Religion and belief across schools

This chapter focuses on religion and belief in the wider life of schools. Religion and belief are not simply the preserve of religious education in schools, though they may be most obvious there. They also appear in the requirement of the act of daily worship, as well as in the right to withdraw — a right belonging only to this sphere and to sex education, apparently two areas in need of more than usually sensitive handling. However, religion and belief are implied, and have implications, throughout the whole life of schools. A number of spaces complement, supplement, overlap with, and even colonise the formal business of religious education. Spiritual, moral, social and cultural education (SMSC); ritish values; the Prevent duty; citizenship education; Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE); and relationships and sex education (RSE) are all interrelated parts of socialising pupils in religion and belief in schools, and each does so from its own epistemological and normative starting points, which do not necessarily line up. The chapter considers each of these spaces in turn, as well as in relation to each other and religious education.