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Schools and the Church of England: Collective Worship and Religious Education

Other schools page: Church schools; Support for professionals

Collective worship

The Church of England Board of Education fully supports the current legislation, which states that daily collective worship is the right of every child and "should be maintained as part of the pupils' educational experience". This law is flexible enough to accommodate other denominations and faiths. Thousands of schools have a record of good practice in their daily collective worship. There is immediate help available for any schools needing help and ideas from the Board of Education, The National Society and Church House Publishing.

Religious education

The Church of England Board of Education is passionately concerned with the status of religious education in the curriculum. The National Society's national resource centre is at the address below. They offer extensive resources and advice on training and management of religious education in schools.

The National Society RE Centre [London], 36, Causton Street, London SW1P 4AU. Email: [email protected].

Inspection of RE and worship

Church of England schools have their religious education and worship inspected under section 23 of the School Inspections Act 1996. The National Society has so far trained over 800 section 23 inspectors, who have been carrying out this task. In schools without a religious character the whole inspection is carried out by OFSTED.