SACRE Collective Worship Guidance

Appendix 1: The Law on Collective Worship

DfES Circular 1/94 contains all the detail on the law relating to Collective Worship. It refers schools back to the relevant legal rulings that were current at the time when it was written. Although many people believe that both this circular and the law on collective worship need to be reviewed, the legal basis for collective worship has not changed.

In its simplest form the law states that:

• collective worship must be provided daily (separate arrangements may be made for nurseries and special schools);
• collective worship may take place at any time of the school day;
• schools may decide on the age/groupings of pupils and these may vary from day to day;
• the times decided for the delivery of collective worship may vary for different groups from day to day;
• generally collective worship should take place on school premises;
• the content of the majority of acts of collective worship in a term should be "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character, reflecting the broad traditions of Christian belief."
• the content should have regard for the family backgrounds, ages and aptitudes of pupils;
• parents may withdraw their children from collective worship;
• teachers may withdraw from collective worship;
• in a community school the responsibility for managing the provision for collective worship is with the head teacher after consultation with the governing body;
• every maintained school is required under the Education (Schools Information) Regulations 1996 to include in its annual prospectus information about the collective worship provided by the school and how parents may withdraw their children from it.