Collective Worship and the Law

Arrangements for collective worship in a church school are the responsibility of the governors in consultation with the Headteacher. There are three main legal requirements for collective worship:

• Collective worship in a church school should be carried out in accordance with the school's founding Trust Deed, and in accordance with the School's Ethos Statement, which is to be found in the statutory Instruments of Government.
• The school must provide an act of collective worship for all pupils every day.
• This act of worship can take place at any time of the school day and in any regular school grouping e.g. whole school, key stage or class unit.
• A statement must be included in the school brochure that makes it clear parents may withdraw their children from collective worship on religious grounds. A similar statement should appear in the collective worship policy document. (The "religious grounds" do not have to be justified and explained by the parents) Should children be withdrawn, the school must provide adequate supervision to ensure their safety. Staff who withdraw children from collective worship (e.g. remedial reading, music lessons) are breaking the law!

As part of their statutory responsibility for collective worship, foundation governors will wish to monitor this aspect of school life regularly. A form to help with this process can be found here.

Contents

1. What is worship?
2. Collective Worship and the law
3. The Anglican Tradition
4. The Aims of Collective Worship
5. The Policy
6. Ways of planning and recording
7. Planning Issues
8. Collective worship ideas and support on the world wide web
9. Asking Visitors to lead worship
10. Guidelines to be given to Visitors to lead worship
11. Are Assembly and Collective worship the same thing?
12. Themes and schemes for planning collective worship
13. Bible stories for use with collective worship themes
14. Involving pupils in Collective worship

Document Downloads

• Collective Worship in Church Schools