Survey reveals school leaders against legally required collective worship in England schools

May 15, 2024 by Jill

from Premier:

More than two in three senior leaders in state schools want a law which requires daily acts of collective worship in school to be scrapped, a new survey has revealed.

Schools in England are legally required to hold daily acts of collective worship – and for non-religious schools, it needs to be “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”.

The survey by the National Secular Society (NSS) said the government must recognise the “divisive and deeply unpopular nature” of the collective worship law in schools and repeal it.

Last month, headteacher Katharine Birbalsingh at Michaela Community School in Brent, north London , successfully defeated a legal challenge from a Muslim student following the school’s ban on prayer rituals.

The pupil claimed the school’s decision breached her right to religious freedom and discriminated against her.

However, in a separate poll by a PA news agency, 1,934 senior leaders and headteachers in England found that 70 per cent disagreed that all schools should be legally required to hold daily acts of collective worship.

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