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Collective worship laws are outdated relics of a society unrecognisable from the diverse and pluralistic Britain of today, where citizens hold a wide variety of religious beliefs, and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
Student starts petition against collective worship in Northern Ireland
Posted: Tue, 22 Sep 2015 16:07
A Sixth Form student has started a campaign against collective worship in Northern Ireland, from which pupils currently have no right to withdraw without parental consent.
Scott Moore, a 17 year-old student, has started the petition calling on Northern Ireland Minister for Education John O'Dowd to make prayers in assemblies optional for schools, after Moore's own experience of being compelled to attend prayers which he did not believe in during the school day.
Under current law, students in Northern Ireland have no right to withdraw themselves from collective worship in schools and can only do so with parental permission. Without this, they are compelled to attend prayers.
Moore argues in his petition that, "collective worship violates young people's right to freedom of religion. This is because it stops them from being able to decide in a balanced manner what their views actually are."
He is only campaigning for a modest, incremental reform however, and says that although he believes "collective worship should face complete abolition", the petition only seeks to "change the law so schools can choose whether their assemblies have prayer".
Research from Queen's University Belfast published in October 2010 criticised the "poorly executed" opt-out clause. It also revealed that even among people who believed the right to opt-out should remain with parents, "it was suggested that students should be more formally involved in the decision-making process as well as in discussions around the kind of alternative provision that should be offered during the opting-out period."
Moore is calling on the government of Northern Ireland to reform the current law, citing the injustice of students potentially forced to attend worship because of their parents' "own hardline Christian views".
He became an atheist at the age of 12 and began asking to be excluded from religious events, but this request was not granted because he needed parental permission.
"As Christians and people who were [averse] to kicking up a fuss, my parents refused," he says.
When he was 15 he was finally granted the consent of his parents to withdrawn from collective worship but "it still wasn't fair" he said, because "At any time they could have decided they could put me back into acts of collective worship. It should have been my choice."
"Right now, I'm in sixth form. I won't have to do RE. But my parents could put me back into collective worship and the Easter/Carol services. I trust that they won't, but it's not right that they should hold that power," he added.
Encouraging people to sign his petition, he wrote, "It's not just about avoiding an assembly. It's about having your identity recognised. It's about [having] your sense of being an independent person recognised and respected. It's about recognition for having your own views, and not someone else's."
In England and Wales, Sixth Form pupils gained the right to self-withdraw following extensive campaigning by the NSS and a recommendation by the Joint Committee on Human Rights.
DfE issues new guidance for promoting “fundamental British values”
Posted: Tue, 2 Dec 2014 09:25
The Department for Education (DfE) has published new guidance for schools on the promotion of "fundamental British values".
The non-statutory advice calls on schools to "encourage respect for democracy" in their promotion of students' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSC).
The note stresses that children must be "made aware of the difference between the law of the land and religious law." It added that a school's ethos and teaching "should support the rule of English civil and criminal law and schools should not teach anything that undermines it."
The note restated the Government's policy that "schools should promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs."
The DfE's note says that schools and teachers should encourage respect for the civil and criminal law of England and "enable students to acquire a broad general knowledge of and respect for public institutions and services in England."
Additionally, schools are to "further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling students to acquire appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures."
Schools are also to "encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England".
The advice stresses that pupils must understand that "the freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law" and that other people "having different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour."
However, the note also advises that meeting the requirement for "collective worship" is a way of ensuring pupils' SMSC development.
The advice also states that "it is not necessary for schools or individuals to 'promote' teachings, beliefs or opinions that conflict with their own, but nor is it acceptable for schools to promote discrimination against people or groups on the basis of their belief, opinion or background."
Separate advice for independent schools, academies and free schools means there is now a sector wide requirement for schools to promote "fundamental values" actively – a move welcomed by the National Secular Society.
Stephen Evans, NSS campaigns manager, said: "It's essential that all pupils educated in the UK, regardless of the type of school they attend, learn about those values considered key to contributing to mutual understanding and a cohesive society.
"Unfortunately, the advice issued by the DfE appears contradictory. It encourages schools to impose worship on pupils and leaves the problem of some religiously-led schools teaching illiberal views completely unresolved. Such schools are being told that they cannot promote discrimination on the basis of 'belief, opinion or background,' but also that they will not be forced to advocate teachings that conflict with their own beliefs. As has been revealed in recent months, many schools are teaching about religion in a wholly partisan way, and sometimes in a way that promotes ideas that are counter-cohesive and contrary to the values outlined in the standards.
"The latest measures also do nothing to address the separatism fostered by the very presence of faith based schools. Without reform in the very structures of the schools system, such as in terms of faith ethos and admissions, these new standards are unlikely to deliver any meaningful change."
