ALMOST two-thirds of teachers polled say that they have no religion, and only 15 per cent identify as Anglican, findings from a survey of teachers suggest.

Teacher Tapp, a daily survey of up to 4000 teachers across the country, asked about religion in July. It found that out of the 3786 of teachers asked, 65 per cent said that they were raised in a religious household, but 61 per cent said that they had no religion.

Those who identified as Anglican had the biggest fall from childhood to adult life, with a 16-per-cent drop in those who identified as such.

These figures tally with the British Social Attitudes study, which found that only 12 per cent of respondents would describe themselves as “belonging to the Church of England [or the Church in Wales and Scottish Episcopal Church]” (News, 11 July).

Of those teachers who did identify as Anglican, just 18 per cent said that they went to church once a week or more, and 14 per cent said that they never attended a service.

Of teachers surveyed who worked at Anglican schools, 22 per cent identified as Anglican, whereas 58 per cent said that they had no religion. Meanwhile, 48 per cent of teachers at Roman Catholic schools said that they were RC.

Teachers were also asked about their schools’ adherence to collective worship rules. At present all schools are required to have a daily “single act of worship for all pupils”, or separate acts for groups of pupils.

At secondary schools without a designated religion, 87 per cent of the teachers asked said that their school did not have a daily act of collective worship, whereas just five per cent did.

Meanwhile, 37 per cent of teachers at Anglican secondary schools said that they did not hold a daily act of collective worship, in contrast to 89 per cent of teachers at Anglican primary schools, who said that they did.

Just 23 per cent of secular secondary schools gave religious education to all pupils, as opposed to 69 per cent of religious schools.