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Secondary education

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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:
modgepodge · 28/10/2023 13:20

trippinthru · 27/10/2023 06:26

At primary school it's traditionally done in a daily or weekly "assembly" led by the Headteacher, who leads a prayer (all children trained to put hands together, heads bowed and eyes closed), and hymns are sung. Some schools might have a link with a local vicar who leads it instead. Secondary schools are usually too big and busy for regular traditional assemblies. The Head (or vicar) may broadcast via screens in the classroom. But it's obviously much more difficult to expect secondary school kids to comply with the "hands together, heads bowed" requirement, or join in with singing hymns, so most schools don't bother

At my Catholic secondary school in the 1980s each lesson started and ended with a prayer, led by the subject teacher. Not sure if that still happens - I expect they would struggle to recruit teachers in every subject if they also needed to be willing to lead prayers.

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I’ve worked in 4 non faith primary schools and none have trained children to do hands together and eyes closed (as I remember being taught at my c of e in the 90s!) The exact opposite in fact - the teacher leading the prayer will say ‘if you wish to make my prayer your own please say amen’ or similar, absolutely no expectation that everyone joins in at all. Majority of kids and staff do not, particularly in KS2.

And in none of those 4 schools was such a thing anywhere near daily. Once a week perhaps. My current school…harvest, Christmas, maybe one other time when a vicar consists. That’s it for the year.

I personally think it’s an outdated requirement not reflective of Britain in 2023 (are we a broadly Christian country? I literally don’t know a single person my age who goes to church regularly, the only people I know who do are my PIL in their 60s - and they’re amongst the younguns at their church!!) I would prefer it scrapped.

Maddy70 · 28/10/2023 13:36

No. It doesn't have to be religious. It can be things like "word of day " kindness or reflection etc

Courage ...an assembly about the Olympics etc.

trippinthru · 28/10/2023 13:52

Maddy70 · 28/10/2023 13:36

No. It doesn't have to be religious. It can be things like "word of day " kindness or reflection etc

Courage ...an assembly about the Olympics etc.

As it isn't inspected by Ofsted, schools can, and do, interpret it however they like or ignore it completely. But the official guidance (linked in my pp) says that it should be "concerned with reverence or veneration paid to a divine being or power."

“Daily act of communal worship”
trippinthru · 28/10/2023 14:00

"I personally think it’s an outdated requirement not reflective of Britain in 2023 (are we a broadly Christian country? I literally don’t know a single person my age who goes to church regularly, the only people I know who do are my PIL in their 60s - and they’re amongst the younguns at their church!!) I would prefer it scrapped"

Yep, plenty of people would agree with you @modgepodge , but it won't happen while we have unelected bishops and other traditionalists in the House of Lords. There have been attempts to scrap it, most recently in 2021, but they're always out-voted.

You can read the 2021 House of Lords debate here. The bill got some support, but not enough:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2021-09-10/debates/1F8305FD-63BA-4E38-99C4-774928DED5AA/Education(Assemblies)Bill(HL)

Flora56 · 28/10/2023 14:09

Schools can opt out of the ‘broadly Christian’ worship if it doesn’t reflect their school community. It’s called a determination.

Original poster
BCCoach · 28/10/2023 15:17

Flora56 · 28/10/2023 14:09

Schools can opt out of the ‘broadly Christian’ worship if it doesn’t reflect their school community. It’s called a determination.

As has been posted, schools can ignore the requirement completely as it isn’t enforced in any way and apparently the majority of schools do in fact ignore the requirement all together.

OP posts:
gotomomo · 28/10/2023 15:33

At my DD's upper school this consisted of opening a series of classrooms at 8am each morning (they started school at 8.15) with a sign on each of the doors "collective worship" and then a symbol for each religion. The Muslim one was fairly well attended but think the others remained empty

Flora56 · 28/10/2023 16:19

BCCoach · 28/10/2023 15:17

As has been posted, schools can ignore the requirement completely as it isn’t enforced in any way and apparently the majority of schools do in fact ignore the requirement all together.

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I’m just speaking from my own experience of managing the requirement.

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