Anyone had experience in trying to remove their child from collective worship in schools in the UK?

I've had to withdraw my son MULTIPLE times including sending a written request. Most recently he came home upset because the teacher was shouting at anyone not praying and he felt the need to pretend.

Because of this i've went into the school today and informed them that next time I will bypass the school entirely and start a formal complaint with the LEA (Local Education Authority) in addition to potential legal action.

Following this, the head is now claiming that I was "making threats" (which I was, i'm entirely entitled to threaten legal action and it's entirely appropriate to do so before taking a matter to the courts).

My son is only 6 and does not have the confidence to say to the teacher himself "my dad has said I don't have to", he feels a lot of pressure to go along with the teacher's instructions and it's causing him some upset. To me, the whole thing is simply child abuse and is absolutely sick, but the head is christian herself and sees collective worship as some sort of duty beyond the backwards legal requirement.

Does anyone have advice on dealing with this beyond what i'm already doing?

You've got to get some evidence of it. You've made a formal request in writing, by recorded post I hope, but you also need to prove that they are forcing kids to participate. A small Dictaphone should do it, and it's simple enough that a kid can operate it with no instructions.

That may be illegal in itself, I would not want to do that without taking legal counsel and i'm hoping to not have to take legal counsel if the head finally gets the message.

No expectation of privacy. Used the same trick in school once to prove somebody was making threats to me.

No offence but I prefer to rely on a solicitor for legal advice, if it comes down to it then i'll confirm whether this suggestion is a good idea or not with a solicitor.

A fair policy.

You'll know there's plenty of lawyers who'll do free initial consultations, if it's just to check something simple like that, of course? Shouldn't be needed but it may be, if they do get smarter in their daft fight &, of course, there's online guidance for such things!

I seriously would rather not have to resort to that even if legal, whole point of the exercise is protecting my son from further confusion+upset and if he was caught with a tape recorder in school there'd be potential for a hell of a lot of that.

Yeah. Nu's just thinking they might suddenly claim they were doing nothing of the sort & then what, obviously.

Seems to me - a little back track- fot the sake of your child - is in order.

By this I mean, set up a nice little meeting... just tell them what you posted here-- you do not want to cause a stir etc.,(maybe we got off on the wrong foot etc.,)  NEEDS of the child first etc.,....you do not want to upset your child - you feel strongly about the rights of your child to no feel pressured to participate, could he/she (the teacher/s) please be kind and tell the child OF COURSE it is okay to not say the prayer while others, YEs, it is the law that all students are not to feel any pressure to do so(pray in class).  and on your part (as the parents- you will hold up your end and your child will be ready and willing to learn while at school (learn reading writing arithmetic (not prayers)...

the power struggle you are in - well it will not help-  get the teacher to do the right thing for the sake of the child - appeal to her conscience as a "tolerant" person... lather her up with how much you love your son and do not want him to be confused at his tender age...

Hope you know what I mean by this.  (we - my husband and I have ahd to do similar things to get the results we wanted - working within the system and with the people  we have...(like cards we are dealt)

You are correct.  I was soo tempted all the time but it is really not allowed.

is your son in religious school?


I didnt realise prayer was forced on people in the UK

It's a community school and yes, prayer is forced in the UK on schoolchildren unless they're 16+ or their parents opt out on their behalf.
I got in trouble myself for not praying at school, and I can't in good conscience either lie to my son (by telling him that all the crap about talking to god is real) or allow him to be bullied into something he knows is nonsense.

I dont know in the UK, but here something like this happen i would go to the media. People would go nuts over such a case here. The school would have to back off a whole lot. We have law also against these kinda of thing. Church and religion was pulled off school.

That's in the US where you have the nifty first amendment, right?
Here we only have the human rights act and it's pretty unpopular due to some admittedly impressive social manipulation by the government.