Education Act 1996

Religious worship

385 Collective worship

(1) Subject to section 389, all pupils in attendance at a maintained school other than a maintained special school shall on each school day take part in an act of collective worship.

(2) The arrangements for the collective worship in a school required by this section may, in respect of each school day, provide for a single act of worship for all pupils or for separate acts of worship for pupils in different age groups or in different school groups.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2) a “school group” is any group in which pupils are taught or take part in other school activities.

(4) Subject to subsection (6), the arrangements for the collective worship required by this section shall be made—

(a) in the case of a county school or a grant-maintained school in relation to which section 379 applies, by the head teacher after consultation with the governing body; and

(b) in the case of a voluntary school or a grant-maintained school other than one in relation to which section 379 applies, by the governing body after consultation with the head teacher.

(5) Subject to subsection (6), the collective worship in a school required by this section shall take place on the school premises.

(6) If the governing body of an aided, special agreement or grant-maintained school are of the opinion that it is desirable that any act of collective worship in the school required by this section should, on a special occasion, take place elsewhere than on the school premises, they may, after consultation with the head teacher, make such arrangements for that purpose as they think appropriate.

(7) The powers of a governing body under subsection (6) shall not be exercised so as to derogate from the rule that the collective worship in the school required by this section must normally take place on the school premises.

386 Collective worship in county schools and certain grant-maintained schools to be broadly Christian

(1) Subsections (2) to (6) apply—

(a) (subject to section 387) in relation to a county school, and

(b) (subject to sections 383 and 387) in relation to a grant-maintained school in relation to which section 379 applies,

(2) The collective worship required in the school by section 385 shall be wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character.

(3) For the purposes of subsection (2), collective worship is of a broadly Christian character if it reflects the broad traditions of Christian belief without being distinctive of any particular Christian denomination.

(4) Not every act of collective worship in the school required by section 385 need comply with subsection (2) provided that, taking any school term as a whole, most such acts which take place in the school do comply with that subsection.

(5) Subject to subsections (2) and (4)—

(a) the extent to which (if at all) any acts of collective worship required by section 385 which do not comply with subsection (2) take place in the school,

(b) the extent to which any act of collective worship in the school which complies with subsection (2) reflects the broad traditions of Christian belief, and

(c) the ways in which those traditions are reflected in any such act of collective worship,

shall be such as may be appropriate having regard to any relevant considerations relating to the pupils concerned which fall to be taken into account in accordance with subsection (6).

(6) Those considerations are—

(a) any circumstances relating to the family backgrounds of the pupils which are relevant for determining the character of the collective worship which is appropriate in their case, and

(b) their ages and aptitudes.

(7) In subsections (2) to (6) as they apply in relation to a grant-maintained school, references to acts of collective worship in the school include such acts which by virtue of section 385(6) take place otherwise than on the school premises.

387 Disapplication of requirement for Christian collective worship

(1) Subsection (2) applies where—

(a) a standing advisory council on religious education determine (under section 394) that it is not appropriate for the requirement imposed by section 386(2) to apply in the case of a school or in the case of any class or description of pupils at a school, or

(b) such a council had so determined in the case of a grant-maintained school, or pupils at such a school, before the school became grant-maintained.

(2) While the determination has effect—

(a) section 386 shall not apply in relation to the school or (as the case may be) pupils in question, and

(b) the collective worship required by section 385 in the case of the school or pupils shall not be distinctive of any particular Christian or other religious denomination;

but paragraph (b) shall not be taken as preventing that worship from being distinctive of any particular faith.

(3) In this section references to a school are references to a county school or to a grant-maintained school in relation to which section 379 applies.

388 Duty to secure participation in collective worship

Subject to section 389, in relation to any maintained school (other than a maintained special school)—

(a) the local education authority and the governing body shall exercise their functions with a view to securing, and

(b) the head teacher shall secure,

that all pupils in attendance at the school take part in the daily collective worship required by section 385.