The bill rewrites the statutory framework for collective worship and assemblies in state schools. It confines the legal requirement to provide daily acts of collective worship to schools that are designated with a religious character and to schools in Wales, and it establishes a separate daily duty for pupils in many English non‑religious schools to attend an assembly principally directed at spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) education.
Beyond creating that new assembly duty, the bill bars schools covered by it from organising acts of worship on the school's behalf while permitting voluntary pupil‑ or staff‑led worship on premises under strict attendance controls; it also strengthens excusal rights in religious schools (including for sixth‑formers) and requires an alternative assembly of “equal educational worth” for pupils who are withdrawn. The measure inserts parallel amendments into the Education Act 1996, SEN and non‑maintained special‑school regulations, and the Equality Act schedules to align religious‑education and discrimination exemptions with the new regime.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill requires a daily assembly aimed at furthering pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education in specified English schools (maintained schools without a religious character, non‑maintained special schools, City Technology Colleges and academies without a religious character). It prohibits school‑organised acts of worship in those schools but allows voluntary worship arranged by staff or pupils, subject to pupil choice and parental control for under‑16s.
Who It Affects
Headteachers, governing bodies and local authorities that run or oversee non‑religious state schools in England will owe new duties to secure and implement daily SMSC assemblies. Faith‑designated schools in England and all qualifying schools in Wales remain subject to the existing collective‑worship regime, while academy sponsors, multi‑academy trusts and special‑school operators must adjust policies and timetables.
Why It Matters
The bill separates the legal concepts of ‘collective worship’ and ‘assembly,’ pulling the statutory floor for school spiritual life away from compulsory religious observance in most English state schools and toward a secular, SMSC‑focused approach — with knock‑on effects for governance, curriculum planning and equality law exemptions.
More articles like this one.
A weekly email with all the latest developments on this topic.
What This Bill Actually Does
The core move in this bill is a statutory split: it narrows the definition and mandatory scope of collective worship to schools designated with a religious character (and to schools in Wales), and it creates a new, non‑religious daily assembly duty for a defined set of English schools. For those English schools without a religious character the obligation is to provide an assembly on each school day that is principally directed at advancing pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education.
The bill says nothing about a specific format for the assembly — it sets the purpose and leaves delivery to schools — but it expressly prevents the school from organising acts of worship as part of its obligations under that provision.
Voluntary worship is still possible on school premises in the affected schools, but the bill confines it to activities arranged by staff or pupils rather than by the school as an institution. Attendance is subject to pupil choice; for pupils under 16 a parent or guardian may request that their child not attend.
For schools that retain a duty of collective worship (faith‑designated schools and schools in Wales), the bill strengthens the statutory right of parents — and, for sixth‑form pupils, of the pupils themselves — to be wholly or partly excused from attendance at worship. Where a pupil is withdrawn in those schools, the school must provide an alternative assembly of “equal educational worth” directed principally to SMSC objectives.Operationally, the bill places a three‑way compliance duty on different actors: local authorities (in the case of maintained schools) and governing bodies must exercise their functions with a view to securing compliance, and headteachers must secure compliance on the ground.
Parallel textual amendments require that religious education continue to be made available in schools and special‑school regulations are updated to the same effect — but always subject to lawful parental or pupil withdrawal. Finally, the bill adjusts references in the Equality Act to preserve discrimination‑related exceptions for curriculum and worship in the limited set of schools still covered by the collective‑worship rules.
The measure applies to England and Wales and comes into force on the first September 1 after it is passed.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill confines the statutory duty to provide daily acts of collective worship to schools designated with a religious character and to schools in Wales, removing that duty from many English state schools.
It creates a new legal requirement that each pupil in specified English schools attend a daily assembly principally directed to spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) education — and bars those schools from organising acts of worship as part of that duty.
The bill allows voluntary acts of worship on school premises only if organised by staff or pupils (not by the school), with attendance left to pupil choice and a parental right to exclude under‑16s.
For pupils withdrawn from worship in faith schools, the school must provide an alternative assembly of ‘equal educational worth’ focused on SMSC; sixth‑form pupils can themselves request excusal and be excused until withdrawal is revoked.
The measure amends the Education Act 1996, special‑school regulations and the Equality Act schedules to align requirements for religious education and the legal exemptions for faith schools with the new assemblies regime.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
Rewrite of section 70(1): limits mandatory collective worship
The bill replaces the current section 70(1) with wording that limits the statutory duty to participate in a daily act of collective worship to three categories: community, foundation or voluntary schools in Wales; foundation or voluntary schools in England designated with a religious character; and academies in England designated with a religious character. Practically, this strips the mandatory-worship requirement from maintained non‑religious schools and non‑religious academies in England and redraws the boundary between religious‑character schools and other state schools.
Daily SMSC assembly duty and prohibition on school‑organised worship
The inserted section sets out the new duty: every pupil at specified English schools must on each school day take part in an assembly principally directed to furthering their spiritual, moral, social and cultural education. Crucially, subsection (3) prohibits the school from organising acts of worship or religious observance in those schools; subsection (4) preserves space for voluntary worship but makes clear it must be pupil or staff arranged and that pupils decide attendance, with parents allowed to request exclusion for under‑16s. Subsection (5) allocates compliance responsibilities to local authorities/governing bodies and the headteacher.
Excusal rights and alternative provision in faith schools
The bill inserts explicit excusal protections: parents (and sixth‑form pupils themselves) at foundation/voluntary schools and academies with religious character in England can request that a pupil be wholly or partly excused from acts of worship, and that request must be honoured until withdrawn. It also requires schools to provide an alternative assembly of equal educational worth for pupils who have been withdrawn — a practical requirement that forces schools to design and resource substitute provision rather than simply excluding withdrawn pupils from an activity.
Technical rewriting of collective‑worship scope
The bill updates Schedule 20 (collective worship) and related cross‑references to reflect the narrower set of schools subject to the collective‑worship provisions. That includes rewording paragraphs that previously applied to community/foundation/voluntary schools so they now apply only in Wales or to schools with religious character, tidying statutory language to match the new substantive regime.
Religious education and special‑school rules
The Education Act 1996 is amended so regulations must secure that, as far as practicable, pupils in approved schools in England receive religious education unless lawfully withdrawn. Parallel amendments to SEN and non‑maintained special‑school regulations impose the same default: RE should be arranged for special‑school pupils unless parental withdrawal occurs. These changes preserve the statutory status of RE while respecting opt‑outs.
Preserves curriculum and worship exceptions for designated religious schools
The bill adjusts Schedules 3 and 11 of the Equality Act to ensure that the curriculum/worship exceptions and related public‑function carve‑outs continue to apply to the narrower classes of schools identified in the bill (schools in Scotland/Wales, voluntary/foundation schools and academies in England designated with a religious character). That aligns discrimination law with the new split between collective worship and assemblies.
Territorial extent and coming into force
The bill states that it extends to England and Wales only, may be cited as the Education (Assemblies) Act 2024, and comes into force on the first day of September following the day on which it is passed — a single, predictable commencement date intended to coincide with the school year.
This bill is one of many.
Codify tracks hundreds of bills on Education across all five countries.
Explore Education in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Pupils in non‑religious English state schools: they gain a statutory assembly model aimed at SMSC rather than mandatory religious observance, which institutionalises a neutral, inclusive baseline for daily collective life.
- Parents seeking a secular schooling environment: parental control over under‑16 attendance at voluntary worship and strengthened excusal rights in faith schools increase family choice and clarity about participation.
- Non‑religious academies and maintained schools: clearer statutory boundaries reduce legal uncertainty about whether their daily gathering must be religious in nature and lower the risk of inadvertent breaches of the collective‑worship duty.
Who Bears the Cost
- Headteachers and governing bodies of affected English schools: they must design, implement and resource a daily SMSC assembly programme, adopt policies around voluntary worship and recordkeeping, and meet the new statutory duty to secure compliance.
- Local authorities for maintained non‑religious schools: LAs must exercise functions to secure compliance, which may require monitoring, guidance and potentially enforcement activity — an unfunded administrative burden.
- Faith groups and school communities in non‑religious schools: losing the ability to have school‑organised acts of worship may push religious observance into voluntary, out‑of‑hours or off‑site formats, complicating pastoral arrangements and community engagement.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is between protecting pluralism and parental rights on one hand (maintaining space for religious observance and parental opt‑out) and creating a single, non‑religious statutory baseline for daily assemblies on the other; the bill protects both interests in part, but doing so shifts the conflict from the statute’s text into questions of definition, enforcement and resourcing that lack a clean or universally acceptable resolution.
The bill resolves one problem — the lack of clarity about what daily collective life in a non‑religious school should look like — while creating new implementation and definitional headaches. The statutory purpose test for assemblies (SMSC) is high‑level and subjective: inspectors, parents and courts could reasonably disagree about whether a particular assembly is ’principally directed’ to SMSC or instead crosses into religious observance.
That vagueness raises the prospect of disputes and inconsistent practice between local authorities, academy trusts and inspectors.
Operationally, the requirement to provide an alternative assembly of ‘equal educational worth’ for withdrawn pupils is concrete in words but vague in practice. What qualifies as equal worth — content, duration, pastoral outcomes, staffing — is unspecified, which will force schools to develop local policies and could generate legal challenges or parental complaints.
The prohibition on school‑organised worship while allowing voluntary worship arranged by staff or pupils may produce de facto segregation or scheduling burdens if religious groups organise regular meetings on premises; it also raises questions about supervision, safeguarding and resource use. Finally, the bill carves a jurisdictional split with Wales retaining the older collective‑worship duty, creating cross‑border asymmetry for families and multi‑academy trusts operating in both nations.
Try it yourself.
Ask a question in plain English, or pick a topic below. Results in seconds.