Part A: Collective Worship

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1. The Law on collective worship (a summary)
   
   The delivery of collective worship in community schools is guided by the law which 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 the 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 choice of 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.
   
   
2. What is Collective Worship?
   
   The law has never clearly defined collective worship. It is known, however, that it is not the same as faith community worship (corporate worship) because:
   
   
   a community school is not a faith community;
   community school contains pupils and staff from many different faith backgrounds as well as those who have no religious beliefs or no faith background;
   a school community contains a wide range of people with different views on what 'worship' might mean and what or whom may be worthy of worship.
   
   
   Neither is collective worship 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).
   
   
3. What is a determination?
   
   
   If the headteacher of a school feels that the provision of collective worship within the broadest interpretation of the law is not suitable for that particular school, then the headteacher should consider whether it might be appropriate to ask the SACRE to grant a "Determination" in accordance with the law. (See Circular 1/94).
   
   A 'determination' is the decision of the SACRE as to whether it is appropriate to lift the requirement for wholly or mainly broadly Christian collective worship to be provided for the school, or any class or description of pupils at the school, having regard to any circumstances relating to the family background of the pupils for which the 'determination' is requested.
   
   The SACRE must review the determination if the school so requests and, in any event, within five years of the date when the determination was made or last reviewed.
   
   Part B of this document sets out guidance on the process of the determination procedure.