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Education and Inspections Bill

My Lords, I am in favour of the new clause from personal experience. I was a minority child in a faith school. Although when one is older one can see the benefits, at the time it can be very hurtful—indeed, off-putting—not to participate, excluding oneself, or to participate in an occasion when the majority indoctrination is not to one’s taste. One has to remember that children of that age can be quite brusque and unfeeling in their treatment of minorities. While there was no attempt to convert, being forced to participate did not endear the notion of formal religious worship to one. There is another place for those who want that experience, and it is not school. There are some similarities with the debate already held in this House about faith schools having a quota for minorities. There is much to be said for a secular assembly that brings everyone together. That is a much truer form of multiculturalism, and no one need feel excluded. Adults’ attitude to this is very different from that of children, who were not included in any Gallup poll or census. I hope very much that the House will support the new clause.