Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether schools in England are free to decide where collective prayer should take place on their premises.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Maintained schools and academies are required to conduct a daily act of collective worship which is wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character. Most schools with a religious designation may conduct collective worship which aligns with their trust deeds or tenets of their religion.
Daily acts of collective worship, subject to the right of withdrawal, must include all pupils attending a school. As a rule, all acts of collective worship should take place on the school premises and schools are free to determine where in the school it takes place. Schools have discretion to organise collective worship elsewhere on special occasions.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they encourage Christian teaching in schools.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government’s policy is to allow religious education (RE) curricula to be designed at a local level, whether that is through a locally agreed syllabus or by individual schools and academy trusts developing their own curricula.
The government does not specify what the content of a school’s RE curriculum should be, nor does it actively promote the teaching of any particular religion.
Legislation does include the following requirement: a locally agreed syllabus must ‘reflect that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian, while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain’. This requirement is replicated in the funding agreements that academies have with the Secretary of State for Education.
Exceptions to this include schools and academies with a religious designation, who are permitted by legislation and funding agreements to provide an RE curriculum in accordance with their trust deeds and tenets of their faith.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has provided guidance to schools on the teaching of freedom of religion and belief.
Answered by Nick Gibb
As part of religious education, schools without a religious character are expected to adopt a pluralistic approach when it comes to the teaching of different faiths. Non-faith maintained schools must follow the locally agreed syllabus which, whilst being broadly Christian in nature, must take account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain. Non-faith academies are free to design their own syllabus, but it must meet the requirements of the locally agreed syllabus.
Since 2014, all schools have been required to actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs. The Department has published guidance on promoting fundamental British values as part of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, to which maintained schools have obligations.
Schools are free to cover a full range of issues, ideas and materials, including where they are challenging or contentious. This must be balanced against their obligations to ensure political balance and promote respect and tolerance between people of different faiths and beliefs. The Department has published guidance for schools on political impartiality, to help them to understand their responsibilities in this area, including the importance of introducing pupils to a diverse range of views during their time at school: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2022 to Question 108214 on Religion: Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure high standards of religious education teaching in all schools; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a national curriculum for religious education.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Religious education (RE) is an essential part of a school’s curriculum and remains a compulsory subject in all state funded schools, including academies, to all pupils up to the age of 18. RE develops an individual’s knowledge and understanding of the religions and beliefs which form part of contemporary society, as well as serving to inform their own values and behaviour.
To ensure high standards of RE teaching, resources will be procured by Oak National Academy during the second tranche of its work. Oak will work closely with the sector and utilise sector experience when producing new materials for RE. This will ensure that high quality lessons are available nationwide, benefitting both teachers and pupils, should schools opt to use them.
To support high standards of RE teaching in all schools, the Department is continuing to offer eight-week subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses in the 2022/23 academic year, for candidates who have the potential to become outstanding teachers, but need to increase their subject knowledge. The eight-week SKE course, available in RE, can be undertaken on a full time or part time basis, but must be completed before qualified teacher status can be recommended and awarded. Eligible candidates could be entitled to a SKE bursary of £175 per week to support them financially whilst completing their SKE course. More information on these courses is available here: www.gov.uk/guidance/subject-knowledge-enhancement-an-introduction.
The Government has no plans to introduce a national compulsory curriculum for RE. The Government’s policy is to allow RE curricula to be designed at a local level, whether that is through locally agreed syllabuses or by individual schools and academy trusts developing their own curricula.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Academies regulation and commissioning review advisory group, established by her Department on 29 June 2022, what steps she is taking to balance the freedoms afforded to academies over the curriculum with ensuring pupils have sufficient knowledge and understanding to be able to champion freedom of religion and belief.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Curriculum matters are not within the scope of the Academies regulation and commissioning review.
Religious education (RE) is a compulsory subject for all state-funded schools, including academies, and must be offered in all year groups. Academies without a religious designation are free to either follow the locally agreed syllabus for their area, or develop their own curriculum, so long as it meets the requirements of the locally agreed syllabus. Their syllabus must reflect that the religious traditions in the UK are, in the main, Christian whilst taking account of the teaching and practice of the other principal religions represented in the UK. Academies with a religious designation should teach RE in accordance with their funding agreements and the tenets of their faith.
Asked by: Crispin Blunt (Independent - Reigate)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to protect the secular ethos of (a) non-faith and (a) community-ethos academies entering into mixed-multi academy trusts.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Non-faith or community-ethos schools have different characteristics, particularly in relation to governance, compared to schools with a religious designation. Their secular character and ethos are protected regardless of which type of multi-academy trust they join.
The academy trust’s charitable object is to recognise and support a school’s individual ethos. This places an obligation on the trust and its board to ensure that a non-faith or community school’s character is safeguarded in a mixed multi-academy trust.
The supplemental funding agreement, a contract between my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, and academy trusts, has recently been updated to include clauses to protect the local governance arrangements of a non-faith or community school joining a mixed multi-academy trust.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to issue new guidance on teaching (a) about Sikhism in secondary schools and (b) diversity and inclusion in KS2 and KS3.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education does not provide guidance to schools on teaching about any specific religion.
All state funded schools are required to teach religious education (RE) which must reflect that “the religious traditions in Great Britain are Christian, in the main, whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain”. For most maintained schools, in each local authority area the key document in determining the teaching of RE is the statutory locally agreed syllabus, which sets out details of what must be taught. Alternatively, academies and most schools designated as having a religious character may develop and teach their own RE syllabuses.
Schools should publish online the content of their curriculum in each academic year for every subject, including religious education.
The Department provides non-statutory guidance to schools on how the Equality Act 2010 affects them and how to fulfil their duties under the Act, including inclusion and diversity in how the curriculum is delivered. The guidance can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools.
Diversity is also being considered by the Independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities established by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, to examine inequality in the UK. In their Call for Evidence, the Commission asked for evidence to describe how the school curriculum could be adapted in response to the ethnic diversity of the country. The Commission is due to report to my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, by the end of February 2021 and the Department will carefully consider the Commission’s report when published.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 16 April 2018 to Question 134699 on Religion: Education, whether his Department has a copy of the locally agreed syllabus for religious education for each local education authority in England.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Local authorities are responsible for convening an Agreed Syllabus Conference every five years, and for providing an agreed syllabus which specified maintained schools must comply with. This must reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are Christian, in the main, whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain. The Department does not hold a copy of each local authority area’s agreed syllabus for religious education (RE) when it came into effect or was last reviewed. There is also no requirement for local authority areas to provide my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education with this information.
The Department would encourage any local authority to publish their locally agreed syllabus or a summary of its main provisions, although they are not required by legislation to do so. Both maintained schools and academies should, however, publish on their websites the curriculum of every subject taught in each academic year, including RE. Local residents can find details of the RE curriculum provided by state-funded schools in their area, whether in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus or otherwise. The Government guidance for the provision of RE in local authority maintained schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/religious-education-guidance-in-english-schools-non-statutory-guidance-2010.
Academies and free schools are not required to comply with a locally agreed syllabus, though they may choose to adopt it. The funding agreement for each academy and free school does, however, require these schools to teach RE. The Department does not hold information on the number of academies and free schools that have adopted a locally agreed syllabus, or the specific details of their RE curriculum. Similarly, the Department does not quality assure a school’s individual RE curriculum to assess their adequacy, or the extent to which they take account of the teaching and practices of the principal religions represented in Great Britain.
If the Department is informed that an agreed syllabus or an academy’s RE syllabus may be in breach of statutory requirements or their funding agreement, this will be investigated. Where needed, the Department will remind schools of their duty on this matter and advise on how this can be met.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 16 April 2018 to Question 134699 on Religion: Education, what requirement is in place for local authorities to ensure that any resident can read the locally agreed syllabus for religious education; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Local authorities are responsible for convening an Agreed Syllabus Conference every five years, and for providing an agreed syllabus which specified maintained schools must comply with. This must reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are Christian, in the main, whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain. The Department does not hold a copy of each local authority area’s agreed syllabus for religious education (RE) when it came into effect or was last reviewed. There is also no requirement for local authority areas to provide my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education with this information.
The Department would encourage any local authority to publish their locally agreed syllabus or a summary of its main provisions, although they are not required by legislation to do so. Both maintained schools and academies should, however, publish on their websites the curriculum of every subject taught in each academic year, including RE. Local residents can find details of the RE curriculum provided by state-funded schools in their area, whether in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus or otherwise. The Government guidance for the provision of RE in local authority maintained schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/religious-education-guidance-in-english-schools-non-statutory-guidance-2010.
Academies and free schools are not required to comply with a locally agreed syllabus, though they may choose to adopt it. The funding agreement for each academy and free school does, however, require these schools to teach RE. The Department does not hold information on the number of academies and free schools that have adopted a locally agreed syllabus, or the specific details of their RE curriculum. Similarly, the Department does not quality assure a school’s individual RE curriculum to assess their adequacy, or the extent to which they take account of the teaching and practices of the principal religions represented in Great Britain.
If the Department is informed that an agreed syllabus or an academy’s RE syllabus may be in breach of statutory requirements or their funding agreement, this will be investigated. Where needed, the Department will remind schools of their duty on this matter and advise on how this can be met.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 16 April 2018 to Question 134699 on Religion: Education, whether his Department has a record for each local education authority of (a) the date on which its religious education syllabus was last reviewed and (b) when the current syllabus was brought into effect.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Local authorities are responsible for convening an Agreed Syllabus Conference every five years, and for providing an agreed syllabus which specified maintained schools must comply with. This must reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are Christian, in the main, whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain. The Department does not hold a copy of each local authority area’s agreed syllabus for religious education (RE) when it came into effect or was last reviewed. There is also no requirement for local authority areas to provide my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education with this information.
The Department would encourage any local authority to publish their locally agreed syllabus or a summary of its main provisions, although they are not required by legislation to do so. Both maintained schools and academies should, however, publish on their websites the curriculum of every subject taught in each academic year, including RE. Local residents can find details of the RE curriculum provided by state-funded schools in their area, whether in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus or otherwise. The Government guidance for the provision of RE in local authority maintained schools is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/religious-education-guidance-in-english-schools-non-statutory-guidance-2010.
Academies and free schools are not required to comply with a locally agreed syllabus, though they may choose to adopt it. The funding agreement for each academy and free school does, however, require these schools to teach RE. The Department does not hold information on the number of academies and free schools that have adopted a locally agreed syllabus, or the specific details of their RE curriculum. Similarly, the Department does not quality assure a school’s individual RE curriculum to assess their adequacy, or the extent to which they take account of the teaching and practices of the principal religions represented in Great Britain.
If the Department is informed that an agreed syllabus or an academy’s RE syllabus may be in breach of statutory requirements or their funding agreement, this will be investigated. Where needed, the Department will remind schools of their duty on this matter and advise on how this can be met.