Comment 82 by Alan4discussion :

Comment 79 by Viveca

O please, do me a favour, the issue the unions and teachers are opposing here is NOT the legitimisation and propagation of faith schools. The teaching unions are NOT against faith schools, they are perfectly happy with them. The fact that new legislation may, or may not, have consequences for faith schools is, for the unions, beside the point.

Do everyone a favour and do your homework. The teaching unions are against academies and "faith academies", (not existing voluntary-aided faith schools) because they are to be allowed to disregard parts of the national curriculum and tear up local and national agreements with teachers. The whole government point of these, is to hand them over to unaccountable cliques, such as theist sponsors, working on the concept that Tory amateurs know better than professionals.

There are other issues of teachers' pay, conditions and pensions, but those are a separate issue.

Like many here, you seem to think that opposing those wicked Tories makes you "radical" and "progressive". It doesn't. Neither does it allow you to ignore the point i've already made. The teaching unions are perfectly happy with the existence of faith schools. That may not mean much to you but it does to me. This thread is supposed to be concerned with establishing how, if at all, it may be possible to get rid of faith schools. Your teaching unions show no sign of being sympathetic to this goal, and the fact that they oppose legislation which may, or may not, impact on faith schools is entirely tangential to their concerns. How difficult is that to understand?

If you wish to start another thread, where anything and everything that may relate to faith schools, directly or indirectly, is discussed; then be my guest, that's your perogative. But this thread, I repeat, is trying to establish by what means faith schools may be abolished, a topic on which you've chosen to remain silent.