Introduction

Religion and belief are not simply the preserve of RE 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. The muddle spills over throughout. A number of spaces complement, supplement, overlap with and even colonise the formal business of ‘religious education’. ‘Spiritual, moral, social and cultural education’ (SMSC), ‘British 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. This brings its own layer of confusion. This chapter examines each of these spaces in turn, as well as in relation to each other and RE.

SMSC

The Education Act 2002 includes for the first time the requirement that all schools promote the ‘spiritual, moral, social and cultural’ development of pupils. This is part of a trend since the early 1980s towards measurement, and Rees (2017) notes that it is ‘a sad indictment of education in the UK, especially England, that we have narrowed the success indicators for organisations and individuals to a few things that we (think we) can measure’. Nevertheless, he sees the introduction of SMSC as broadly positive, in that it challenges a narrowly understood knowledge-based education that valorises ‘subjects’ over the development of the person and community. Indeed, this is a plank in the Education Act 1944, which gave local education authorities the duty to contribute towards ‘the spiritual, moral, mental, and physical development of the community’. More contemporary legislation has added a statutory obligation to promote pupils’ well-being (Children Act 2004), and to prepare children and young people for the challenges, opportunities and responsibilities of adult life (Education Act 1996).