On Prohibiting Pupil Prayers: Conceptions of Religion and Secularism in Webber Academy (Canada) and Michaela School (UK) – Oxford Journal of Law and Religion
‘The Michaela Community School in London made headlines in spring 2023 when it forbade students from engaging in prayer rituals on school premises. The school’s prayer ban was recently upheld by the High Court in R v Michaela Community Schools Trust, [2024] EWHC 843 (Admin). Over 10 years earlier, two students at a private high school in Calgary, Canada, were also prohibited from praying at school. The extended litigation that followed culminated in the 2023 judgment of Webber Academy Foundation v Alberta (Human Rights Commission), 2023 ABCA 194, which—unlike its UK counterpart—was decided in favour of the students. This article considers the common ground between the two cases, including the schools’ efforts to present themselves as “secular” to the outside world, and goes on to examine the courts’ opposing responses to the claims. We maintain that despite their different administrative and institutional contexts, a more fundamental difference concerns how the courts conceptualise religion: either as an expression of a person’s identity—the dominant framing in Webber Academy—or as an expression of autonomy and personal choice, adopted by the court in Michaela.’
Oxford Journal of Law and Religion, 18th September 2025
Source: academic.oup.com
