Education (Assemblies) Bill [HL]

Baroness Burt of Solihull Excerpts

Friday 7th February 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Burt of Solihull]

That the Bill be now read a second time.

[Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)]

My Lords, I am humbled to introduce this Bill in your Lordships’ House. I am grateful to all noble Lords who have joined us today. I declare my interest as vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group and put on record my thanks to Humanists UK as the secretariat that helped me bring forward the Bill, and to the National Secular Society.

More than three years ago, I first stood in this Chamber to put forward the same Bill. Back then, it passed through the Lords but fell in the other place due to lack of time. I am also grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, who put forward an amendment to introduce inclusive assemblies to the Schools Bill in 2022. So this is a Bill whose time has come.

The UK is the only western democracy that legally imposes worship in publicly funded schools. Sections 70 and 71 of the Schools Standards and Framework Act require all state schools that are not of a religious nature already to hold daily acts of collective worship that must be of a “wholly or mainly” Christian character. The Bill seeks to reform assemblies in schools without a religious character to make sure they include all children and contribute to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

In my opinion, school assemblies can be a good thing. They should foster a sense of community and promote the moral and social development of pupils. But that is not what is happening in many schools today, because the required religious aspect means that many children are withdrawn from assemblies, often to be left in corridors or classrooms, excluded from their peers and without any meaningful equivalent activity, which can make a child feel excluded and different. Some non-Christian children will feel pressurised to attend just to fit in.

This is not a radical Bill, and it would not impact on the teaching of religion or belief in schools. It would not affect the ability of the one-third of schools that are religious schools to conduct collective worship, although it does mandate that children withdrawn from collective worship in these schools should be awarded equally meaningful school assemblies instead of being left in corridors. It would allow pupils and teachers at schools of no religious character to organise voluntary acts of worship for children who want to attend, so long as their parents permit them to do so.

The Bill would not end assemblies in schools. Rather, it would require schools to hold assemblies focused on the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of all children. The British Social Attitudes survey consistently shows that around half of British adults say they belong to no religion and that more than 60% do not identify as Christian. Of those aged 18 to 24, 68% say they are non-religious versus 18% saying they are Christian.

Parents welcome the Bill. A 2019 YouGov poll asked parents to rank a list of 13 possible activities that could take place in a school assembly, and they ranked collective worship last. In fact, more than half said that religious worship was not an appropriate activity. Instead, in front of religious worship they ranked the environment and nature, physical and mental health, the celebration of achievements, equality and non-discrimination, charity and volunteering, relationships and self-esteem, exploration of moral and ethical issues, humanitarian issues, historical events, art and culture, education about religions and beliefs, and politics and government. In my opinion, and in that of these children’s parents, those are the topics we should be covering in assemblies.

Parents are right that worship is not appropriate. It does not uphold children’s rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Younger children also have the right to freedom of religion or belief, and this right is not respected if religious worship is imposed on them. Accordingly, the UN children’s rights committee has for years called for the repeal of the UK’s compulsory worship laws and did so again in 2023. Moreover, a recent poll of school leaders found that 70% opposed collective worship and only 12% supported the current law.

Finally, I thank all Peers for joining us today. The former Bishop of Oxford, the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, wrote to give his apologies and asked me to say a few words on his behalf in support of the Bill. He said that just because he believes in the Christian faith and to him it is of supreme importance, he sees no reason why non-religious teachers should have to conduct collective worship for pupils, many of whom would be of other religions or beliefs. The Bill presents an opportunity to uphold children’s rights to freedom of religion or belief and to enable them to be present and included in their school life. I beg to move.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)]

I am very grateful to everyone who has expressed their views today. The variety of different views that noble Lords have expressed has quite surprised me and I am quite delighted that we have at least had the opportunity to make these points. I do think it is a subject we need to address, because the situation we have at the moment is that some schools are doing one thing and some schools are doing another. That does not mean to say that everybody has to do exactly the same thing—I totally disagree with that—but it does mean that we have to be much more open to different pupils’ needs in schools.

To my mind, it all boils down to inclusivity. You cannot share values with your colleagues and with your fellow students if you are not there—that is the point. It is all very well saying that you can definitely exclude some children, but I do not want children to be excluded; I want them to be included. That is hugely important, and it is a point that one or two of the speakers today have missed.

I will not go into all the details of today’s contributions, but I feel a great sense of empathy with the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Brixton, being a corridor child. It is he and his descendants that I am trying to include and involve in what is going on in schools today. I also bring to the attention of those who have spoken in less than resounding terms that parents do not want it—this is the point. I ask them to think about how we can bring everyone together. That is all I want to do, because the system we are working on at the moment not only is anachronistic but does not work, because different children are having all kinds of different experiences.

I echo a couple of things that the noble Lord, Lord Watson, said. If we will not get a change of law, how about a change of guidance? That was an excellent idea. He also held out the leaf of hope that we might be able to fit an appropriate amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to bring everyone together there. With that, I hope that we may still go forward to the next stage.

Bill read a second time and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.