What's a non-religious school like?

[EducationDilemma]

I went to two primary schools. One was Catholic, and I was there until Year 3, when I moved to a C of E village school. Both were small by modern standards, although the C of E school was 32 pupils and the Catholic one felt much bigger at 150 pupils. In the morning, we always had assembly, which always included at least one hymn, usually two, and a Bible story which was related to our daily life, and we always had at least one prayer at the end. Both schools had close ties with a local church. The Catholic school integrated religion into the curriculum much more than the C of E school and we did pieces of work based around the Bible a lot more often.

At secondary, I went to a non-faith school, and assemblies were erratic, maybe once or twice a half term, led by a different member of staff each time, or the local vicar who was very "modern" and "Jesus is my homeboy", and all but one assembly was the Good Samaritan, presumably because staff didn't check with each other what we'd covered in every other assembly. We were obviously very disengaged and the lack of structure carried over into other aspects of secondary. IDK how representative this is.

I'm now looking at sending my own child to school this year, and my two main options aren't strongly tied to a faith, and it's got me wondering, what is it actually like at a non-religious primary school? What do they fill that vacuum with? What do they spend time doing? And how do they ensure the children develop a sense of wonder in the world? Do they have assemblies? How do they handle Easter/Christmas/the sacraments? DH went to Catholic schools all the way through so he's no help either.

What were your experiences and do you think schools have changed as a whole or that there's a massive difference between faith/non-faith schools?

@RelativePitch RE (Religious Education) is a national curriculum subject though and different to taking part in a religious service (is prayers, hymns, learning about Holy Communion etc).
They would be doing RE at any school.

Maths, English, PE, history, geography, science, IT, music, art, playtime, lunchtime, after school clubs.

Talking about a 'void' or 'vacuum' when you remove religious material is not v helpful and potentially offensive.
Think about what, specifically, you're concerned might be missing and ask the relevant schools how they cover this.
My non religious schools

• still taught us about Christianity as well as other world organised religions and other faiths
• still covered topics that made us consider personal morality and ethics, empathy, acts of service, protection of the vulnerable

-fostered a sense of community and personal responsibility and continuous growth in other ways

@Needmorelego oh I know it has to be part of the curriculum at any school, but there is so much of it at faith schools. So very, very much of it at the cost of a more well rounded education.

@RelativePitch from what I know it is more of a 'thing' at Catholic schools to do as lot of the religious stuff (ie preparing for First Communion) because it's generally assumed that the children attending are of the Catholic faith.
CofE schools traditionally are for children of any faith (or none) because the CofE set up schools for local children before the government did - so they were for everyone. CofE schools will do Christian related things like the vicar visiting, harvest festival, nativity play etc but so do many non faith schools as those things are more 'cultural' than just religious.
I know a CofE that is about 50% Muslim children and 50% supposedly Christian but really not many practicing Christians. The children who attend go there because it's just the local school - not because they want a CofE education.
They get visits from the local vicar plus the local Iman from the mosque. They celebrate Christmas events and Eid events.
Basically the theory is you send your children to a Catholic school because you are Catholic and the children will be raised in that faith.
Unfortunately the way modern school administrations work now many non Catholic children find themselves in these schools.

@Ihatethenewlook A religious school NEEDS to dedicate at least 10% of its teaching about religion. That’s a huge amount to me when more sensible things can be taught in what I think is quite a large chunk of time. That alone put me off.

Your first sentence is incorrect.
The recommendation for teaching Religious Education in schools is for 5% which is usually followed in Church of England Schools. The equates to one hour per week.

However, Local Authorities must ensure that the agreed syllabus for their area is consistent with Section 375(3) of the Education Act 1996, which requires the syllabus to reflect that the religious traditions of Great Britain are in the main
Christian whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain.

The recommendation for RE teaching in Catholic Schools is 10%.

Faith Schools are also required to adhere to the National Curriculum and to present a comprehensive compendium of views surrounding contentious moral and social issues which militates against either extremism or indoctrination.

So like I said , religious schools waste about 10% of their teaching about religion.

@Ihatethenewlook So like I said , religious schools waste about 10% of their teaching about religion.

No, that's not what you said.

You said "A religious school NEEDS to dedicate at least 10% of its teaching about religion"

That is incorrect, as only Catholic schools have a recommendation to spend 10% of their time teaching RE.

All schools are required by law to teach RE. The amount of time is recommended to be 5%.

RE in primary and secondary schools enables pupils to take their place within a diverse multi-religious and multi-secular society. At its best, it is intellectually challenging and personally enriching. It affords pupils both the opportunity to see the religion and non-religion in the world, and the opportunity to make sense of their own place in that world.

The evolution of society’s religious and non-religious landscape highlights that it is all the more important for pupils to build up accurate knowledge of the complexity and diversity of global religion and non-religion.

How this can be described as a "waste of time" is quite surprising.