from values to virtues an investigation into the ethical content of

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From values to virtues: an investigationinto the ethical content of Englishprimary school assembliesGraeme Smith a & Susannah Smith ba Theology & Religion, University of Chichester, Chichester, UKb Education, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UKVersion of record first published: 09 Feb 2012.

To cite this article: Graeme Smith & Susannah Smith (2013): From values to virtues: aninvestigation into the ethical content of English primary school assemblies, British Journal ofReligious Education, 35:1, 5-19

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From values to virtues: an investigation into the ethical content ofEnglish primary school assemblies

Graeme Smitha* and Susannah Smithb

aTheology & Religion, University of Chichester, Chichester, UK; bEducation,University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

School assemblies are unique and important events in the lives ofschools. They are an opportunity for a head teacher to shape and cele-brate the ethos and priorities of a school. However, the discussion ofassemblies has stagnated because it is mired in the debate about legalcompliance to the 1988 Education Reform Act and its interpretation incircular 1/94. This article reports on a research project which investigatedthe ethical ideas communicated in primary school assemblies. It is foundthat almost all assemblies sought to communicate a form of virtue ethics.We observed the promotion of courage, kindness, loyalty and responsibil-ity. Further, different virtues were emphasised in different schoolsdepending on their social location. For example, perseverance and resil-ience were often stressed in a school from a low socio-economic area.The article concludes with an examination of the implications of our find-ings for the discussion of legal compliance to the 1988 Act.

Keywords: school assembly; collective worship; virtue ethics; values;moral education; circular 1/94

Introduction

Assemblies are significant occasions in the lives of schools. They are oppor-tunities to express and celebrate the cultural and ethical norms which under-pin a local school community. A head teacher will know that important workin forming and shaping a school ethos can be undertaken in assembly time.Assemblies are exceptional vehicles through which moral and spiritual edu-cation can occur. However, assemblies have also been described as a ‘night-mare’ (Roberts 2000, 38). At least since the 1988 Education Reform Act andthe publication of the Department of Education’s circular 1/94, the issue oflegal compliance has been a simmering controversy behind most recentexaminations of the subject (Department of Education [DofE] 1994). Theproblems caused by the requirement of Section 7(1) of the 1988 Act for col-lective worship in school to be of ‘wholly or mainly of a broadly Christiancharacter’ are well known (RE Council of England and Wales 1996, 22). As

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

British Journal of Religious EducationVol. 35, No. 1, January 2013, 5–19

ISSN 0141-6200 print/ISSN 1740-7931 online� 2013 Christian Educationhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01416200.2011.649344http://www.tandfonline.com

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we write, Julian Huppert, a Liberal Democrat MP, has an Early Day Motionin the House of Commons calling for the government to ‘repeal the require-ment for compulsory worship in schools and to encourage schools to holdeducational assemblies that will include all children’ (Huppert 2010). Somewill question the presuppositions underpinning Huppert’s rhetoric. The pointis that most discussions of school assemblies are mired in the problems oflegal compliance. Other key issues, such as the ways in which assembliescontribute to the moral and spiritual education of the child or the manner inwhich they shape whole school values, are neglected. There is a significantconcern that a very important aspect of school life lacks thorough examina-tion because of the problems associated with circular 1/94.

In this article, we approach the topic of school assemblies from the per-spective of their ethical content. The dominance of the compliance issue inthe literature means there must inevitably be some discussion of this com-plex dilemma. This we carry out in the first section of the article. Howeverour main task is to investigate the ethical content of school assembliesthrough the identification and analysis of the substantial material being com-municated. This we undertake through the observation of a number of pri-mary school assemblies in different types of schools. The emphasis on thematerial being communicated is important because it was not our aim toinvestigate either the intentions of the assembly leader or the perception andreception of assembly content by pupils.

A description of the project and a discussion of the main methodologicalissues encountered are presented in the second section of the article. Thisincludes the identification of schools suitable for the project, the constructionof the observation grid employed by the researchers, and its subsequentdeployment. The next section contains the analysis of the findings. In the arti-cle, we argue that what was taught in the assemblies we observed should mostaccurately be identified as a type of virtue ethics.1 The ethical content focusedon desired character or personality traits rather than either moral values or reli-gious beliefs. Further, the communication of virtues was achieved when sup-ported by cultural or religious resources, such as stories, hymns or times ofprayer and spiritual reflection. In one instance, when we observed the commu-nication of a moral value without the deployment of either cultural or religioussupporting resources, we concluded that this event was more appropriatelydescribed as a lesson. The distinction between what can be described as a les-son and what is appropriately called an assembly is an important finding ofour research. In particular, it has implications for the nature of the moral dis-course which surrounds schools. A values discourse differs from a virtue dis-course in that the latter makes more explicit the need for ethics to be locatedwithin a tradition. The intention of a values language is to transcend discretetraditions for the sake of dialogue and universalism. The distinction led us toconclude by investigating the dispositions discourse employed by BirminghamStanding Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE).

6 G. Smith and S. Smith

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In the final section, we return to a discussion of the question of legalcompliance and what the findings contribute to this problem. The idea ofdispositions as deployed by the Birmingham SACRE in its development ofthe primary and secondary religious education curriculum is allied to ourresearch and aids this debate (Birmingham SACRE 2007). The experiencein Birmingham and our own findings offer a way to move the currentlymoribund discussion of assemblies in new and fruitful directions.

The issue of legal compliance: literature review

There is a limited amount of literature detailing or discussing critically thecontent of primary school assemblies and in particular a paucity of analysisof the ethical content of these important events in school life. The majorityof the literature, which is not contemporaneous, focuses on the issue of com-pliance with the law. The most important recent work, sponsored by the AllSaints Trust and produced by the RE Council of England and Wales utilisingthe resources of the Culham College Institute, stems from the mid-1990s andwas a follow-up to the publication of circular 1/94 (RE Council of Englandand Wales 1996). Prior to this, John Hull had outlined the problems ofincluding worship in schools when society was becoming more secular andpluralist (Hull 1975). Hull’s analysis summarises the position of many in theeducation profession, although his work has been challenged from a philo-sophical perspective by Felderhof (1999, 2000). Hull has also worked on theproblems generated by the 1988 Education Reform Act and then circular1/94. The RE Council’s report made use of Hull’s analysis in its attempt toundo the perceived damage of circular 1/94. The difficulty for our projectwas that these important documents focus on the issue of legal compliance.They do not examine the question of ethical content. Some more recent workhas steered away from the issue of legal compliance. In particular we arethinking of the research by Jeanette Gill. However, her study also did notfocus on questions of ethical content (Gill 2000, 2004). In fact, there appearsto be little or no recent research into questions of what ethical ideas andmethodological presuppositions inform primary school assemblies. Thisabsence led us to decide to investigate the substantial nature and content ofethical ideas and methodologies communicated by primary school assemblyleaders. We recognised that this research question was broad and in the dis-cussion of our methodology, we indicate how we sought to limit its scope sowe had manageable material. However, its breadth was also unavoidablebecause of the lack of prior discussion on which we could build.

Investigating the ethical content of primary school assemblies:methodology

The selection of schools was initially problematic. A large number ofschools, perhaps more than might have been expected, turned down our

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request for a visit. This may well be because of a certain fearfulness on thepart of head teachers about the problem of legal compliance. Further, thosehead teachers who did consent to our observations tended to have some per-sonal commitment to the issue. Our research question meant that we wantedto observe more than one assembly in each of the schools visited so that wecould discern any consistent trends in the ethical content of the schools.This meant schools had to consent to a series of visits, in each case finallythree per school. We also sought to visit different types of school to seewhether pupil numbers, religious affiliation or socio-economic locationwould impact on the assemblies’ ethical content. This produced a number ofvariables and so we limited our selection to urban schools to ensure theresearch findings were more manageable. We identified four schools thatillustrated each variable listed above. There would be little gained at thisstage in terms of our findings by selecting a larger number of assemblies toobserve. A broader survey of assembly practice would lack the depth of ourobservations whilst not adding to what might be argued about the findings.There is value in a more in-depth study through case studies of particularschools although this would lack the comparative element we were able tointroduce. A case study approach would produce the most significant data ifit could build on an in-depth survey of material such as we intended.

The schools were listed A–D. School A was a Church of England aidedschool. It is a small school with one-form intake in a prosperous area of thecity. School B is a community school in a different prosperous area of thecity. However, it is a much larger school with a three-form intake. School Cis an infant school again in a relatively wealthy area. This is an unusualschool because despite being a community school, the head teacher is acommitted Christian and the school was founded by a Christian denomina-tion. School D is a small school with mixed age classes. This is in a verydeprived area of the city. The head is an acting head and the school hasonly recently ceased to be categorised by Ofsted (2004) as under ‘specialmeasures’.

No special requests were made with regard to the type of assemblies tobe observed. The rather pragmatic criteria of what we encountered and whatcould be attended in a series dictated the choices made. This said, a goodrange was visited. We observed main school assemblies with visiting speak-ers, head teacher led assemblies to whole school and year groups, goodwork assembly, song practice, house points assembly and attendance assem-bly. On one occasion, the invited leader withdrew at the last minute and sothe assembly observed was improvised almost on the spot. On eachoccasion, the same two researchers observed the assemblies, made notes anddiscussed their findings afterwards.

The observational approach was semi-structured. Our inspiration was theproject which resulted in the book The moral life of schools (Jackson,Boostrom, and Hansen 1993). This informed the methodology which was to


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record in detail the data relevant to the research question through observa-tion. The recorded data were then analysed and discussed by the researcherswithout the use of formal coding. This mirrors the approach of Jacksonet al. and as they argue allows for the material to speak entirely for itself.This was necessary because we did not have a good literature base on whichto build or series of findings we could refine. By selecting a method whichachieved both some broad survey of different types of schools and assem-blies as well as the depth that comes from repeated visits, we expect tobegin to fill this gap. This said, it has to be acknowledged that biases wouldinfluence the choice of what constituted an ethical point worthy of recording(Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2007, 396). So, at the beginning of theobservations, the researchers identified four quadrants which recognised theinterrelationship between religious content and moral values. There was anexpectation that some ethical content would be communicated as part ofreligious, and in fact Christian, worship and some would be communicatedas moral values without an explicitly religious component. The ethics com-municated through worship would be implicit and depend upon the theologi-cal material being allowed to speak for itself. Two axes were constructed;one of which was concerned with religious content and one with moral con-tent. This generated four quadrants which anticipated locating ethical contentin either: a religious quadrant, a moral values quadrant, a religious andmoral values quadrant or a no values and no religion quadrant. The employ-ment of these categories raised two subsequent questions, namely what con-stituted religious content in the assembly context and then what was meantby moral values.

The question of what constitutes religious belief in the assembly contexttook us back to the issues raised by circular 1/94 and the Act of 1988 whichpreceded it. In effect, the initial question was whether the religious contentof an assembly had to be an act of Christian worship. The requirement ofcircular 1/94 for school assemblies is that ‘all registered pupils attending amaintained school should take part in daily collective worship’ (DofE 1994,51).2 However, one of the anomalies of the requirement is that there is animmediate recognition that worship that occurs in schools is of a differentorder from worship that occurs in religious communities, particularlychurches. So the former is known as collective worship and the latter as cor-porate worship (DofE 1994, 57). Circular 1/94 then seeks to argue that theworship that takes place in schools is still worship as is commonly recogni-sed. However, it should not be denominational. This means the worship inschools cannot be the same as any worship that actually happens inchurches because church worship must of its nature be denominational,albeit with shared Christian roots (DofE 1994, 61). Further, the circularallowed that the worship could include some ‘non-Christian elements’thereby again distancing it from what usually actually occurs in localchurches (DofE 1994, 61). Finally, the circular requires that the worship


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‘accord a special status to Jesus Christ’. This christological remark is toobrief to constitute a theologically coherent statement or recognised expres-sion of traditional Christian belief (DofE 1994, 63). What these requirementsamount to is the recognition that what happens in schools is of a differentorder from what happens in churches. In effect, the meaning of the languageis stretched so that what happens in school assemblies can be described ascollective worship even though it has only limited similarity to worship inchurches. The reasons for this anomaly appear to be political. The report‘Collective Worship in Schools’ suggested that Conservative ministers werereceptive to pressure from lobbying groups who wanted more Christianitytaught in schools (RE Council England and Wales 1996, 20). This wouldcoincide with the Christian emphasis which Margaret Thatcher brought toher political activities (Smith 2007). In terms of what guidance we mightreceive when seeking to identify a religious component to a school assem-bly, the notion of collective worship is of little or no value because of theseanomalies. For this reason, we have refrained from using the language ofcollective worship and remained with the more traditional and appositenotion of school assembly as it accurately refers to the distinct event whichoccurs in schools. We also turned away from the discussions in circular 1/94 to the recommendations of the RE Council of England and Wales consul-tation published in 1998 for help in defining the religious components ofschool assemblies (RE Council of England and Wales 1998). These recom-mendations are a better reflection of what actually happens in schools.

Following the report of 1996, the RE Council of England and Wales leda consultation which aimed to find a way forward after the controversy ofcircular 1/94. It is not necessary to explain the process in detail here. Whatis important is that there was a majority consensus amongst Church andeducational professionals supporting a ‘new approach’ for school assemblies.This included the following two ‘characteristics’:

The material used in such assemblies might draw upon prayers, readings fromscriptures and other material with a spiritual and moral dimension, together withcontributions from those taking assemblies.

The offering of opportunities for participation would range from personal wor-ship to quiet reflection. (RE Council of England and Wales 1998, no page num-ber)

These two characteristics guided the identification and analysis of religiouselements in assemblies. In effect, we aimed to record any employment ofreligious stories, times of quiet and reflection and the singing of songs andhymns. However, it should be noted that we did not observe an example ofa religious story being employed which was allowed to speak entirely foritself. In some way, the religious story was interpreted so that it was


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comprehensible to the pupils. For example, in school A, a diocesan officerled an assembly on the Christian festival of Pentecost. This entailed tellingthe story with the help of children who acted as the disciples. The speakeremphasised the change in the disciples from their fear whilst hiding in theupper room to their bravery in going out and preaching the message ofChristianity. At the very end of the assembly, the speaker said that withGod’s help we can face difficult challenges. The main message of theassembly had been that we should be brave rather than fearful. This fulfilleda good pedagogical aim in that it engaged the interest of the children and isa commendable message. However, it is not the focus of traditionalChristian teaching about Pentecost. Methodologically, we recorded that ascriptural story had been employed although we also noted that it had avirtue ethics hermeneutic applied by the assembly leader, in this caserelating to courage.

The definition of what constitutes moral values was derived from the‘Statement of values by the National Forum for Values in Education and theCommunity’ (National Curriculum). The details of how the statement wasconstructed and tested have been described in other places, of which a goodconcise summary is found in Yates (2000, 29). The reason for selecting thisstatement was its importance to the national curriculum. It was cited as akey document in the 1999 national curriculum as well as being the statementreferred to in the first pages listing the aims of the then proposed newnational curriculum of 2010 (National Curriculum draft).3 The statement listsfour key values: the self, that is, ‘we value ourselves as unique humanbeings capable of spiritual, moral, intellectual and physical growth anddevelopment’; relationships, ‘we value others for themselves’ rather than forany function they might perform and ‘we value relationships as fundamentalto the development of ourselves and others, and to the good of community’;society, ‘we value truth, freedom, justice, human rights, the rule of law, andcollective effort for the common good’ and families are identified as thebasis of society; the environment, ‘we value the environment, both naturaland shaped by humanity, as the basis of life and a source of wonder andinspiration’. Each area of value is followed by a list of the implications ofthese values for behaviour. The statement argues that the values listed herehave authority because they represent a consensus in society, that is ‘schoolsand teachers can have confidence that there is general agreement in societyupon these values’. This claim is based upon a MORI poll conducted onbehalf of the Forum which surveyed adults, schools and community groups.A majority stated they agreed with these values.

There are some problems with the statement of values. For a start, itcould be argued that the values are so general and anodyne that most peopleare bound to agree with them. This is to a certain extent true and could wellexplain the MORI result. More significantly, and illustrating that noteveryone agrees with them, Paul Yates has argued that they reflect a


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‘neoconservative privileging of the individual over the social’ because theybegin from ideas of the self before moving to the social (Yates 2000, 29).This Yates (2000, 29) criticises as being contrary to ‘sociological or psycho-logical sense’. Yates is also suspicious that the statement is a centralisingattempt to impose a set of values rather than a sincere reflection of whatsociety already agrees are it main values. Yates’s suspicions are to somedegree founded. However, as a guide the statement aided the initial processof identifying and analysing the moral values communicated in schoolassemblies.

As the research progressed, it became apparent that the distinctionbetween values and virtues was a central issue. What we observed was moreaccurately described as virtue ethics rather than values. The findings raisedthe question of how they might be distinguished. Halstead and Pikeeffectively draw out the distinction.

Values are principles and fundamental convictions which act as justificationsfor activity in the public domain and as general guides to private behaviour;they are enduring beliefs about what is worthwhile, ideals for which peoplestrive and broad standards by which particular practices are judged to begood, right, desirable or worthy of respect. Examples of values are justice,equality, freedom, fairness, happiness, security, truth. Values can therefore bedistinguished from related and sometimes overlapping terms like ‘virtues’(which are personal qualities or dispositions like truthfulness, generosity, cour-age, loyalty or kindness) and ‘attitudes’ (which are acquired tendencies or pre-dispositions to behave in a predictable manner, such as openness, tolerance,respect and freedom from prejudice). (Halstead and Pike 2006, 24)4

The key point which Halstead and Pike make, and was apparent in theobservations, is the emphasis on the personal nature of virtues. Virtues arecomments about personality and character. When good virtues are beingtaught, then what happens is that certain behaviours and dispositions are rec-ommended. By contrast, moral values are impersonal, they are concernedwith the foundational beliefs and ideals which might shape behaviour but arenot descriptions of that behaviour. Moral values are likely to be more abstractand more closely tied to particular ideologies. In our observations, it becamenecessary as the research progressed to replace the values axis with a virtuesaxis. This will become a key finding as a result of the research project.

The results of the research do not permit wide-ranging and general state-ments about the nature of assemblies in English primary schools. This wasnot our intention in constructing the research project. Instead, the value ofthe findings is that they generate a new perspective on the stagnating discus-sion of primary school assemblies as well as opening up avenues for furtherresearch from which more general conclusions might be drawn. It also offerssome insight into the moral education occurring in some primary schoolsagain as a springboard for further analysis of this important question.


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The dominance of virtues: research findings

The schools were approached with the expectation that they would be teach-ing some recognisable type of moral values as described in the NationalForum’s statement. This would in some instances be juxtaposed or com-bined with religious beliefs. What was surprising was that this was not thecase and that what we observed was mainly the teaching of virtue ethics. Ithad been reported anecdotally that teachers were generally unaware of theNational Forum statement. The seeming irrelevance of the statement wasconfirmed by the findings of the project. The main focus of almost all theassemblies was some type of virtue ethics. For example, we observed twoassemblies in school C which communicated ideas about courage. One fea-tured a story without religious content which described the bravery of ayoung woman called Grace Darling. She had assisted her father in the res-cue of some sailors during a storm. Her courage was stressed. The secondtold the story of how Guru Gobind Singh founded the order of Khalsa.What was commended in the story was the bravery of the volunteers whooffered their lives to the Guru at his request. A second example involvedthe commendation of personal loyalty. In school B, an assembly to keystage one pupils discussed friendship. This stressed the importance of beingloyal to friends even when faced with the attractive possibility of new andmore exciting friendships. It was interesting to note that the assembly wasvery interactive and, when questioned, the pupils were well aware of whatwas appropriate behaviour regarding friendships. Another virtue we sawbeing taught was responsibility. The teaching of responsibility was morecomplex as the main focus of the assembly was care for animals. Theassembly was in school B and featured a presentation by pupils. Theyexplained that the school council had decided to focus on the plight of thered squirrel as an issue of concern. The problems confronted by red squirrelswould be publicised and money raised would help this endangered speciesby funding sanctuaries. At first sight, it might appear that the moral value ofcare for animals was being communicated, however, the teacher leading theassembly was more concerned with the process by which the topic wasselected rather than the topic itself. The teacher emphasised the democraticnature of pupil representation on the school council and the responsibility ofall pupils to follow the council’s lead as the pupils on the council were theirrepresentatives. What this meant was a stress on responsibility, as an off-shoot of democratic representation, more than a concern for red squirrels.Such a stress fulfilled the pedagogic aim of making the assembly relevantand meaningful to the pupils who would understandably probably not havea great deal of empathy for red squirrels.

The virtues communicated were not always taught in the main part ofthe assembly. In school A, one pupil was commended because he wascollecting books to be sent to South Africa in support of adult literacy


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programmes. The virtue of generosity was given substantial praise. Often therewere ‘notices’ before or after the main presentation. Again these containedmessages that certain virtues were desirable, such as hard work, generosityand kindness. In school D, we observed a weekly award which was made to apupil who had been kind to another pupil in a social setting.

One further surprising and important observation made was that the vir-tues being communicated in school D were different from those in schoolsA, B and C. This was as much to do with the tone and emphasis of theteaching of the virtues as their specific content although it included substan-tial content. School D had what it called five ‘key values’ which were prom-inently displayed in the entrance to the school. These were: persistence,resilience, you can do it, confidence and organisation. One assembly weobserved was a house point assembly in which points were distributed tohouse members for hard work and then added to a chart. The assembly pre-ceded a ‘family fitness day’ and ended before the day was ready to begin.This meant the assembly leader had to improvise talking with the childrenprior to the arrival of physical education (PE) staff. The assembly leadertalked about the importance of persistence, resilience and a ‘you can do it’attitude as pupils approached each fitness task. The assembly was interactiveand we observed how the children were well aware of the virtues beingadvocated. Another assembly observed in school D was a good work assem-bly. Pupils who had worked hard were called to the front and a few sen-tences were read describing their achievement. This in itself is not thatunusual and hard work is a virtue commended in most, if not all, schools.However what was unusual was the way in which the narrative of thepupil’s achievement included some aspect of persistence, the overcoming ofdifficulties and a change of attitude and manner. It was not just that hardwork had been undertaken but that hard work had been managed in whatwere very trying circumstances requiring resilience, persistence and morethan usual fortitude. When good work was commended in schools A and C,the hard work was praised but the qualities of persistence and resiliencewere not mentioned. One further assembly is relevant to this point. In schoolA, the last minute assembly observed had as its main substance, a report ofa school trip the day before to watch para-Olympic athletes training andcompeting in events. The report of the visit stressed the remarkable achieve-ment of the athletes to overcome their disability and compete in the events.The high standard of the athletes was mentioned. At this point, it might beexpected that virtues such as persistence and resilience would come to thefore, however, this was not the case. Instead the emphasis was on the expec-tation that if you work hard then you will succeed. There was a more confi-dent and positive understanding of the rewards of hard work than theemphasis on persistence and resilience would suggest. This is a matter oftone but it was a significant difference between the assemblies witnessed inthe schools.


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Our impression from these observations is that the virtues that are mostrelevant to children are dictated to some degree by the socio-economic loca-tion of the school. We cannot claim that this is so in all cases because oursample is limited. In fact, at best it can be said that this is an area requiringfurther investigations. However the hypothesis is that different virtues aretaught with different emphases depending on the location of the school. Inparticular, a stress on perseverance and resilience was observed in a schoolin a low socio-economic area that was not apparent in schools in highsocio-economic areas.

The predominant finding of the project has been that what weobserved in school assemblies was the communication of some form ofvirtues ethics. The exception to this was an assembly observed in schoolB. This was on the subject of the environment and outlined the ways inwhich human activities were having a detrimental effect on the planet.The idea of a carbon footprint was introduced and pupils were asked tothink about ways in which this could be reduced. The main focus of theassembly was on environmental damage and its causes. It was difficult toidentify any virtue being communicated. In fact it could well be arguedthat the assembly was values orientated in that it related to the fourth ofthe National Forum’s set of values, namely the environment. However,what was interesting was that independently we both came to the conclu-sion that the event was more like a lesson that an assembly. In fact itcould best be described as a lesson to introduce a new topic. The assem-bly raised the question of what distinguishes an assembly from a lessonand, related to this, the difference between moral values and virtues. Thelatter we discussed above and so we focus here on the difference betweena lesson and assembly.

From our observations, we identified two important components whichhelp distinguish an assembly from a lesson. When these were both welldeployed, the experience was of an assembly. If both were absent then itwas more like a lesson. The first component is the focus on virtues ratherthan values. In the observations, one way to distinguish between an assem-bly and the one example of what looked like a lesson was that the assem-blies taught virtues whilst the lesson focussed on a moral value. In theexample above, the value presented was care for the planet. The likely con-current virtue might be either generosity to future generations or personalresponsibility. However, these and other virtues were absent.

The second key component we observed was the use of cultural and reli-gious resources in support of the teaching of ethical virtues. The most com-mon example of this was the telling of stories from sacred texts or aboutimportant religious figures. One example was an assembly in school Awhich told two stories about Martin Luther King Jr. Examples are also givenabove, including Grace Darling, and such stories were notably absent in theassembly that looked like a lesson. In addition, and also very important, is


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the use of songs and hymns. This was apparent in schools A and C whichappeared to have a tradition of singing songs and hymns. The lyrics werewell-known by the pupils. These lyrics referred to God and often to Jesus.We heard the children sing about the love of God, the saving work of Jesusand God’s work in Creation. In school C, the stories used in the assembliesdid not always have a religious content, however, the use of familiar songsand hymns, together with a time of prayer which ended with the word‘Amen’, meant that the experience was of an assembly. In school D, the cul-tural and religious supporting material was missing although virtues werebeing taught. This led to the experience being somewhere between a lessonand an assembly. The event clearly was not a lesson, the absence of aca-demic content and the emphasis on virtues ensured that, however, neitherwas it a well-conducted assembly because there was no religious or culturalmaterial employed which might develop the spiritual aptitudes of the pupils.By contrast, the song practice assembly witnessed in school C would proba-bly have helped with the spiritual development of children even thoughthere was no substantial religious or cultural story.

Virtues and the problem of compliance: discussion

Although we have steered away from the question of legal compliance, thedominance of this debate in current discussions means that one final ques-tion is what do the findings say about this issue? The compliance debate isrestricted by the conflict between political will and professional practice.Not surprisingly, politicians do not want to engage with the highly contro-versial subject that would be the removal of the requirement for Christianworship in schools. This would translate into debates about English identity.Neither the Left nor Right wants to be portrayed as the party that removedan essential plank of English identity, namely its Christian heritage. But onthe other side, teachers do not want to be responsible for any form of wor-ship. They are not trained as religious worship leaders and many, if notmost, would regard religious observance as a personal rather than profes-sional matter. Collective worship may not be the same as corporate worshipbut it is still worship and, in an age that is plural, it is an alien practice withpotential to do harm. So a stalemate exists. Schools have to find a practicalsolution to the stalemate.

The working solution adopted by a number of schools, and certainlyschools which do assemblies well, is to teach ethical virtues utilising support-ing religious and cultural resources. This is a creative solution. As the work ofthe Birmingham SACRE on moral dispositions shows, virtue ethics has thecapacity to garner support from across the religious spectrum (BirminghamSACRE 2007). Philip Barnes has argued the Birmingham solution is noveland innovative and our point is that it can work as well in relation to assem-blies as it can to the RE curriculum (Barnes 2007, 2008). The history of vir-


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tues, reaching back to Plato, means that they have the ability to transcendbelief systems whilst also being welcomed by religious adherents and politicalideologues. The latter would include those who want to describe themselvesas secular or liberal. The promotion of courage or loyalty or generosity doesnot presume a particular set of beliefs and in fact can be applicable in a rangeof religions or ideologies. In many ways, they are a far better solution thanmoral values which can be tied to political ideologies. In other words, virtuesseem to transcend the problems of pluralism and secularism in a way valuescannot. They are uncontroversial whilst permitting reference to religious andsecular beliefs. This makes them a good working solution for schools.

The aim of this article has been to describe and discuss the results of asmall scale research project investigating the ethical content of primaryschool assemblies. The main finding was that dominant ethical approachwas one of virtue ethics. This worked well when supported by religious andcultural resources. Schools which adopt this approach have found a way ofcoping with the problems thrown up the Education Reform Act of 1988 andthe subsequent circular 1/94. However it is also clear that more researchshould be undertaken in this field and that one important and fruitful path isthe question of how the virtues taught relate to the socio-economic contextof the school.

Notes1. The distinction between virtues and values is very important and is developed

as the article progresses. There is a large philosophical literature on the identityof virtue ethics of which the key contemporary text is MacIntyre (2007),although we recognise some have argued that MacIntyre’s A short history ofethics is in fact primary. It is not our intention to discuss the Homeric or Tho-mist development of virtue ethics to arrive at a workable definition for the sakeof the analysis, rather we employ the pragmatic distinction between personalattributes or character traits (virtues) such as Aristotle discusses and principles(values) which are ideologically informed and seek to shape action. Halsteadand Pike draw out this distinction and we discuss their analysis below.

2. The references here are to paragraphs in the circular and not page numbers.3. The National Curriculum draft was fully prepared and ready to be implemented

when the 2010 General Election was called. The website provided schools withmaterials to begin preparing for the new curriculum. After the General Election,the new government decided not to go ahead with the changes. So at the timeof our research, the expectation was that the statement by the National Forumwould remain influential. In fact, by default it has because the 1999 curriculumremains in place.

4. Italics in the original.

Notes on contributorsGraeme Smith is senior lecturer in Practical Theology at the University ofChichester. His research interests include practical theology, social and politicaltheology and ethics. He is editor of the journal Political Theology and author of A


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short history of secularism (IB Tauris, 2008). He has written a number of articles inthe field of social and political theology.

Susannah Smith is lecturer in Education at the University of Birmingham. Herresearch interests include early years literacy and she has written articles on literacyand gender.

ReferencesBarnes, L.P. 2007. Developing a new post-liberal paradigm for British religious

education. Journal of Beliefs and Values 28, no. 1: 17–32.Barnes, L.P. 2008. The 2007 Birmingham agreed syllabus for religious education:

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from values to virtues an investigation into the ethical content of

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