It should be obvious enough that every child deserves to be able to attend their local school, receive an impartial and well-balanced education, and make up their own mind about what they believe… but in the UK, in 2020, that’s still not possible for thousands of children.

Dr Ruth Wareham leads the national campaign from Humanists UK for an end to state religious schools. It’s her job to challenge religious discrimination in admissions, employment, and the curriculum - and to campaign for transformed, fairer education system, where no child, no teacher, and no parent faces barriers because of religion.

With an academic background researching faith schools and two years experience leading education work for Humanists UK, Ruth is the UK’s leading expert on faith schools and their impact on our society. She works for: 

• An end to state religious schools and religious discrimination in school admissions;

• An end to closed-minded and narrow religious education and compulsory collective worship in schools;

• Comprehensive and inclusive relationships and sex education in all schools, with accurate information about safe sex, women’s reproductive rights, and LGBT people; and

• An end to illegal religious schools to ensure the safety and education of the thousands of pupils at risk in these settings.

But to do any of this, she needs your support. And, in light of the coronavirus pandemic, we need your help more than ever to continue to employ her through 2021.

Over a third of all state schools in England and Wales – more than 7,000 – are run by religious groups. In Northern Ireland, the proportion is considerably higher. These schools are legally entitled to discriminate against children on the basis of beliefs they are too young to confidently hold for themselves, and which serve to divide communities rather than bring them together. Shockingly, the UK Government is committed not only to increasing the number of English religious schools, but to establish more that are 100% religiously selective in their admissions, for the first time in over a decade. What’s more, by failing to take a strong line on how religious schools deliver relationships and sex education, it has also permitted the rights of children to be swept aside in favour of the vested interests of religious groups.

We believe that children should be given the freedom to form their own beliefs and discover their own sense of meaning and purpose, without imposing any religion. 

And we think it’s just as important that all schools adequately reflect the diversity of British society, while emphasising our shared human values and how to live well together. 

At a time when society is more divided than ever, it is vital that children from different backgrounds learn with, from, and about one another in open and inclusive schools with equally open inclusive curriculums. 

The work of our Education Campaigns Manager has never been more important than it is now. It must continue in 2021.

Key successes this year include:

• Securing UK Government proposals to shut illegal religious schools in England. This would not be happening without our Education Campaigner, who was instrumental in bringing attention to this issue.

• Instigating the introduction of a parliamentary Bill to replace compulsory Christian worship with inclusive assemblies that are suitable for all children regardless of belief.

• Securing the introduction of compulsory relationships and sex education for all pupils in schools in England and Wales.

• Publishing our own seven-point manifesto for a fully inclusive education system free from faith schools and religious indoctrination, that we hope to see after the pandemic is over.

• Securing provision in the Welsh Government’s new Curriculum and Assessment Bill for humanism to be taught on an equal footing with the major religions. Religious education will be renamed ‘Religion, Values, and Ethics’ (RVE) to reflect this broader scope and these world-leading changes will hopefully lay the groundwork for the rest of the UK to follow. 

• Prompting the  Welsh Government to replace the right to withdraw from indoctrinatory faith-based RE in religious schools with a right to demand  objective RVE lessons taught in line with those in community schools.

• Providing oral evidence to the Senedd’s Children, Young People and Education Committee outlining why reforms to the law on religious education and collective worship are vital to protect the rights of children and their families. 

• Helping to shape the next report of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on the state of children’s rights in the UK by submitting comprehensive evidence to key children’s rights bodies in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Further actions include:

• Producing new research on the impact of religious selection on the ability of non-religious families to secure school places in Liverpool to feed in to a council review.

• Actively challenging new faith school proposals, as well as other proposals that will impact negatively on the ability of parents to secure an inclusive school place. Actions include opposing the amalgamation of a community infant school into an undersubscribed Church of England infant school in Surrey; a proposal to allow a private school run by a fundamentalist Christian sect, the Exclusive Brethren, to move into the state system in Northern Ireland; and supporting local activists to fight the first fully selective voluntary aided faith school to open in more than a decade, in Peterborough. This has recently been given the green light but has been forced to reduce the number of religious places it offers to 80% in response to sustained criticism.

• Responding to all relevant official consultations across the UK, including Department for Education consultations on tightening the law on illegal schools and changes to the School Admissions Code in England, numerous consultations on the proposals for curriculum reform in Wales, and a consultation on tackling socioeconomic segregation in school admissions run by the Sutton Trust.

• Supporting and advising hundreds of parents and carers whose children have been discriminated against in the education system on the grounds of their beliefs, as well as teachers who are worried about how these issues are handled in their schools.

• Meeting ministers and civil servants, and briefing MPs and peers, particularly members of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group (APPHG), on legislation related to religious schools and education in Parliament.

• Generating significant media attention for Humanists UK campaigns work. Stories on our work featured in every national newspaper, and received coverage on various national and local TV and radio stations throughout England and Wales. Highlights include speaking with BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme about the necessity of changes to the law on illegal schools and coverage of our research on faith school admissions in the Guardian. 

• Sitting on the steering group of the Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education, and working alongside other organisations like the Religious Education Council, Sex Education Forum, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission on issues of shared concern.

With your support, we can slow and stop the spread of faith schools - and advance a vision of a better, fairer education system - for every child, and every parent, and every community. Will you help us?

With your donations, we’ll be able to employ our Education Campaigns Manager throughout 2021 and continue to fund our work to curb the rise of religious influence and privilege in the education system. Any money donated over and above our target will be used exclusively on furthering Humanists UK’s campaigns. 

If you’re a UK taxpayer, please also indicate that Humanists UK can claim Gift Aid on your donation so that we can reclaim 25p tax from HMRC for every £1 you donate.