What are the pronciples that need to underpin the planning and Essay

What are the pronciples that need to underpin the planning and devlivery of Collective worship in a Catholic School - Essay Example But recently these concepts had been redefined under the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA), which provided the legal framework behind the collective worship principle in schools in Great Britain today. This law is responsible for most of the reforms that took place in British schools in the past decades. In the context of collective worship, the ERA sought to modify the 1944 statute by mandating that collective worship is a â€Å"broadly Christian character if it reflects the broad traditions of Christian belief without being distinctive of any particular Christian denomination.† (Edge 2002, p. 305) According to the DFE religious education in schools should seek: to develop pupil’s knowledge, understanding and awareness of Christianity, as the predominant religion in Great Britain, and the other principal religions represented in the country; to encourage respect for those holding different beliefs; and to help pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural developm ent. (cited in Wright and Brandom 2000, p. 15) And collective worship is an integral part of this initiative as it is believed that it will be able to achieve for students an understanding of how to live in the modern society. In addition, collective worship is seen as a tool that is available to teachers to complement educational purposes. Wright and Brandom summed up six key aims of collective worship in school: The first is a moral one because collective worship analyses contemporary issues affecting young people and presents varying responses to them; the second seeks to help students identify and think about themselves, of the mysterious universe in which their lives are set and of the strangeness of modern living; the third is about helping student develop their values further; the fourth focuses and celebrates the shared values manifested by respective school communities; the fifth pertains to the encouragement of community spirit, interaction and relationship