The Brethren Christian Church or Plymouth Brethren will not allow any of their members to gain a professional qualification. I worked for a company called GreenBlue Urban( It is owned by members of The Brethren Christian Church) where I came across a very gifted nineteen year old woman, she is a brilliant artist and her paintings were exceptional. She was employed on their Marketing Team and I asked her about going to University to gain a degree.

I asked her why she didn't go to University in order to gain a marketing qualification and her words still haunt me. "We are not allowed".

The Brethren Christian Church run a number of schools throughout the UK called Focus Schools which these children and young people attend. Upon leaving the schools there is zero chance of those youngsters ever gaining a professional qualification - It is not permitted by this Church.

I find it astounding that in modern Britain this is allowed to go on, most odd is the picture of a mortar board on their website - They are not allowed to go to University.

Ex members post:

I left only 5 years ago from this group, and at that time one was not able to complete ANY study past 6th Form (Year 12). Part of this was because they did not want us to gain University Entrance, as they believe university studies are wicked and they don't want any students going to them or learning from them.
This was extremely hard for me (as with hundreds of other of these PB children/young people) as I have talents and giftings that do not fit the box of the only work you can do. They do not care if you could be a doctor, engineer, teacher, lawyer, missionary, fireman... they do not have any problem with restricting human and God-given potential - this is all sacrificed so that they can keep themselves with their extreme separation from the world.

This causes much depression, oppression and repression... my poor mother was a talented lady with much to give life - but was reduced to keeping house, ironing shirts for their nightly meetings, cooking... it was horrible to see her - a beautiful bird, trapped and wasting away inside a cage - a cage that is painted golden, but is soo small that it traps and binds people's wings down.

I would like to ask Nicky Morgan to look closely at these schools, these young people are not ever going to gain a professional qualification and their choices have been taken from them. Is this acceptable in Modern Britain?

Thank you for reading this.