PETITION NEWS:
>
Campaign now hosted at
BrightsOnline.net
(30 Jul '06)
>
Correspondence with Michael Foster MP regarding petition's aims is
available here
(27 Apr '06)
>
Petition author
praises NUT motion against Trust schools
(16 Apr '06)
>
Petition author
interviewed on BBC radio
(10:57, 10.0 Mb), also hear the
preceding
interview (7:06, 6.5 Mb) with the head of a local private sect
school, and
listeners' comments (1:06, 1.1 Mb) which were both against
educational sectarianism (19 Mar '06)
>
Despite
initial Commons approval
for the Education Bill, this Petition remains open
(15 Mar '06)
>
Petition author in regional
newspaper, plus responds to Rowan
Williams (15 Mar '06)
>
National Secular Society links to Petition
(NSS - 14 Mar '06)NEWS:
>
"Peers Attack Faith Schools": Baroness
Massey; "I am alarmed by the notion of an expansion of state-funded
schools controlled by religious interests. I would like to see schools
that are open to all; that are inclusive and welcoming of children of all
beliefs and backgrounds. (23 June '06)
>
Steve Sinnott (NUT) (via
Stupidity-Free-Zone): Government
blacklist on Trust schools partners will "create a hornet's nest ... Does
that mean there is nothing to protect young people from religious
extremists, from political groups, from pressure groups or from fast-food
manufacturers?" (28 April '06)
>
NUT: slams Education Bill as "phoney",
"educational bigotry" (16 April '06)
>
Polly Tonybee: "Just when faith turns hot
and dangerous, threatening life and limb again, the government responds by
encouraging more of it and more religious segregation. If ever there was a
time to set out the unequivocal value of a secular state, it must be now.
[...] So what on earth is a Labour government up to - and why don't Labour
MPs refuse to let this happen?" (14 April '06)
>
Teachers unions: Religious schools are "detrimental to
community cohesion" and Education Bill will "provide fertile ground for
religious and ethnic conflicts" (7 April '06)
>
NSS: Archbishop's defence of faith
schools is "disingenuous and self-serving" (14 Mar '06)
>
The Socialist: "Stop Blair's divisive
Education Bill"
(8 Mar '06)
>
NSS: "Religious propagandists are gearing
up for a major push to take over schools in Britain" (3 Mar '06)
>
BHA: report on "Creationism in British
schools" (Mar
'06)
>
BBC: "Unions downbeat on revised bill"
(28 Feb '06)
>
NSS: "Education Bill - Government About
To Make A Mammoth Mistake On Faith Schools" (22 Feb '06)
>
Andrew Copson (of the BHA) via BBC:
"proposed "trust" schools may compromise the right of the child to freedom
of thought, conscience and religion and the right not to be indoctrinated" (22 Feb '06)
>
Guardian:
DfES is "Papering over faith school divisions"
(22 Feb '06)
>
Dr Ashok Kumar MP:
"The emergence of faith schools in [segregated]
communities will create further segregation and further division rather
than unifying this country" (14 Feb '06)
>
Sally Morgan (Baroness and former Number 10 advisor
and former teacher): "uneasy" about religious schools, which
are "too selective"
(12 Feb '06)
>
Dick Taverne QC (Lords peer):
"In the end, religion, like politics, should be a
matter of individual choice, not imposed by indoctrination at a tender
age" (8 Feb '06)
>
BHA: we need an alternative to "an
education system that would segregate children according to their parents'
religion" (Jan
'06)
>
Your Views via the BBC: "In my particular
town, my children are precluded from going to the nearest school - due to
my (lack of) religious conviction" (26 Jan
'06)
>
Jonathan Romain (Rabbi): "After the riots
in Bradford and Burnley, the Ouseley report blamed the segregation in
schools for heightening the divide between different local communities."
(1 Oct '05)
>
NSS: "The
Church of England is promoting a major expansion of religious schools, but
is actively suppressing the information about its plans" (15
Apr '03)
>
NSS: "Government deaf to dissent on faith schools" (31 Mar
'02) |
