The obligation on teachers to attend acts of collective worship in schools varies according to the type of school in which teachers are employed and the nature of their role.
All local authority maintained schools are required to ensure schools provide a daily act of collective worship for their pupils, except where there are permitted withdrawals.
All academies (except for alternative provision academies) have a similar requirement under the terms of their funding agreement.
Maintained schools without a religious character
The basic position in maintained schools is set out in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (SSFA). Section 59(2)(a) provides that teachers in maintained schools that do not have a religious character do not have to attend religious worship.
This protection also applies to headteachers. However, headteachers are under a responsibility to ensure that legal provisions in respect of collective worship are met.
Voluntary controlled or foundations schools with a religious character
In a voluntary controlled school or a foundation school with a religious character, if a teacher is identified as a ‘reserved teacher’ able to teach religious education, they have no right of withdrawal from collective worship.
Up to a maximum of one fifth of the teaching staff in such a school can be identified as a reserved teacher. All other teachers in the school have the same rights as teachers in maintained schools without a religious character.
A headteacher of this type of school does not have to be a reserved teacher, but their employment is governed by the proviso that ‘regard may be had to that person’s ability and fitness to preserve and develop the religious character of the school’ (SSFA s.60(4)). In practice, this provision allows a voluntary controlled or a foundation school with a religious character to insist that its headteacher attends collective worship.
Voluntary aided schools with a religious character
In voluntary aided schools with a religious character, there is no right for teachers to withdraw from collective worship (SSFA s.60(6)).
Assemblies that do not constitute collective worship
Under the provisions of the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD), a teacher in a maintained school can be directed to attend an assembly of pupils that does not constitute collective worship.
Academies and free schools
The position is less clear in respect of academies and free schools. There is a common assumption that the right to withdraw or otherwise set out in the SSFA applies in these schools, but there is no explicit provision to this effect.
DfE model funding agreements require that religious education and collective worship for pupils reflects that in analogous maintained schools but the provisions of sections 59 and 60 of the SSFA on staff are not referenced in these funding agreements.
However, academies with a religious character are likely to have provisions in contracts of employment that would require participation in collective worship. For example, the Catholic Education Service (CES) model contract states:
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expected to be conscientious and loyal to the aims and objectives of the School;
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required to preserve and develop the Catholic character of the School;
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to have regard to the Catholic character of the School and not to do anything in any way detrimental or prejudicial to the interests of the same.
If required, you are to instruct and/or supervise instruction in the Holy Scriptures and the Doctrines of the Catholic Church in accordance with the principles, and subject to the discipline, thereof to the satisfaction of the Diocesan Religious Inspector, or other appointed representatives of the Diocesan Bishop, at the time or times appointed for religious instruction, such children as are entrusted to you and to be present at such religious examinations of the children as may be directed to be held by the Governing Body.
Although arrangements in schools of other denominations and religions might be different in some respects, and some Catholic schools might not incorporate this element of the CES model contract into their own contracts, it will be important for teachers and school leaders in schools with a religious character to check the provisions of their contracts of employment to understand the obligations on them relating to collective worship.
In academies and free schools without a religious character, the NASUWT would expect that staff would have the same rights of withdrawal as staff in analogous maintained schools.
The Human Rights Act and the European Convention on Human Rights contain important provisions on freedom of conscience and belief that employers of teachers in schools without a religious character are obliged to respect.
If you are concerned about arrangements in your school, you should contact the NASUWT for further advice and information.
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