An insight into pupils’ perspectives on school assemblies and collective worship
Katherine Halbert
(PGCE General Primary, 2012-2013)
email: khalbert@hotmail.co.uk
Abstract
Since the 1944 Education Act, a statutory requirement has existed in England stating that maintained schools must provide a ‘daily act of collective worship’ of a ‘broadly Christian’ nature for all registered pupils (Department for Education, 2012). In recent years, considerable debate has arisen among educators, researchers and politicians over the necessity and appropriateness of collective worship in our diverse, multi-cultural 21st century society. However, there generally has been little consideration of pupils’ perspectives, particularly those of primary age, on the effects that assemblies and collective worship have on children themselves. This small-scale study seeks to reveal such information through a series of semistructured group interviews, with 12 pupils of varying ages (Years 2, 4 and 6) from a Church of England Voluntary Aided primary school in the East of England. The results bring to the forefront a number of key themes that are deemed important by the children - particularly concerning religion, community spirit, morals and values- while also highlighting more minute aspects, such as physical discomfort and pupil distractions.
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The full paper is available for download as a pdf file 119-156-halbertk
Citation: Halbert, Katherine (2014)" An insight into pupils’ perspectives on school assemblies and
collective worship) ''. Journal of Trainee Teacher Educational Research, Volume 5 pp. 119- 156 (Downloaded from http://jotter.educ.cam.ac.uk/, [date of access])