We want to see laws requiring schools to hold acts of worship abolished.
The laws are archaic, unnecessary and breach children's freedom of religion or belief.
The United Kingdom is the only Western democracy which legally imposes worship in publicly funded schools.
The law in England and Wales provides that children at all maintained schools "shall on each school day take part in an act of collective worship". Northern Ireland and Scotland have similar laws.
Even in schools with no religious designation, the worship must be "wholly or mainly of a Christian character".
School assemblies are an important feature of school life. They foster a sense of community in schools and promote the moral and social development of pupils. But acts of worship are neither necessary nor desirable to achieve these educational goals.
Polling has found 70% of senior teachers "disagree" or "strongly disagree" with the law mandating worship, and 66% of teachers say their school does not even hold collective worship.
The majority of the public (52%) say school assemblies should be about moral issues, whereas just 26% agree that they should feature religious worship.
Many schools ignore the law, but where it is enforced it causes division and discrimination, as well as opening the door to evangelism and proselytising.
Parents have the right to withdraw children from collective worship, but many this is an unreasonable imposition on both themselves and their children. Parents should never have to withdraw their children from any part of the school day to ensure their rights to raise their child according to their own religious or philosophical convictions are respected.
Collective worship laws are outdated relics of a society unrecognisable from the diverse and pluralistic Britain of today, where citizens hold a wide variety of religious beliefs, and increasingly, no religious beliefs. The abolition of collective worship is long overdue.
Take action!
1. Write to your MP
Ask them to help end compulsory worship in schools
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join us
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
C of E services for schools expand by 56% in four years
Posted: Wed, 14 Nov 2018 11:15
The National Secular Society has said a rapid rise in the number of children being taken to Church of England school services should prompt "a separation of church and school".
The C of E's Statistics for Mission figures, published on Wednesday, showed that the average weekly attendance at C of E school services grew by 56% between 2013 and 2017.
In October 2017 197,000 people attended the services, compared to 126,000 in October 2013. Over 2,600 churches reported attendance at services for schools in church in October 2017.
The figures also reveal that the church has a substantial role in leading worship in schools. Almost half (46%) of churches surveyed reported that a member of their ministry team led an act of worship in schools once a month or more during 2017.
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans said: "It's clear that churches and faith schools are working in cahoots to coerce pupils into participation in worship. These publicly funded schools are not homogenous worshipping communities. Forcing Anglican services into the school day is completely inappropriate.
"These figures not only demonstrate the need to separate church and state, they also highlight the need to separate church and school."
The statistics also show that C of E attendance has fallen significantly since 2007. Adult average Sunday attendance has fallen by 15%, child average Sunday attendance by 24% and adult average weekly attendance by 12%. All-age average Sunday attendance has fallen by three per cent since 2016.
Little more than one per cent of the British population attended Church of England services on an average Sunday in 2017. The usual Sunday attendance at C of E churches was 722,000. Each week 895,000 people attended Church of England services and acts of worship in October 2017. These figures do not include attendance at services for schools.
Attendance at C of E baptisms, thanksgivings, marriages, funerals and Easter services has also fallen.
Mr Evans said the figures were "another reminder of the need to re-evaluate the Church of England's public role". He added that the expansion of C of E school services was "particularly unjustifiable in this context".
The NSS campaigns for the disestablishment of the Church of England, the removal of bishops' automatic right to sit in the House of Lords, an end to state-funded faith schools and an end to compulsory worship in schools.
In 2016 179,300 children attended weekly school services in the C of E, as the NSS reported when the relevant figures were released last year.
Let children make their own minds up about religion, says report
Posted: Wed, 10 Oct 2018 12:10
The National Secular Society has welcomed an academic report which calls on English state schools to raise children in a religiously neutral manner.
The report 'How to regulate faith schools', which will be launched at the UCL Institute of Education in London tonight, says schools should not be allowed to teach religion "directively".
The report calls for a ban on confessional religious instruction and acts of school-directed worship during school hours. It argues that schools should be allowed to have a faith ethos provided they do not guide their students "in their direction to such an extent that it threatens their autonomy".
The authors, from the University of Warwick and University College London, write that it is "important for individuals to decide for themselves what kind of life to live and to reflect and act upon those decisions in a well-informed manner".
"There should be no classes that encourage children to believe that they are duty-bound to worship God, that Jesus is the son of God whose crucifixion and resurrection redeemed mankind, that Allah is the one true God and only He is worthy of worship, or that there is no God and human beings can only find ethical and spiritual fulfilment without belief in a divinity."
The report adds that schools should introduce "a universal entitlement to an adequate programme of civic, religious, ethical and moral education", to be known as CREaM.
The proposed CREaM syllabus would "explicitly place religion alongside a broader education in citizenship, ethics and morality".
"Non-directive" religious education would be part of CREaM. Its purpose would be "to equip children with the understanding and capacity to decide for themselves what gods (if any) there are and what goals and relationships are worth pursuing".
The report calls for the 50% cap on faith-based admissions which currently applies to new faith schools to apply to all state-funded faith schools. Earlier this year the government decided not to lift the 50% cap after vigorous campaigning by the NSS and others.
The authors say independent faith schools should only retain their charitable status if they accept the same regulation as state-funded schools. Independent schools which engaged in religious instruction or operated an unrestricted faith-based admissions policy would lose their charitable status.
The report says parents should be required to register with their local authority if they wish to educate their children at home. Home educating parents would also be required to provide an education that "attends to the development of educational goods" and to teach the CREaM curriculum. They would be allowed to teach their children religion directively.
Alastair Lichten, the NSS's education and schools officer, said the proposals "are largely a welcome dose of common sense".
"Education should value individual autonomy and give children the tools they need to make informed decisions, including about religion. This report has recognised that and the proposals would certainly represent a welcome change if adopted.
"The state should put children's independent rights ahead of the interests of religious leaders. Ending collective worship and teaching about religion in an informed rather than a confessional manner would both strike major blows in favour of that. And the proposals for change beyond the state sector are sensible and balanced.
"While the report is practical and recognises where we are rather than a theoretical ideal, it doesn't shy away from challenging the entrenched interests of the faith school lobby. While the proposals to remove faith schools' special privileges would mitigate much of the harm they do, it's difficult to see what role they could really play in a truly religiously neutral education system."
The NSS has long campaigned for the end of compulsory worship in schools. Under the law state schools in England and Wales are required to ensure children take part in worship on a daily basis.
The NSS calls for reform of RE so children have a national entitlement to a broad, balanced education about religion and belief. Last month a major report by the Commission on Religious Education called for RE to be replaced by a subject entitled 'Religion and Worldviews'.
Mr Lichten said: "High quality education about worldviews (religious or otherwise) may well be best delivered as part of the proposed CREaM syllabus."
The NSS's No More Faith Schools campaign calls for the end of state-funded faith schools.
The report said the proposals were "grounded in a normative framework of basic values" and "explicitly" appealed to "philosophical principles".
"Some will doubtless regard our proposals as reflecting a secular worldview, suspecting us of being hostile to religious believers… But schools that do not direct children towards particular religions are not anti-religious, and antipathy towards religion plays no role in our thinking."
The report was written by Professor Adam Swift, of University College London, and University of Warwick academics Dr Ruth Wareham, Professor Matthew Clayton and Professor Andrew Mason. It has been published by the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain.
