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Original poster

“Daily act of communal worship”

33 replies

BCCoach · 26/10/2023 20:45

It was my understanding that all schools in England and Wales were required to hold a daily act of communal worship of a broadly Christian nature by law regardless of whether they were a faith school or community school. DS’s infants and juniors (both CofE) did but his secondary (academy community) does not - they have two assemblies a week neither of which include hymns or prayers.

I have absolutely no problem with this (he only went to CofE for infants and juniors as those are the only schools in the village) but was curious to see whether this was others’ experience. There doesn’t seem to be any mention of it on the recent-ish OFSTED report.

OP posts:
DanceMumTaxi · 26/10/2023 22:07

It’ll be done during registration time.

WeWereInParis · 26/10/2023 22:05

As far as I'm aware my DD's primary school doesn't do anything that could be considered as communal worship that is broadly Christian.

Out of interest OP, what did your son's infant and junior school do that covered this?

trippinthru · 26/10/2023 21:55

BCCoach · 26/10/2023 21:36

Ah thanks @trippinthru so basically it’s not actually enforced in any way?

There are plenty of people who would like it to be, but if it was, there would be a backlash. Currently there is a convenient balance - schools that don't want to do it can ignore it rather than feeling any need to request an "opt out" from the Sacre, and it also means that very few families feel any need to opt their children out of taking part. This means Church leaders can say "Only a tiny number of schools/parents opt out, therefore the policy is fine as it is". While the policy is in place, school leaders that do want Collective Worship can use it to back up their position. So everyone is happy. 🙂

Original poster
BCCoach · 26/10/2023 21:36

Ah thanks @trippinthru so basically it’s not actually enforced in any way?

OP posts:
trippinthru · 26/10/2023 21:09

@BCCoach this Wikipedia article explains it all: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_worship_in_schools.

Ofsted haven't inspected it since 2004.

Collective worship in schools - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_worship_in_schools

MrsTerryPratchett · 26/10/2023 20:58

Foxesandsquirrels · 26/10/2023 20:49

This is the reason they have tutor and assemblies. Communal worship doesn't have to be religious.

It sort of does really. "Of a broadly Christian nature" is religious, no?

It's troglodyte level nonsense so I wouldn't mention it OP in case they start.

Original poster
BCCoach · 26/10/2023 20:57

Foxesandsquirrels · 26/10/2023 20:49

This is the reason they have tutor and assemblies. Communal worship doesn't have to be religious.

I’m not sure how worship can be non-religious. Who are you worshipping in that case? But in any case the law says it should be “of a broadly Christian character” (not sure how that works in a Jewish or Muslim school).

As I say, they don’t have any form of worship at all at our secondary - unless you count reading out the sports results and reminding the kids that the woods at the back of the field are out of bounds as worship.

OP posts:
Foxesandsquirrels · 26/10/2023 20:49

This is the reason they have tutor and assemblies. Communal worship doesn't have to be religious.