Currently the law in Scotland means that all primary and secondary schools must hold regular acts of religious observance?

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We are planning on relocating to Scotland in 2024, but now I am finding out about this law and I have to know how much religion is brought up or taught in State schools?

We are not religious and we don't think religion (of any kind) belongs in schools, especially government funded ones. If you want to send your kids to a religious private school that matches your faith, more power to you.

But this makes me very uncomfortable thinking this is something our child would have to deal with daily while attending school.

How much does religion play in a daily routine of a child attending state school?

In my experience there is very very little. The local minister used to come to the school assembly once a month-ish and give general “moral” talks about being kind, loving thy neighbour, looking after others. Not overtly religious.

in the secondary there is no religious stuff at all.

If I remember correctly, you can opt your kids out.

I used to be very atheist in my views and to be honest it wasn’t a big thing for me.

When I was a kid I loved singing all the hymns and hearing the stories and and learning about life at that time, so have never really had a problem with it.

You can opt out. We are atheist but DCs' primary do have services around the major Christian festivals. Quite often they will have assemblies in the church but it's literally round the corner.

We are atheists. At my primary school there was one ten minutes assembly a week where we 'prayed' and I had a nap. And then it stopped completely at secondary school. Honestly it's very minimal and not a core part of religious schools at all.

At ours, it was a non-religious assembly I’m the church next door at the end of every term. So, three a year

The non denominational schools have minimal, (Easter Christmas etc) but your kid can sit out. Obviously the catholic schools have more but tbh unless you’re catholic you’d be pretty far down the list to get in.

My experience in state secondaries is that there is likely to be an assembly or "Service" at Christmas and Easter - with the odd chaplaincy input at other times - but that these are usually non-denominational and more focused on universal values such as truth, kindness, compassion. Parents are also entitled to ask that pupils opt out of any religious inout, even in denominational school.

This is also the case in England. It usually consists of a daily assembly with a vaguely Christian stance of 'be kind' or a celebration of a festival (multi faith).

As and English person in Scotland, the school system in Scotland is a bit random (and secatarian!!). there are Catholic and Not Catholic options in each catchment. I think at the Catholic schools they do all the communion stuff as default, and their teachers are usually from Catholic backgrounds too. The primary schools then feed into Catholic or "not Catholic" secondaries.

Our "not Catholic" primary school does have some ties with the local Church of Scotland, and some of the kids have been to the church for Christmas/Easter things. Mainly however it's much less religious than the education I got in a non Church school in England 30 years ago. They have assemblies but not overtly religious ones, and the kids don't seem to have learned any "school hymns" of the variety we used to sing in assembly most days.

At my primary school, we sang Jesus anthems in assembly every week, sometimes a minister visited and made us all pray. We would go to the church for a service at Easter and Christmas. And of course, we had a nativity.

At secondary school, we said the Lord's Prayer at the start of every assembly (but you could abstain). We had the Easter and Christmas church services (but you could bunk off - actually they needed people to bunk off because the church couldn't fit the entire student body...). Sometimes the minister visited assembly, but you could opt out.

And you can ask for your children not to be included in any of the above. We had children at school who were not allowed to participate. They usually sat and read somewhere else in the school.

there is far less religious assemblies in Scotland than England apart from Catholic schools in DD's high school there is a monthly assembly which is mostly updates notices and an uplifting thought, or speech normally along the lines of be kind no bullying be considerate, more character building. Separately the subject RPMS ( religion philosopht and moral studies) is quite broad covers everything from the major religions to is war ever justified, do we know if love exists type of thing it is compulsory (until about age 14 in Scotland) but you can opt out

(The "non-denominational" people have mentioned above is the Scottish term for a "not catholic" school)

Just asked my kids who are in a non dom school and there is virtually no religion apart from learning about it in RMPS.

I wouldn't let it put you off. There isn't really any.

Oh and obviously if you were part of another religion, you could ask for your children not to participate in the Christian related things.

That’s not really the case in all parts of Scotland. I’m in Aberdeen and there is to my knowledge one catholic primary in the whole city with all other schools being non-denominationonal. I don’t really remember much, if any, religious stuff when I went to school here save for the annual nativity play and an occasional visit from the local minister at assembly.

Very little. They do RE which is general learning about all religions. Termly event at local church. Harvest festival, kids put on a nativity at Christmas, Easter and leavers graduation at end of summer term.

Im also in Aberdeen and there are 3 Catholic primary schools but they also take children from Aberdeenshire. In Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire there are no Catholic secondary schools but Catholic education is provided by peripatetic teachers ( or it used to be).

My dc's primary school was non denominational and as others have said the Church of Scotland and Episcopal ministers would attend assemblies a couple of times per year and there was a nativitiy celebration

Quite different to my experience of catholic primary school in Glasgow in the 70s

I'm in the broader Glasgow area, (and have been for almost 20 years!!). Glasgow does have a long history of sectarian issues which is probably why my experience has been so much of a culture shock!!

It's pretty much the same throughout the whole of the UK. Usually collective worship is a daily assembly and then celebrations such as Christmas, Easter and maybe harvest festival.

You can opt-out your child, however, they will then not be allowed to take part in the activities with their peers and will feel left out.

This.

Join the Humanists to campaign against this nonsense.

Thank you everyone for the feedback.
Definitely puts our concerns at ease.

In a broad generalisation from 10+ years teaching, city non denominational schools cover RE as a point of interest, but the rural ones can be more affiliated with the Church of Scotland.

Catholic schools will be very different. I did supply in one for a term as a favour and there were prayers at 9am, 12, 1, and 3. The whole school went to mass at least once a month, there was family church most weekends in the associated church, hymn practice once a week and RE every day. I have to say that I really enjoyed my time there and the school was very caring, but there was an awful lot of praying!

Hardly anything of note. We're not religious but I'm happy for my child to experience religion and cultures to give balance.

I opted mine out of religious observance but not religious education and was okay with the occasional all school special services such as Easter and Christmas and visits to general places of worship from an observation point of view. To be honest there were very few assemblies they stepped out for and I left it up to them if they wanted to stay when they were old enough to have an opinion. DS was asked to pray a few times and he chose to just sit quietly which I think was generally respectful without participating.

I think religion (apart from education) should stay within the home/chosen places of worship and really has no place in schools.