Collective worship reviewed: report of the 1997 consultation

Report

The nature and purpose of collective worship in schools had been a contentious area for many years. By 1996 the requirement for a daily act of collective worship in secondary schools was becoming increasingly difficult to implement. Many head teachers, including many who were committed Christians, resented the emphasis on quantity rather than on quality and being deemed ‘non-compliant’ for holding one or two high quality acts of collective worship a week rather than five perfunctory ones.

Accordingly two educational trusts agreed to sponsor a major national review of collective worship to be overseen by the three most relevant associations - the Religious Education Council, the Inter Faith Network and the National Association of Standing Advisory Councils for RE. The review was managed by the Culham Institute.

The outcome of the conferences was a proposal for a way forward which was deemed by most of the representatives to be sensible way of squaring the circle. However, the proposal was rejected by the Church of England’s Chief Education Officer and there was some ambivalence within the Muslim and Roman Catholic communities. Therefore, central government backed away from discussions about the implementation of the proposals on the grounds of the lack of unanimity. This was the last time there has been any serious national attempt to engage with the issues. At some future stage collective worship will need to be addressed again and this report provides an excellent starting point for such a process.

Authors: Gay, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Culham College Institute
• Place of publication: Abingdon
• Publication date: 1998-01-01
• Language: English
• Keywords: Roman Catholic Church; Department for Education; schools; Church of England; Islam; FFR; teacher unions; assemblies; England; worship