Institutionalising Nonreligion? Locating non/religion in a Welsh Primary School

This article explores institutional manifestations of non/religion in a primary school in south Wales. According to the 2021 Census, south Wales has some of the highest levels of ‘religious nones’ in England and Wales. Yet little is known about what non-religiosity looks like in these areas or the role institutions play in shaping non-religion. Drawing on empirical data, we analyse how religion and non-religion interact within the school environment to open up how non-religion becomes institutionalised through the lens of the ‘infrasecular’ (della Dora, 2018), whilst recognising the residual traces of Christian cultural forms which persist. We show how religious repertoires continue to influence everyday school life whilst new forms of belonging and values provide insight to new configurations of the ‘sacred’ in a non-religious place.