National Secular Society: Northern Ireland churches reject poll which finds more than two in three English teachers oppose school worship

The main Protestant denominations in Northern Ireland were responding after the National Secular Society (NSS) survey found that more than two in three senior leaders in English state schools do not support a law which requires daily acts of collective school worship.

Schools in England are legally required to hold daily acts of collective worship – and in schools without a religious character, it should be “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”.

The issue of religious practice in schools is becoming “increasingly fraught” and imposing worship on pupils “adds to this tension”, secular campaigners have told the Education Secretary.

The survey warning comes after Michaela Community School in Brent, north London, faced legal action from a Muslim pupil against the school’s ban on prayer rituals.

Last month, the high-profile school defeated the legal challenge from the student who claimed the school’s policy was discriminatory and unlawfully breached her right to religious freedom.

A poll of 1,934 senior leaders and headteachers in England, shared exclusively with the PA news agency, found 70% disagree that all schools should be legally required to hold daily acts of broadly Christian collective worship.

The survey, which was carried out for the NSS by the Teacher Tapp app in April, suggests just 12% of senior leaders support the collective worship law in schools.

In a letter to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan earlier this year, the NSS said teachers were “deciding en masse that collective worship has no place in inclusive 21st century schools”.

However churches in Northern Ireland said the findings were not relevant to the culture here.

The Methodist, Church of Ireland and Presbyterians churches argue that they retain legal influence over the ethos of state schools here, as they handed 500 of them into state care from 1926 to 1947 only on this condition.

Collectively known as the Transferor Representatives’ Council (TRC) when acting on the issue, Chairman Dr Andy Brown said: “This survey by the National Secular Society is drawn from responses from teachers in England, which has, in the main, a very different culture and attitude towards faith.

"As we have said before, collective worship, and indeed RE in Northern Ireland, gives space for children to learn about faith within the Christian ethos of our schools, which encourages and promotes the importance of recognising and respecting the different views of those of other faiths and none.”

The TRC oversees the appointment of 1,500 school governors and nominates four members to the Education Authority.

Earlier this month the three churches welcomed a Court of Appeal verdict that exclusively Christian-focused religious education in Northern Ireland primary schools does not breach human rights law.

The verdict was given at the Court of Appeal in the latest stage of a legal battle against the Department of Education by the "broadly humanist" parents of a Belfast primary school girl.

In 2022 the High Court found that primary RE breaches human rights as it is not taught in a "objective, critical and pluralist manner".

However this month the Court of Appeal overruled the verdict, saying the child's parents could opt her out of RE classes (although they had chosen not to).