BHA: First religious Studio School backed by Government to open

The Department for Education (DfE) has backed a religious group to open a Studio School for the first ever time. The Walsall Studio School, proposed by Vine Education Trust, will have a Christian ethos. The British Humanist Association (BHA) has expressed concern at the continuing diversification of the ‘faith’ schools sector.

Studio Schools are a type of fully state-funded Academy, which are backed by employers and have a more vocational focus than mainstream schools. Examples of specialisms Studio Schools can have include business, performing arts, design, cuisine, health and tourism. Six Studio Schools are already open, with 15 more due to open this September, and a further twelve now backed to open from September 2013 – including the school in Walsall, which will specialise in enterprise.

In April, the BHA expressed concern at the prospect of the first state-funded religious special needs schools, and last month those concerns were realised when the DfE approved the first two ‘faith’ special schools, as well as the first ‘faith’ alternative provision school. Studio, special needs and alternative provision schools could not be ‘faith’ schools prior to the coalition’s Academies programme.

None of these three new types of school can be formally be designated as ‘faith’ schools, and so they cannot religiously discriminate in admissions or in Religious Education. However, they can still have a ‘faith ethos’, being able to religiously select governors and senior staff, as the Walsall School looks set to do, and skew some aspects of the curriculum, such as Sex and Relationships Education.

BHA Faith Schools Campaigner Richy Thompson commented, ‘It is concerning to see a further diversification of “faith” schools into types of school which, in the past, could not have been religious. It is wrong that schools can use state funds to select staff on religious lines, or teach a biased curriculum.

‘We will continue to work to challenge groups such as the Vine Educational Trust gaining state funds.’

Notes

For further comment or information, please contact Richy Thompson on 020 7462 4993.

Read the Department for Education press release, ‘Big business backs new Studio Schools’, 18 July 2012: http://education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00211924/big-business-backs-new-studio-schools

Read the BHA briefing note, ‘“Faith ethos” Academies and Free Schools explained’, April 2012: http://www.humanism.org.uk/_uploads/documents/bha-briefing-faith-ethos-academies-and-free-schools-explained.pdf

Read more about the BHA’s campaigns work on ‘faith’ schools: http://www.humanism.org.uk/campaigns/religion-and-schools/faith-schools

View the BHA’s table of types of school with a religious character: http://www.humanism.org.uk/_uploads/documents/schools-with-a-religious-character.pdf

The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.