To wonder why non-believers send their doc to faith schools

[Latetothematch]

Not a thread about a thread but thought whilst reading a thread when reading 'dc goes to a faith school and comes home with questions but we don't believe'.

Why send your child to a school where you do not believe what it is teaching?

[MurderOfBanshees]

As far as I know, in some areas there's no other choice. Or minimal choice.

[Nacster]

In my area there is no choice. All of the schools are Christian.

[southeastastra]

i can never understand what faith has to do with schooling in the first place

[mrsminiverscharlady]

Because there's no alternative without travelling a large distance?

Because some of them offer an otherwise good education and you don't see why the children of people who believe in fairy tales should get a better education?

[Queen0fFuckingEverything]

Because for those of us who don't live in areas with a choice of schools, church schools are the only option.

The whole issue of choosing schools and the way it preoccupies so many parents is a complete non-issue to huge amount of us.

Where I live, there's a small village school. Its a CofE school. There's also a small village school, again CofE, in the next village and the next and the next. The nearest town (5 miles away) has 5 primaries - 4 of them are CofE.

The church has a monopoly on education in many rural areas.

[Latetothematch]

Oh hadn't realised no choice - I live in a small town and in the town we have all - C of E, RC, non-Denominational, Jewish etc.

[Audilover]

All infants, juniors and primary schools within 12 miles of where we live are either CofE or Catholic.
This is some 15 schools in total.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Hypocrisy (that doesn't look right, but spell checked) . If they have a good reputation, good results, outstanding etc, parents want them to attend.

Sometimes its through little choice, it was like this for ds2.
We moved mid year, the community school had a place for ds1 but not for ds2. There was a Catholic School next door that had a place and after 6 weeks of him being at home, the LA asked if they would take him as one of 10% none Catholic, as they had to do at that time.
He didn't like it and as soon as a place became available moved to the community.
I think if you take a place at any school you have to comply with their ethos, methods of teaching, belief etc.

[Queen0fFuckingEverything]

And I am one of those posters you are wondering about - I've posted before about my rage at the evangelising at DD's school.

But there's no option other than HE, which we tried and wasn't right for us. I cannot afford to drive 20 miles a day just to get her to and from school. The bus is more expensive than driving. We are stuck with it and I think we have the right to complain and try to limit the religious propaganda that our children are forced to take in in order to access a state education.

[Cupcake1985]

Because Christian schools are great obviously :) tbh I thought there was hardly any around now so I'm surprised some areas seem to only have faith schools. I think they teach good things and give children good groundings and often they have the best reputations - but I'm Christian and would choose a faith school if I had the option so biased :)

[SuburbanRhonda]

All state schools have to deliver the RE national curriculum and hold a "broadly Christian" act of worship, whether they are religious schools or not.

My DCs are non-believers and both would have given their eye teeth, I'm sure, to have had no RE at all in school. DS actually has to take GCSE RE (it's compulsory) in a non-religious state comprehensive. He could be studying another GCSE instead, but has no choice.

What he doesn't know about Christianity after being taught about it for 12 years isn't worth knowing

[Queen0fFuckingEverything]

Ha, it can't be that small then!

The nearest place to us with that much choice is 30 plus miles away.

[Tailtwister]

Sometimes there is no choice but from what I see CofE schools generally have a better reputation. Where that is the case parents often want their child to get a place at a a good school.

[Latetothematch]

Queen - yes it is wrong there is no state provision for non-Christian and I am surprised that is still the case.

[Audilover]

You can withdraw your children from both collective worship and RE.
There was a girl at my DC's school who didn't do RE with the rest of them and quite a few who didn't do collective worship, my DC included.
I'm not too sure about when the school offers RE as a compulsory GCSE.

[livinginwonderland]

Because there's no real choice. We have one primary, one middle and one secondary school here that are non-denominational - the others are all CoE or RC.

All the non-denominational schools are hugely over-subscribed so unless you want to pay to go private, you often don't have an option.

[LumpySpacePrincessOhMyGlob]

It's ridiculous that state funded schools are allowed to control who they have depending on which invisible friend they believe in.

Makes. Me. Very. Cross.

[SuburbanRhonda]

The compulsory RE GCSE was never discussed with parents.

DS has not studied ICT at all since the end of Year 8 because there was no space in his timetable for it once he had chosen his options. Yet somehow there was space for RE. I can't imagine any employer, apart from the established churches maybe, insisting in a GCSE in RE, but they might take a dim view of someone whose IT skills were out of date.

[KissesBreakingWave]

The religious school I went to had RE overseen and largely taught by an elderly and rather dimwitted nun whose vocation seemed to consist in holding opinions and beliefs about the world in general and people in particular that ranged from outright evil to Dagenham. (Three stops past Barking.)

She turned out as fine a crop of atheists, marxists, anarchists and flat-out heathens as you could wish to see.

[Peetle]

Don't get me started. We drive our DTs 1.5 miles each way because we didn't "play the game" and get them into a faith school 250 yards away. (2 years of attendance at "toddler friendly", i.e. dominated, services)

This doesn't stop numerous Catholics, Muslims and Hindus going to the CofE school that we opted out of. It is supposedly a "good school", though frankly the one we go to is fine.

But, if the school's religious ethos isn't the same as yours it can't be a "good school", can it ?

[alwaysneedaholiday]

All the local schools here are Church Schools, so we just picked the best of the bunch.

It can be a bit OTT with the religion bit, but we like to balance that out at home

I am often saying, 'well some people may believe that, but others believe this...'

[thegreylady]

We have only a CoE primary and a no denom comp in the very small town where I live. All the country schools round here are CoE.

[miaowmix]

Because the C of E state primary was the best (only) local school that offered our daughter a place, (we are in a v competitive part of London), because I don't militantly NOT believe, and because this school has a wonderful sense of community which is fostered by the church links.
It's all v gentle religion-wise, not dogmatic or extreme in any way so I don't see the harm.
And after 2 yrs of being extremely pious, DD has decided that there is no god, or at least that she's not sure - her own decision. I've always told her that some people believe in god but I'm not one of them...

[IsItMeOr]

Because in some areas there are far more state primary school places in religious schools than there are adults with religious beliefs according to the census. It is inevitable that this is going to happen.

In our bit of London you are lucky if you're in the catchment area for your closest school. If you're going to start being picky about any characteristic of the school, you're going to be home or privately educating, which aren't workable options for most families.

It's truly appalling that more religious schools are opening, when we already have an over-supply.

[NotYoMomma]

I have non religious options but its all about results here, there is a huge difference in results here