New figures released by the Health Protection Agency showing that rates of sexually transmitted infections are still increasing provides further evidence of the need for improved Sex and Relationship Education in schools.
New figures released by the Health Protection Agency showing that rates of sexually transmitted infections are still increasing provides further evidence of the need for improved Sex and Relationship Education in schools.
The Accord Coalition, which unites religious and non-religious groups concerned about the impact of faith schools, has issued a stark warning about the implications of the Academies Bill for newly created Academy faith schools. The Chair of the Accord Coalition, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, said, ‘by giving all new Academy faith schools the same...
This week peers debated amendments to the Equality Bill that aims to improve the rights of teachers working in faith schools. Speaking for the amendments, Baroness Turner of Camden said: “Why should such requirements be imposed on, for example, physical education or maths teachers when the same rules do not apply to charities or...
Accord has welcomed the Supreme Court judgement on the admissions criteria of the JFS (formerly the Jews’ Free School), which lessens the power of state-funded faith schools to discriminate. The case was brought by the father of a child who was denied admission to the school in 2007. The admissions policies at the time...
A new paper published by Christian think-tank Theos and Christian educational charity the Stapleford Centre has cast doubt on overstated claims about the effectiveness of faith schools. In a review of the existing literature, researchers found some grounds to think that Christian schools have a positive impact, but cautioned that the evidence is “very limited”...
Speaking on Radio 4’s Thought for the Day slot this morning, Christian novelist and broadcaster Rhidian Brook argued that Jesus would not support exclusive school admission policies. Mr Brook is by no means the first Christian to make these arguments, although to our knowledge it is the first time they have been aired on TftD....
Accord has been at the party conferences recently. Because we went to the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Harrogate this year – and successfully lobbied for changes to their policy – this autumn we thought that we should focus on making sure that Labour and the Conservatives also got to hear Accord’s message for...
An article about Accord has been published on the Progress website. An extract is below, but to read the whole thing you can go to the Progress site. “If Labour has been at its best when at its boldest, then that certainly hasn’t been when dealing with the issues around faith schools—a point that was...
Earlier this week the Archbishop of Wales Barry Morgan announced that a report by the Church in Wales has shown that pupils in Anglican schools do better on average in their exams. However, the report has been widely criticised as overstating its claims: David Evans, of teaching union NUT Cymru has pointed out that:...
Accord has put together a major new resource to help researchers, journalists, campaigners and members of the public to find out about the consequences of current policy on faith schools. The aim is to bring together and summarise high quality research from reliable sources. With the exception of the 2009 poll commissioned by Accord...
