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David Bell, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools and head of Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education), gave a speech on Wednesday 21 April in celebration of R. A. Butler and the 1944 Education Act. Focusing on three areas in which the Act had set out to cater to the need of the 'whole child' - the curriculum; spiritual, moral, social and cultural development; and personalised learning - Bell included a number of detailed comments on school worship, intending to trigger a national debate about the legal requirement for a daily act of collective worship.
The Church of England's Chief Education Officer, Canon John Hall, has said that he would welcome, at the right time, a national debate on the importance of collective worship in schools. Canon Hall remarked that:
'Collective worship is an important part of pupils' entitlement to religious experience in education. It contributes very strongly to their spiritual and moral development. Much collective worship in schools, not just faith schools, is of a high standard.'
At the present time, there is important national work under way on religious education; Church of England and other faith representatives are working with the Government on a national framework for RE. It would not be appropriate to undertake work on collective worship until that programme is complete.
Canon Hall continued:
'I regard the current legal requirements as more flexible and permissive than people often recognise and look forward in due course to working with the Government and other faith and professional representatives on suitable guidance and support for collective worship.'
Posted: 23/04/04.
Press release from Ofsted, NR 2004-37, 21 April 2004 (External link to Ofsted site)
Text of David Bell's speech from Ofsted
web site (available as Word or PDF)
The National Society and Culham Institute collaborate in producing highly acclaimed web-based support for collective worship in schools, through the Collective Worship resource web site.
The settlement negotiated between R. A. Butler, the Minister of Education, and William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury, included for the first time the legal requirement that religious education be offered in all schools, not just Church schools.
There were two parts to religious education: a daily act of collective worship and classroom religious instruction. R. A. Butler and William Temple recognised that this new legal requirement was controversial with some teachers but regarded it as an entitlement for pupils.
Collective worship was implicitly expected to be Christian but non-denominational. It had to take place at the start of the day at an assembly of the whole school.
In Church schools, worship was expected to accord with the religious tradition of the school.
The great achievement of the '44 Act was the introduction of secondary education for all, to the age of 15. Most children had previously been educated in elementary schools to the age of 14. After the Act, elementary schools mostly became primary schools, educating children to the age of 11. Thereafter children moved to one of the new secondary schools: grammar, technical (of which not many were introduced) or 'modern'. In the 1960s most secondary schools became 'comprehensive' and the school leaving age was raised to 16.
After the '44 Act Church schools had the option to become voluntary controlled (with no capital contribution from the diocesan authorities in return for their ceding control to the LEA), or voluntary aided (where the church capital contribution remained but was subsidised by national government). About half the Church of England schools became controlled by the LEA.
Since the Education Reform Act 1988, the law has continued to require a daily act of collective worship for all pupils in all schools. But the law has changed in several significant ways.
No longer does collective worship have to be for the whole school assembled at the start of the day. It can be conducted at any time and in any convenient grouping.
The act of worship is to be 'wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character'. 'Broadly Christian' means non-denominational. 'Wholly or mainly' applies over a whole term. Therefore, either all or most of the acts of worship have to be broadly Christian. Thus, depending on the character of the school community, almost half the acts of worship can reflect other major religious traditions.
Schools can acquire a determination from their local authority that the Christian requirement is replaced in their case by a requirement that the worship is that of another religious tradition.
The law has been explicit that in schools with a religious character, the collective worship has to accord with the religious tradition of the school.
Posted: 23/04/04.
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