School told assemblies must stay

Friday, 9 March, 2001, 12:01 GMT

A primary school in East London has been told to hold a daily act of worship, after a long battle by the parents of one of its pupils.

The Schools Minister, Jacqui Smith, has written to Newham education authority, reminding it that the Ravenscroft school should hold a daily act of worship and that records should be kept.

The letter follows a long battle begun in 1994 by Mike and Simbee Salisbury, who wanted a stronger religious element in assemblies. They said their son was getting confused by a mixture of humanistic and multi-cultural messages at school.

Breaking the law

They complained to the local education authority, saying the school was breaking the law, which says schools must provide a daily act of collective worship which must be "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character".

The council rejected the claim and the parents had the same response from the Education Secretary David Blunkett when they complained to him.

The school's head teacher, Ruth Pigney, has always maintained that no laws were broken. She said: "I am confident that the school complied with the arrangements for collective worship and the right of parental withdrawal from both collective worship and religious education."

The Department for Education has backed the school, saying that it has not broken the law. But it says there have been "lapses". A spokesman said: "The school conceded that it was possible, on some occasions, that collective worship did not take place. "But these amounted to lapses and the intention was for worship to take place. "We have asked for the collective worship to be monitored."

Judicial review

Last January, Mrs Salisbury was given leave to bring a judicial review of Mr Blunkett's decision that the school was not breaking the law. Her husband had died in 1998.

The Department for Education asked Mrs Salisbury to delay her legal action until it had reviewed the case. And it is as a result of the review that the department has written to Newham's education authority.

Government officials did not criticise the content of the assemblies, or acts of worship. The spokesman said: "Whether the meetings amounted to collective acts of worship, there was no evidence to the contrary."

-- Rich (howe9@shentel.net), March 09, 2001

Answers

This is interesting; I didn't know that England had any laws like that still on the books... anyone taking book on how long they'll last now that they're being enforced?

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), March 15, 2001.