“Since I don’t believe in any God may I be excused from Christian assemblies and use the time to study for my highers which are rapidly approaching.”

This simple request, made by a sixteen year old pupil at a Scottish school in 2009, was rejected by the rector. Just one in a long catalogue of instances in which the law is being broken which were reported to the meeting held by the Glasgow Group of the HSS on Sunday 10th August.

In a packed room at the Pond Hotel, members of the Glasgow Group were joined by many parents who reported instances of downright refusal and indirect coercion by members of senior management in schools in response to requests for their children to be allowed to opt out of Religious Observance and Religious and Moral Education.

A very warm welcome was extended to the number of young people who had come along to report similar treatment.  
Despite the fact that the legislation has been on the statute book since the early 1990’s and guidelines, spelling out the detail were issued by the government in 2005 not only parents and senior pupils but also head teachers and education officers in many parts of Scotland seem to be ignorant  of it .

Members of the education committee of the HSS asked why members of various religions who had struggled to win the right to have their own children educated in the faith of their choice were denying the same rights to the large minority (almost 40% according to the last census) of the Scottish population aged under 50 who had no religion.

The HSS campaign would move forward on several fronts:

• Inform – an excellent document “Support for Parents and Learners ” is available on the HSS web site and more hard copies would be printed and distributed
• Support – more teaching materials covering the subjects of philosophy and moral guidance and suitable for every stage from Primary 1 to S6 were being prepared and made readily available to teachers. Discussions were taking place with training colleges to provide in-service training in the use of these materials. Schools would be invited to apply for grants from the HSS to purchase books. Trained speakers were available to visit schools on request to take classes or assemblies or speak in debates
• Disseminate – every school in Scotland  would receive a letter this autumn outlining the support the HSS would be making available
• Monitor – surveys would be carried out with the permission of the local director of education to ascertain what problems schools were encountering in attempting to address the issue and what further support they would like to receive.

The meeting closed with an urgent request to all present to spread the word that help was at hand for all those who had already waited too long to be allowed to escape from religion in school.
The recent media coverage which the HSS Education Campaign had received in The Herald Newspaper and on Radio Scotland was warmly welcomed and the hope expressed that our work over the next few months would continue to attract attention.