British Humanist Asociation and church schools

a huge number of villages

In a huge villages, children from families with different faiths and no faiths have no choice but to go to a Church schools, and attend assemblies and other part of the day and lessons with a very strong Christian bias- how can this add up, in any way, shape or form, in 'live, and let live' - please, tell me?

I was talking to a vicar today , a governor on the training course I was running, and we were talking about developing spirituality in young children. He was quoting a community school where he said he had seen wonderful development of children's spirituality and felt it was less constrained in the community school than in a faith school which felt it had to be linked to God.

Jalima, again you choose to twist and distort what is being said- as you have done again and again. No-one is trying to stop you from following your faith as you see fit, in Church, in your daily life, with your family and friends, and even to convince us all in the open, no-one is disrespecting your faith or others- all we are asking is for religion to be kept out of schools and the institutions and Government of this country and others- and to stop religion from dividing our children.

One person said here that a family had to attend their Church throughout a child's life in order to have access to their Church school- and you are saying there is no selection? This is quite true of village schools, I agree- but NOT in towns, at all.

Here here jalima.

Think for themselves about what is right and wrong, based on reason and respect for others.

Find meaning, beauty, and joy in the one life we have, without the need for an afterlife.

Look to science instead of religion as the best way to discover and understand the world.

Believe people can use empathy and compassion to make the world a better place for everyone.

Doesn't that all sound lovely and laudable.
However, perhaps that should also mean leaving others to follow their own beliefs, emphathising with others, live and let live instead of becoming so political and belligerent.

I must admit my mind spins when I think about this kind of thing. I believe that boys and girls should be taught together, unless it's a subject like PE. I definitely do not agree with faith schools of any kind and I say this as someone who went to faith primary and secondary schools (RC) and an interdenominational secondary school.

But I am not sure if it would be right to make my beliefs the basis of our education system. Colour me confused.

Faith schools not church schools then?

By church schools one immediately thinks of the C of E, RC schools.
But this mentions faith schools which surely would encompass all faiths.

Does it specify which particular faith schools are discriminating on the grounds of race or gender, as I do not believe that C of E schools do discriminate on those grounds.
Many other non-faith schools will, of course, discriminate on the grounds of gender although some single-sex schools admit both sexes to the sixth form.

Obviously not Alea, this is very important new information. Thank you Luckyg- and it just shows howimportant the issue is.

The previous discussion was ostensibly about the disestablishment of the Church of England. It became more than a little wide ranging, however.

The previous discussion was about whether faith schools should exist in principle; this is about proof that some faith schools are breaking the rules that govern their state funding.

Sadly not surprised by this.

This is today's news which indicates that the government is trying to prevent facts about school admission being in the public domain. It is an issue about democracy and the stifling of free speech - something that might be of concern to people.

I can't believe this topic is starting up again, was there really nothing left unsaid?