Schools Bill: amendments to limit faith selection and end compulsory worship

All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group Members Ian Sollom MP and Cat Eccles MP have tabled amendments to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill as it enters report stage in the House of Commons. These would maintain the 50% cap on faith selection for all new state faith schools and end compulsory Christian worship in schools without a religious character. Humanists UK has welcomed the amendments.

Extending the 50% faith selection cap to all new schools

Liberal Democrat MP Ian Sollom has tabled an amendment that would maintain the limit on faith schools being able to select students on the basis of their religion at 50% of places when the school is oversubscribed. A similar amendment by fellow Liberal Democrat Munira Wilson MP was debated and voted down by Labour MPs during committee stage.

The Government is maintaining the 50% faith selection cap on new free schools with a religious character, but by lifting the current restriction that all new schools should be free schools or academies, new state faith schools will open that are allowed to select all of their pupil places based on religion. With very rare exceptions, this has not been possible since 2011

Schools Minister Catherine McKinnell defended the right of schools to set admissions criteria during committee stage saying: ‘we want to allow proposals for different types of school that will promote a diverse school system that supports parental choice.’

Allowing new 100% faith-selective schools to open does not expand parental choice – it significantly limits it for parents in an area who do not adhere to the faith of the new school. According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, 53% of people have no religion. The biggest religious group is Anglicans at 12%. Thus, a strong majority of all parents have fewer choices for state-funded schools when a faith school opens versus an inclusive school, and 100% faith-selection allows their children to be rejected from an oversubscribed school on their doorstep in favour of a child of a parent in a home potentially miles away whose ‘choice’ (religious affiliation) is the selective factor for admission.

Ending compulsory worship in non-faith schools

Labour MP Cat Eccles has re-tabled her amendment to replace compulsory daily worship with inclusive assemblies. The first amendment ran out of time to be debated at committee stage.

The UK is the only sovereign state in the world to require schools with no religious character to carry out collective Christian worship. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child called for reform of the collective worship laws across the UK in 2023.

Concerningly the Government defended collective Christian worship in a debate on Baroness Burt of Solihull’s Education (Assemblies) Bill in February. Education Minister Baroness Smith of Malvern argued Christianity remains the ‘principal religion’ of the UK and that 16 is an appropriate age at which young people should be able to choose to not participate in enforced religious worship without parental consent. This enforces religious practice onto all young people who do not have a religious belief. It also ignores the fact that most adults are not Christian.

Humanists UK’s Education Campaigns Manager Kieran Aldred commented:

‘MPs again have the opportunity to ensure no new schools can select all their pupils based on religion, and to finally end the enforcement of Christian worship on children and young people in direct opposition of their human rights. The Government should stop deploying misguided arguments about “parental choice” and the historical role of Christianity to defend religious discrimination in our education system, and instead stand up for the rights of children and young people.’