Education Reform Act 1988

87 Changes in religious education

(1) Where, in the case of a grant-maintained school to which section 84(2) to (8) or 85(3) of this Act for the time being applies, proposals that the required provision for religious education should be provision for religious education in accordance with the tenets of a particular religious denomination are approved under section 89 of this Act, then, from the time at which the proposals fall to be implemented—

(a) the required provision for religious education shall (subject to subsection (2) below) be provision for religious education either in accordance with the tenets of that religious denomination or in accordance with any arrangements made under section 86(3) of this Act (as applied by paragraph (b) below);

(b) section 86(3) to (5) of this Act shall apply in relation to the school; and

(c) subject to section 88(5) of this Act, any provisions of section 84 or 85 of this Act which apply in relation to the school shall cease to apply in relation to it.

(2) Where, in the case of any grant-maintained school, proposals that the required provision for religious education should be provision for religious education otherwise than in accordance with the tenets of a particular religious denomination are approved under section 89 of this Act, then, from the time at which the proposals fall to be implemented—

(a) section 84(2) to (8) and (10) to (15) of this Act shall apply in relation to the school; and

(b) any provisions of section 85 or 86 of this Act which apply in relation to the school shall cease to apply in relation to it.

(3) Subject to section 88(3) of this Act, for the purposes of section 84(7) of this Act in its application to a school by virtue of subsection (2) above “the appropriate agreed syllabus” in relation to a school or to any pupils at the school is—

(a) the agreed syllabus adopted, or deemed to be adopted, under Schedule 5 to the 1944 Act by the local education authority for the area in which the school is situated for use in the schools maintained by the authority at the time at which the proposals referred to in that subsection fall to be implemented; or

(b) where at that time that authority have adopted, or are deemed to have adopted, under that Schedule for use in those schools more than one agreed syllabus, whichever of them the governing body shall determine.

(4) In this section “the required provision for religious education”, in relation to a school, means the provision for religious education for pupils at the school which is required by section 2(1)(a) of this Act to be included in the school’s basic curriculum.