Education Act 1996

387 Disapplication of requirement for Christian collective worship

(1) Subsection (2) applies where—

(a) a standing advisory council on religious education determine (under section 394) that it is not appropriate for the requirement imposed by section 386(2) to apply in the case of a school or in the case of any class or description of pupils at a school, or

(b) such a council had so determined in the case of a grant-maintained school, or pupils at such a school, before the school became grant-maintained.

(2) While the determination has effect—

(a) section 386 shall not apply in relation to the school or (as the case may be) pupils in question, and

(b) the collective worship required by section 385 in the case of the school or pupils shall not be distinctive of any particular Christian or other religious denomination;

but paragraph (b) shall not be taken as preventing that worship from being distinctive of any particular faith.

(3) In this section references to a school are references to a county school or to a grant-maintained school in relation to which section 379 applies.