inclusive admissions.

Speakers:

Tom new pic  Tom Copley                     andrew-copson-titel-218x218 Andrew Copson

London Assembly Member                        Chief Executive, British Humanist Association

Andrew Harrop Andrew Harrop                  Joan Smith JPG Joan Smith

General Secretary, Fabian Society          Feminist, author and columnist

Chair:

Naomi Phillips colour Naomi Phillips

Chair, Labour Humanists

Background reading!

We made a joint submission with London Assembly Member Tom Copley to Labour’s policy review specifically on discriminatory, selective admissions policies by faith schools – and why Labour should support inclusive admissions.

If you are a Labour member you can vote for our policy suggestion. If you are not a Labour member you can still register to leave a comment. Read more about our submissions to Labour.

Labour Humanists AGM (members only)

18.20 – 18.35, Wednesday 30 October.
Camden Town Hall, Judd Street London WC1H 9JE

‘Selective faith schools: should Labour care?’ (All welcome)
18.45 – 19.45 (please join us after for a glass of wine or a soft drink)

 

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Events

Labour Humanists AGM – Wednesday 30 October

We will be holding our Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday 30 October, 18.20 – 18.35*, Camden Town Hall, Judd Street London WC1H 9JE. Please RSVP info@labourhumanists.org.uk

Following the AGM from 18.45, we have organised a meeting with some fantastic speakers, who will be discussing ‘Selective faith schools: should Labour care?’ We would be delighted if you would join us for a glass of wine or a soft drink after the meeting.

Officers & Executive Committee
We are organised by a small group of volunteers and we work in different ways to raise awareness and understanding of our position, on behalf of our members. For example, in the past year or so we have:

  • grown our membership
  • launched a brand new website and increased our online presence and campaigning through Twitter
  • held a packed out ‘no prayer breakfast’ fringe event at Labour conference 2012
  • been represented on BBC One’s The Big Questions to discuss secularism
  • worked closely with Labour’s front bench and briefed Labour MPs and Peers to reform the law to allow equal humanist marriage
  • written articles published on LabourList and politics.co.uk on faith schools admissions

We are pleased that, on behalf of our members, we have been able to raise the profile of key humanist and secularist issues within Labour. Our constitution allows us formally to elect officers (Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer) and up to five more members of an Executive Committee at our AGM.

In terms of the Executive Committee, we would welcome nominations from our members to help to grow and lead Labour Humanists. To nominate yourself, simply email chair@labourhumanists.org.uk with no more than 100 words about why you would be interested in being an Officer or a member of the Executive Committee (and state which). If we have more nominations than spaces, we will elect by a show of hands at the AGM.

Volunteering for the committee would be a great opportunity to get more involved and help to influence Labour policy on key humanist and secularist issues.

In addition to electing Officers and members of the Executive Committee, we will have copies of our accounts available, and discuss our plans for the coming year – a crucial one as Labour develops its policies.

One of our aims is to increase our membership – to build our voice and to become eligible to become an affiliated socialist society to the Labour Party. If you are not already a member, please do consider joining, and encourage others to do so too.

Only members may participate at the AGM; all are welcome to the faith school admissions meeting.

Labour Humanists AGM
18.30 – 18.45, Wednesday 30 October.
Camden Town Hall, Judd Street London WC1H 9JE

*Time slightly earlier than previously advertised

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Blog News

Faith schools: discriminatory admissions policies under the spotlight

This summer the spotlight has been on religious discrimination in admissions to state-funded faith schools. We have argued that selection by faith schools is often, in practice, discrimination against children and families along class and ethnicity lines, as well as particularly against the non-religious. See, comment on and vote for our submission to Labour’s policy review.

The Fair Admissions Campaign published high level data which paints a concerning picture of the extent to which state-funded faith schools are engaging in socio-economic selection through their discriminatory admissions policies. It has revealed the 50 segregated schools most unrepresentative of their local areas: the list is overwhelmingly dominated by religiously selective schools, exposing sharply the segregating effects of faith-based admissions criteria.

Following a complaint by the British Humanist Association (BHA), the state-funded, Catholic, London Oratory School has been forced to overhaul its admissions policy after being found to be in breach of the school admissions code in a number of ways including on socio-economic grounds. Read the BHA’s statement.

The Accord Coalition for inclusive schools has been updating its report of testimonies and media reports of discriminatory and exclusive practices by faith schools. Read how religious selection can divide families as well as communities.

Our position

We are affiliated to the BHA and we support the Fair Admissions Campaign and the Accord Coalition. We seek to influence Labour Party policy on key secular and humanist issues.

We believe that discrimination in admissions by state-funded faith schools is unnecessary, unjust, disastrous for social cohesion, and completely against Labour values. We have therefore asked 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.

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.

Policy options

We would like Labour to consider the following policy options which we believe would be broadly supported and, if adopted, would be a significant step forward:

A. No new faith school allowed to discriminate in its admissions

B. No existing faith school allowed to discriminate in admissions in the future

We think it is vital that a commitment to inclusive admissions with no religious discrimination by faith schools permitted is in Labour’s 2015 manifesto.

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‘Unnecessary, unjust, disastrous for social cohesion’ – faith school admissions

London Assembly Member Tom Copley and Labour Humanists have made a joint submission to Labour’s policy review on admissions to state-funded faith schools.

We want Labour’s policy commissions urgently to consider and address the growing problem of selection and discrimination by state-funded faith schools, and make fair, inclusive admissions a manifesto commitment. Read our full submission here Labour Humanists Policy Review Admissions With Table FINAL or on Labour’s Your Britain policy site.

We said: ‘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.’

‘The available evidence demonstrates that religious selection criteria tend to be heavily weighted in favour of middle-class families. 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.’

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.

Table: Admissions policies by type of school

Type of school Admissions
Community schools(cannot have a religious character) Determined by local authority; cannot discriminate on religious grounds.
Voluntary Controlled faith schools(legally registered with a religious character) Determined by local authority; a quarter of authorities let Voluntary Controlled faith schools discriminate on religious grounds.
Voluntary Aided faith schools(legally registered with a religious character) Determined by governors ‘in consultation’ with local authority; can discriminate against all pupils on religious grounds if oversubscribed.
Foundation faith schools(legally registered with a religious character) Determined by governors in consultation with local authority; can discriminate on religious grounds if oversubscribed.
Faith Academies and Free Schools(legally registered with a religious character) Determined by governors; can discriminate against all pupils on religious grounds, and Free Schools can do so for up to 50% of intake.
Academies and Free Schools with no registered religious character (but may have a ‘faith ethos’) Determined by governors; cannot discriminate on religious grounds.

Support for fair, inclusive admissions to state schools should not be a controversial issue for Labour. It is widely supported across the party as well as by the public, and Labour should have a clear policy against discrimination in admissions by faith schools.

Labour’s Your Britain policy site allows you to make comments on submissions and also vote in favour of them – please do take the opportunity to do so.

Please also see our page on the policy review, which has details of how you can get involved.

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Blog News

One Nation Labour needs to break its silence on faith schools

Labour Humanists’ Chair Naomi Phillips writes for political website politics.co.uk on the need for Labour to break its silence and speak out against discriminatory faith schools.

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Blog News

Some ideas for Labour’s policy review

Labour’s policy review provides a unique chance to influence Party policy. We are working on our formal responses to the review, all of which are aimed to help to create a more equal, ethical and secular Labour.

In brief, we would like Labour to consider the following policy options:

Faith schools
Labour’s policy towards schools should be inclusive and oppose discrimination:

  • No new faith school allowed to discriminate in its admissions
  • No existing faith school allowed to discriminate in admissions in the future
  • No faith school allowed to discriminate against teachers (including hiring, firing, and refusing promotion) on religious grounds

And

  • An end to compulsory collective worship in ALL schools.

Public services
Labour should take action 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

House of Lords Reform

Labour’s policy to have a 100% elected Lords would have meant in practice abolishing the Lords Spiritual. However Labour should have a clear and principled policy against religious privilege in our Parliament:

  • End the undemocratic ‘right’ for the Church of England to sit in our parliament
  • No reserved seats for an religious representatives
  • Allow Church of England bishops, and any other clergy or religious representatives, stand for election or be eligible for appointment to a reformed Lords but let that be on the same basis as everyone else
  • Promoting equality and campaigning against privilege in our democratic arrangements

We welcome your comments, thoughts, and submissions, about what you think should be Labour’s secularist and humanist policy priorities. Contact us with your suggestions.

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News

Tories collude to hand over secular schools to the Church

Tory education chief Michael Gove has colluded to hand over control of thousands of nominally secular state schools to the Church of England. In an unprecedented and totally unnecessary move, Church of England academy chains will have a new ability to incorporate community schools. The Government has given assurances that the Church would not be able to give the community schools a religious character once they take over control of them, yet that seems extremely weak given that Bishops will have a new ability to appoint governors to the schools.

The Tory-led Government’s religious academies and Free Schools have wide permission to discriminate on religious grounds in admissions, employment, and they do not have to follow the National Curriculum. We are deeply concerned that there will be few protections in place to stop the Church forcing all schools under its control to discriminate or teach religiously-biased curricula.

Faith schools by their very nature cannot be inclusive. We think it is vital for Stephen Twigg and Labour’s education team to speak out against this move which can only cause more division in our state school system.

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We support the Fair Admissions Campaign

A new campaign has launched which wants all state-funded schools in England and Wales to be open equally to all children, without regard to religion or belief. The Fair Admissions Campaign has support from a wide coalition of individuals and national and local organisations, including theBritish Humanist Association (BHA). We are affiliated to the BHA and fully support the aims of the Fair Admissions Campaign.

Our position

Labour Humanists advocates an inclusive and accommodating education system, and we oppose religious discrimination in admissions and employment by state-funded faith schools.

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. As such, discriminatory faith schools pose a big threat to social cohesion in this country. They also play their part in increasing social inequality, often taking the highest achieving students from their local areas, becoming what are in effect grammar schools by a different name. Their admissions policies also tend to favour those from more affluent backgrounds over children from poorer backgrounds.

Labour Humanists would like to see:

  • No new faith school being allowed to select in its admissions
  • Faith schools’ existing discriminatory admissions policies to be abolished and they cannot apply in future

 

Find out more about the Fair Admissions Campaign and how you can get involved.

Follow us on Twitter @LabourHumanists

Join us!