Religious Education and Collective Worship

Welcome to our Religious Education (RE) and Collective Worship page. This page provides information, advice and resources to support the teaching of RE and the leading of Collective Worship in Worcestershire and Dudley schools.

Religious Education

All maintained schools have a statutory duty to teach RE. Academies and free schools are contractually required through the terms of their funding agreement to make provision for the teaching of RE.

In brief, legislation requires that:

in maintained community, foundation or voluntary schools without a religious character, RE is taught in accordance with the local Agreed Syllabus;
academies and free schools must teach RE within the requirements for a locally agreed syllabus, set out in section 375 (3) of the Education Act 1996 and paragraph (5) of Schedule 19 to the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. The requirements are that a syllabus must ‘reflect the fact 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’;
for foundation and voluntary controlled schools with a religious character, RE must be taught according to the Agreed Syllabus unless, parents request RE in accordance with the trust deed of the school; and
in voluntary aided schools RE must be taught in accordance with the trust deed.
in all schools RE must be included in the curriculum for all registered pupils, including all pupils in reception classes and sixth form.

In accordance with the legislation schools within Worcestershire follow the Worcestershire Agreed Syllabus whilst our Dudley schools follow the Dudley Agreed Syllabus.

Our Model Policy and guidance notes for RE can be downloaded by clicking on the links.

Exemplars of planning, evaluation and monitoring can be found in the useful downloads section below.

Collective Worship

Under the Education Act, all schools are required to provide a daily act of worship which must be wholly or broadly Christian in content, Collective Worship in a Church of England school must be in accordance with the tenants and practices of the Church of England. Therefore, Collective Worship should be distinctly Christian and reflect Anglican traditions.

Our Model Policy and guidance notes for Collective Worship can be downloaded by clicking on the links.

Proformas for planning, evaluation and monitoring can be found in the useful downloads section below.

Links to both useful online resources for Collective Worship and recommended books are included below. Additional resources suitable for use in schools (including resources for quiet times and information about the colours of the church year) are also linked on this page.

Training and Support

The Diocese offers a range of training courses for schools on RE and Collective Worship, as part of the Training & Support SLA offer. For further details, please contact the Diocesan Education Team by email, or by telephone on 01905 732 825.

For further support, advice and guidance about RE and / or Collective Worship, please contact Rev. Duncan Hutchison by email, or by telephone on 07960 977 847.

Useful downloads

Useful links

The Diocese of Worcester is not responsible for the contents or reliability of the linked websites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Listing shall not be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over availability of the linked pages.

Page last updated: Wednesday 16th April 2025 3:14 PM