Schools in danger of ratings downgraded if not having Christian daily worship

I've always been of the opinion that religion should play no part in a state school education. If parents wish their children to be educated in a particular faith, then they should put their money where their mouth is and have them educated privately.

I don't think the Act requires services, felice, just "observances", which can be interpreted fairly widely. That said, it's good if your grandchildren don't have religious observances foisted on them either.

My other 2 Grandchildren are in Scotland and they do not have compulsory services in either of their schools.

Baggs I've just checked and it applies in Wales too - so these Acts must be in force still even though education is devolved and the Church is not established in Wales or Scotland.

I’ve got a vague memory about pre-1870 having Cof E schools (National) and non- denominational schools ( British). The primary my dd went to still has the word British carved in stone above the original entrance. The Cof E fought like mad against state provision of education iirc and when it became inevitable tried to insist on having Anglican religious teaching but there was a backlash from the non-conformists and it was agreed thar only non- denominational religious teaching could take place.

Callistemon

felice the C of E is established so perhaps that is another reason why it may only apply to England.

Does anyone know?

It applies in Scotland too. At least, one had to opt one's child out if one didn't approve.

i think the reasons for it are historic.
when compulsory schooling became law in 1870, the vast majority of free schools were founded and funded by the church of england, in england.
so state provision extended and was grafted on to that.
so because they had been the main providers of any education to the masses before the 1870 act, the church of england got that clause inserted into the act.
and it's still there.
but obviously where the majority of the local populus is non-christian they do less specific assembly, or get an exemption from doing it at all, as in birmingham.
i've never heard of catholics walking out of traditional assembly, it was only jewish where i was, and some of them stayed in.

Enforcing religious observance is one of the most efficient ways of killing genuine religion.

felice the C of E is established so perhaps that is another reason why it may only apply to England.

Does anyone know?

That's what I was thinking pity it is not made clear !!!!!
Faiths are taught in school here but not obligatory, DGS is in a semi-private Catholic school and they go to Church twice a year.
The first time DGS went he was looking for our COS minister and complained that the service was really boring compared with ours.

What counts as a collective act of worship probably varies quite a lot, especially as schools try to make these things more inclusive, as they should.

But, as I implied before, it's time this requirement was binned. Lessons about world religions, should be sufficient.

lemongrove

No, not new at all!
It’s always been a requirement for schools, and it’s always been there that action can be taken if schools fail to comply with it.
It’s just been reiterated by the minister for schools because a Conservative MP asked a question about it.Presumably he was concerned that it may have been ‘lost’ in the last year because of the Pandemic.

It was a set up question - this attitude is all part of the plan. It’ll the flags in classrooms and oaths of allegiance next ?

Education is devolved, felice so just England I would think.

I'd attach the same importance to it as schools in Wales being put into special measures because they weren't teaching Welsh adequately. The fact that there weren't enough teachers of Welsh seem to have passed the powers-that-be by.
Were parents worried? Not as far as I know and those who were could opt for a Welsh-medium school for their child.

Parents who want their children to be taught a faith could opt for a faith school.

Is this for the whole of the UK or just England ?

Thanks Alegrias

Schools will be investigated if the Department for Education is "informed" that they are "in breach" of a "requirement" to have a daily "collective act of worship", schools minister Nick Gibb has said.

It doesn't say Christian so they could pick and mix.

Most schools wouldn't have a large enough hall for a whole school assembly anyway.

I know some

Discipline isn’t a huge problem, at least here in Victoria. Nothing like the UK in that respect. It may be a problem in some of the outback areas , mainly in respect of lack of attendance by indigenous pupils but not in the way you mean.

That's good if there are few problems in Victoria. However, I do have DGC and DGN at school in Australia plus know I some teachers, so do have some idea of the problems in the state sector.

No, not new at all!
It’s always been a requirement for schools, and it’s always been there that action can be taken if schools fail to comply with it.
It’s just been reiterated by the minister for schools because a Conservative MP asked a question about it.Presumably he was concerned that it may have been ‘lost’ in the last year because of the Pandemic.

Baggs

It's a ridiculous requirement. It is not the job of schools to encourage prayer or religious worship; that's the job of parents and churches.

Schools can teach about religions. That's all that should be required of them.

If I knew a school's rating had been downgraded because of not fulfilling the worship requirement it'd probably influence me in its favour, if I was going to be influenced in the first place.

100% right

Alegrias1

www.tes.com/news/schools-may-be-investigated-over-daily-collective-worship-duty

In response to a parliamentary question by Sir John Hayes MP. Its very new.

Recent news Call....

Blossoming

*Callistemon*. It’s section 70 of the School Standards and Framework Act of 1998. I haven’t seen anything in the news recently. The act can be read online on the Gov Uk website. It doesn’t seem to have been updated recently.

I meant any recent news about the investigations and downgrading for non-compliance, Blossoming, as I couldn't find any online.

It all seems rather odd

Baggs I was reading earlier about schools in Birmingham and this was mentioned, so I just checked.

schoolsweek.co.uk/over-40-schools-allowed-to-stop-daily-christian-worship/

I wouldn’t necessarily want to see them penalised. That sounds like a fine. I would like to see them encouraged more with assemblies and teaching if it is lacking in some areas, but then I am a Christian. My daughter in law is not sending my grandson to her nearest most convenient school when he starts in September, because there is no acknowledgement of Christianity. My other grandchildrens school is very good. Probably a bit like mine was 50 years ago. I think most Christians would agree, we are used to seeing God being pushed further and further away. The Bible does tell us to expect it though.

Are you sure schools can opt out, blossoming. I know parents can. We did.