For 10 years we’ve been supporting teachers and schools with excellent teaching about humanism. Understanding Humanism was created to ensure that every young person has the opportunity to learn about humanism as part of a broad, balanced, and inclusive education about religious and non-religious worldviews. Our free resources, school speakers, teacher training, online courses, and Humanist Heritage website have supported hundreds of thousands of young people to understand the beliefs, values, goals, history, and lived experience of humanists in the UK and around the world.
Our belief is that religious education should be critical, objective, and pluralistic and include teaching about non-religious worldviews to better reflect the modern landscape of belief in the UK. The case for teaching about humanism has always mirrored the wider case for teaching about religion and worldviews: academic rigour and a knowledge-rich understanding of society, culture, and ways of approaching life’s big questions; mutual understanding and social cohesion; and young people’s personal development.
We are clearly not alone. There has been a cultural shift in religious education over the past decade with teachers now more open and keen to include teaching about humanism. We often used to encounter confusion and even hostility. However, the picture today is largely one of understanding and enthusiasm. When speaking to teachers ten years ago, we’d be asked, ‘Who are you?’ and ‘What is humanism?’ Today we typically hear, ‘Thank you for your resources,’ and ‘Our students love learning about humanism.’ Below you’ll find some of the fantastic feedback we’ve had over the years.
Demand for support with teaching about humanism has soared. Our resources and videos have been downloaded or viewed at least 450,000 times and over 20,000 people have taken our online courses.
We’ve launched over 500 resources for primary and secondary schools, from Early Years to A level, including popular animations (such as One life, live it well, with Alice Roberts, and our recent short film What is secularism?), resources to support students taking their religious studies GCSE, and resources for English Literature. In 2023 the Understanding Humanism website was a finalist in the Teach Primary awards.
Our school speakers have spoken to close to half a million young people in thousands of schools, supporting their understanding of what it means to have a humanist approach to life and answering their many insightful questions (our speakers say that, however hard they prepare, young people will always surprise them). Demand has grown significantly over the decade such that we now speak to 80,000 students a year. We’re also delighted with all the positive feedback. Teachers give our school speakers an average rating of 4.9 out of 5!
We’ve trained 3000 teachers online and in-person, supporting them with their subject knowledge and providing practical ideas for the classroom. We’ve placed humanist reps as full members on over 160 of the 170 Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACREs), with humanism now mentioned on nearly every locally agreed RE syllabus. Our dialogue network has engaged in hundreds of conversations with religious people to support mutual understanding and build connections, and our recently launched community speaking programme has helped to bring learning about the humanist approach to life to broader adult audiences.
A few weeks ago we also celebrated the fifth birthday of our Humanist Heritage website which has been visited by quarter of a million people.
Think where we might be in another 10 years!
Our hope is that we’ll soon see a national curriculum for RE that will explicitly include the requirement for all young people to learn about humanism – a subject fit for purpose in 21st century Britain. Whatever happens, we’ll be here to help teachers with their needs.
‘Understanding Humanism is one of the most extensive, accessible and reliably high-quality educational websites I have ever come across.’
Chris, secondary teacher
‘Finally, a website which explains everything without having to use different ones when planning a lesson.’
Jane, HLTA, Beverley St Nicholas Primary School
‘I just want to say how fabulous the resources are. I’ve been teaching my Year 8 students about Humanism using your resources. We love it. I’m going to continue after half term and teach a few lessons around funerals as well as euthanasia which will help them for their GCSE which they start next year. I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve given us as Religious Studies educators.’
Rachel, teacher, Sion School
‘This is an incredible resource. The quality and clarity shine through. For schools or school systems building humanism into their schemes of work this is spot on. Thank you for presenting everything in such a balanced and non-emotive manner.’
Simon, Director, Council of International Schools (CIS).
‘I would not have been able to plan, teach and deliver my lessons without the “Humanist Perspectives” – they were the foundations for our objectives, and the progression of skills and understanding for the children.’
Rachel, Green End Primary School
‘I strongly recommend very much using Understanding Humanism resources in your lessons. They pitch really well for primary school level. The videos are engaging and the graphics are attractive and easy to understand. Lots of my colleagues use them all the time.’
Rebecca, primary school teacher
‘These resources look fabulous, very inclusive and fully comprehensible… these will provide valuable learning and development opportunities for my students and will be exceptional resources for my colleagues.’
Claire, FE teacher
‘How wonderful your talks were this afternoon. You gave the children a fantastic insight into the practices and philosophy behind humanism. The children were captivated from start to finish and were delighted that you could answer their questions. Thank you for speaking so confidently and eloquently. It was a pleasure to have you here and we hope to see you again next year!’
Tom Anstiss, KS2 teacher and year leader
‘The overall experience was excellent. From the initial email which was responded to quickly, to setting up a local speaker who contacted me immediately, to setting up a visit with ease, and finally the talk itself which was relevant, engaging and thought provoking. Thank you very much and I look forward to working with you again in future!’
Aimee Horsley, KS5 teacher
‘The children thoroughly enjoyed the session. In fact, after you left I asked for a quick show of hands to see who thought it would be a good idea for you to come back next year to talk to the new Year 5, and every single child thought that you should… All in all, a great session and we would highly recommend other schools take you up on your generous offer to visit.’
Ahmed, High Lawn School
‘Thank you so much for coming in today. The girls were overwhelmingly positive about it! They really learned a huge amount and have said what a great speaker you were. Their words were ‘confident’, ‘clear’, ‘engaging’ and ‘really interesting’! And, they all appreciated that you didn’t aim to convert them but expressed Humanist views so clearly. Thank you again so much and we would love to have you back next year!’
Elizabeth, teacher
‘Thank you so much for joining us this morning at Haberdashers’. The students have been so animated in discussions during the rest of the day.’
Teacher, The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School
‘Such a good public speaker, he was well prepared to explain what Humanism was to the pupils. He allowed pupils to ask any questions and was happy to answer all, including difficult and controversial topics. He gave his own opinion in a respectful manner whilst also acknowledging others’ views and opinions.’
Georgina, Hollingworth Academy
‘Thank you for such brilliant service! This experience really added to our learning of Humanism and the children were buzzing after hearing what it was like to be a humanist. A great experience that really enriched the children’s learning.’
Hannah, St George’s School
‘We all enjoyed your visit and in the afternoon the children spoke positively about how it had brought the unit of learning alive for them.’
Helen, Norwood Primary School
‘Clearly spoken. Great slides. Age appropriate. Thought provoking. A brilliant insight into humanism. Good pace. It was pitched perfectly for Year 6 children and we enjoyed it. Thank you.’
Sharon, Heathfield Junior School
‘Some of the most useful training I have ever been on. So many practical ideas.’
Samantha, KS2 teacher and RE coordinator
‘Absolutely brilliant! Best training I’ve had. Extremely useful practical examples of use in the class with good age range and superb speaker.’
Anna, KS1/2 teacher and RE Curriculum Lead for North Lincolnshire
‘This session has been really fantastic, thank you! I feel I have come out understanding humanism a lot more as even I sometimes struggled to distinguish it from atheism.’
Helena, KS3-5 RS teacher
‘The training made me reflect on my own teaching, I have realised that I was teaching humanism focusing on the negative what humanists don’t believe rather than focusing on the positive values and contributions.‘
Teacher
The most useful parts of the Humanism training were the opportunities to engage directly with lived experiences and contemporary expressions of Humanism. Hearing from a representative of Humanists UK provided valuable insight into how Humanist values, ethics, and worldviews are applied in everyday life, which helped trainees to move beyond abstract theory. The discussion around how Humanism can be taught as part of a balanced RE curriculum was also particularly beneficial, giving practical strategies for addressing non-religious worldviews in ways that promote inclusivity and critical thinking.
Heather, PGCE Course Lead, Edge Hill University.
‘An extremely worthwhile course, which increased my knowledge of Humanism and directed me to teaching ideas and resources. This will really help me support other members of staff in my school.’
Teacher
‘When I first taught humanism last year, I found myself focusing more on what humanists ‘don’t do’ or what they ‘don’t believe in’, this training helped me to focus the lessons more on what they DO believe in and how they live their life – much better approach.’
Teacher
‘A really insightful and effective piece of training.’
Anna, Sutton-in-Craven CP School
‘Excellent session – one of the best I’ve attended.’
Karen, teacher
‘Fantastic training. Informative, interesting and full of practical takeaways to use in the primary classroom.’
Emma, primary teacher
‘I love this course… I am asking myself many new questions – about humanism, about life, about my life and choices, about what I think, about morality and meaning.
Yannicke
‘This course has been excellent in its structure and content… Use of sources from classical philosophers to young people today have enlivened the learning process. Thank you, course team – this is the best on-line course I have done so far.’
Alexandra
‘I can’t recommend highly enough this free online course, from Humanists UK. It’s an exquisite example of how to teach humanism.’
James
‘I already had a fairly good understanding of humanism but wanted to enhance my knowledge due to using this a lot in my career. The course enabled me to reflect on what I did know and it brought my understanding together in a cohesive manner. The ‘further reading’ sections provided a wealth of knowledge to enable me to delve deeper. I’d highly recommend this course.’
Tori
‘The course was well structured and provided many avenues for pursuing the topics. I liked the balance of written and AV material. What was not to like! This has inspired me to follow up on many of the topics. Many thanks.’
Mostyn
‘What a thoroughly enjoyable way to learn and understand the concept of humanism. Would highly recommend to those who have an interest.’
Sam
‘I have followed quite a few courses at different schools, and this is one of the best I’ve encountered. Plus, it is free! The structured, clear lay-out, the qualitative teachings, the recommended readings and the short videos all cumulated to a respectable course.’
Hans
‘The course was a wonderful way of looking inward, of examining what I truly believe, what I need to reevaluate, and what questions I should never stop asking. Thank you to all of the course organizers for presenting me with this unique opportunity to grow.’
MaryAnn
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