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‘Faith Schools’ in England: The Humanist Critique

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International Handbook of Learning, Teaching and Leading in Faith-Based Schools

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Abstract

Humanist organisations and individuals have been some of the most vocal critics of both new and existing state-funded ‘faith schools’ in England. This chapter explores the main criticisms of law and practice that have been made of selective admissions, of selective employment criteria, and of the curriculum and examine the source of these criticisms. These sources include human rights discourse, assumptions about the state and society, and humanist philosophies of education.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Successive government policies have created many different types of schools in England which may be religious. ‘Voluntary aided’ and ‘Voluntary Controlled’ are the two traditional types; added to these in 2002 was a type of school called an ‘Academy’, sponsored by a private organisation such as a church, and outside of local government control. Under the present government, some Academies have been re-branded as ‘Free Schools’, the range of organisations that might set them up increased, and their public accountability further attenuated.

  2. 2.

    Although it is worth observing that even English state-funded schools without a ‘religious character’ are required by law to have a daily act of religious worship.

  3. 3.

     This effect is also held by some to be the main contributor to faith schools’ higher success in exam and test league tables than schools without a religious character. The fact that, although they are higher in league tables, they are lower in value-added tables strongly supports this proposition.

  4. 4.

     E.g. most recently http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2012/mar/05/faith-schools-free-school-meals and http://www.schoolsadjudicator.gov.uk/RMS_upload/Annual%20Report%202009-103.pdf and (West et al. 2009).

  5. 5.

     See e.g. Howson (2007) which showed over half of Roman Catholic schools had to re-advertise the post.

  6. 6.

     ‘Academy Schools’, including so-called ‘Free Schools’ are exempt en bloc from teaching the National Curriculum.

  7. 7.

     CRC, Article 2, 2.

  8. 8.

     HRA, First Protocol, Article 2.

  9. 9.

     CRC, Article 3, 1.

  10. 10.

     CRC, Article 13, 1.

  11. 11.

     CRC, Article 29, 1d.

  12. 12.

     HRA, Article 9, 1.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. British Humanist Association, London, EC1V 8BB, UK

    Andrew Copson

Authors
  1. Andrew Copson
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Correspondence to Andrew Copson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Judith D. Chapman

  2. Faculty of Education, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Sue McNamara

  3. Institute of Education, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Michael J. Reiss

  4. Faculty of Education, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Yusef Waghid

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Copson, A. (2014). ‘Faith Schools’ in England: The Humanist Critique. In: Chapman, J., McNamara, S., Reiss, M., Waghid, Y. (eds) International Handbook of Learning, Teaching and Leading in Faith-Based Schools. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8972-1_11

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