SACRE Collective Worship Guidance

What Is Collective Worship?

The law has never clearly defined collective worship.

We do know however that collective worship is not the same as faith community worship (corporate worship) because a community school is not a faith community as it may contain pupils and staff from many different faith backgrounds as well as those who have no religious beliefs or no faith background. A school community therefore contains a wide range of people with different views on what 'worship' might mean and what or whom may be worthy of worship.

Collective worship is not the same as an Assembly because staff and pupils do not have the right to withdraw from Assembly. Assembly may be taken to mean the time when members of the school are gathered together to pass on information and move forward matters of secular business (notices).