You can donate today at http://justgiving.com/nofaithschools
The British Humanist Association (BHA) has today launched a fundraising drive in order to be able to continue to employ its Campaigns Officer on Faith Schools and Education in 2015. The BHA’s Campaigner, Richy Thompson, is the only dedicated individual working against ‘faith’ schools in the UK, and the BHA is asking the public for support in covering his salary for next year.
The fundraising drive has been launched by an impassioned plea from a former member of staff at Park View School in Birmingham, the school at the centre of the so-called ‘Trojan Horse’ scandal, one of three whom Richy helped raise concerns about the school with the Department for Education and Ofsted – prompting both groups to investigate the school, over a month before the ‘Trojan Horse’ letter appeared in the press.
The member of staff explains some of the things she witnessed during their time there, before explaining that ‘After I left the school I knew I had to do something but was unsure where to start. A friend suggested I contact the BHA. After speaking to Richy, he passed on our concerns to the right officials…
‘By April it was apparent that the individuals running the school that I knew were complicit in many of the problems we had outlined were intent on denying any wrongdoing. So I asked Richy if it would be possible to speak out publicly about my concerns, and he facilitated me and my fellow whistleblowers in doing so. He worked carefully with us to put as many of our concerns as possible in the public domain while protecting our anonymity, and after publication he arranged for us to appear on Newsnight, Dispatches, across BBC radio, ITV News, Channel 5 News, Good Morning Britain and be interviewed by the Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph. This helped change the media narrative around the debate, providing voices from the inside who were challenging what was being said by those in charge at the school. Later he helped us give evidence to the various inquiries into what was going on, and enabled us to submit evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee.
‘A new term has just started at Park View School – the first since the scandal, and with the trustees and some members of staff having been replaced. I genuinely believe that without Richy’s support, pupils at Park View would not have just returned to a school with an inclusive, caring environment, finally free from the discrimination that has pervaded school life for the past several years.’
The BHA’s education campaigns have also achieved many other successes this year, including:
- Leading the Fair Admissions Campaign’s groundbreaking research that produced an interactive map showing how religiously and socio-economically selective every English secondary is – and how the two correlate
- Seeing evolution being added to the new primary curriculum, as well as being required to be taught at all state schools. Conversely, getting the Government to ban all state-funded schools from teaching creationism, and also to prevent creationist and fundamentalist private schools from getting state funding through the free nursery places scheme. Finally, getting Ofqual and the exam boards to agree that schools cannot censor exam questions on evolution
- Successfully challenging the admissions policy of the London Oratory School, leading it to become the first school found to be both racially and socio-economically discriminatory (amongst 105 other admissions code breaches)
- Working with the RE Council for England and Wales to make its new curriculum framework as inclusive of non-religious beliefs as it is of religions – something that’s a first
- Working with the Scouts and the Guides as they both changed their Promises to allow non-religious individuals to join for the first time
- Identifying two Muslim schools discriminating in employment on the basis of gender – a practice the Government subsequently put a stop to – and getting Ofsted to withdraw guidance that endorsed gender discrimination in ‘faith’ schools
- Successfully representing the BHA against the Department for Education (DfE) at the Information Tribunal, forcing it to release briefings expressing serious concerns about racism and bullying in Steiner schools. The DfE has only ever lost three cases at the Tribunal, and Richy is now responsible for two of them
BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson commented, ‘Richy’s careful, dedicated work has charted a path through some extremely politically difficult situations over the last year, and has left our public affairs agenda in a stronger position than it was twelve months ago. But there is so much more to do – the proportion and diversity of state-funded religious schools continues to increase, and just this week we have seen setbacks with eight more religious Free Schools approved to open.
‘I always try to be the first to donate to our faith schools fundraising campaign each year, because I know how important it is that we continue to employ someone to fill this vital role. I very much hope you will join me in making a contribution at http://justgiving.com/nofaithschools.’
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For further comment or information, please contact Andrew Copson on 020 3675 0959.
Donations will be used to ensure we can employ our dedicated campaigns officer for another year and fund his campaigning activities. If any money is donated beyond our target, this will be kept in a restricted fund and spent on BHA education campaigns.
Read more about the BHA’s campaigns work on schools and education: https://humanists.uk/campaigns/schools-and-education/
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the UK. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.