Only Christian kids given a prize

[IDontWantRealism]

Can someone help me see reason with this? My kids are atheist but Jewish by ancestry. They go to a non-denominational school but in a very traditional rural area with lots of Christian students. They ran a competition which involved making a profession of faith over Easter. Obviously my kids didn’t enter but many others did. We were told there would be a prize but today at school all children who entered were given a prize leaving out the few non-Christian children and the few other children who didn’t enter. That’s not ok is it? I need some help navigating this as the school have form. We’ve previously had to moan about them being taught other problematic views.

We only knew there had been an Easter picture competition. We did not know it was this, if that makes sense. We were aware that in school they had run a competition with a prize but not what it had involved. We only found out the specifics from the teacher today. There are always competitions of some sort running so I didn’t think anything of it. It was only when they were upset today that I asked for specifics. It happened during a lesson, it wasn’t brought home and no details were given to parents. Hopefully that clears it all up.

I've only read posts by the OP not the whole thread but in my opinion this is very poor behaviour and the school should be called up on it.
It's not even a competition if you just get a prize for entering.
Outrageous to ask non Christian kids to write that or to leave them out if they don't. As a child this would have really upset me if I'd been asked to do it.

Also an atheist Jew, here. My kids are probably the only Jewish kids in their school but by year 2 they had learned about Passover and Chanukah (and Diwali and Ramadan and...).

Wtf is the point of a school that doesn't believe they need to teach the kids anything about the rest of the world.

I'm a Church of Scotland minister and I think this is completely inappropriate as an activity in Primary School. Inappropriate in terms of what children were being asked to do - essentially being compelled to agree with a statement they don't believe in, and also the prize aspect, which is just crass in my opinion, and certain to cause upset and exclusion.

It's the kind of activity, without prize, that would be right for Sunday School or Messy Church - absolutely not for Primary School.

A draw and colour your own Easter egg design would have been much better. A wee chat about the symbolism(s) of the Easter egg - for Christians it represents the stone rolled away from the tomb on Easter morning, but it also can represent the promise of new life, which is especially meaningful for Christians at Easter, and for everyone at this time of year when we see lambs in the field, blossom on the hedges, daffodils in our gardens after winter, etc etc. Basically explain Easter traditions in a meaningful and light way which engages the children without assuming faith.

I'd have a word with the Head Teacher. This was way too specific which meant excluding those children with the confidence to refuse and potentially leading less confident children do something which was not in accord with their own beliefs.

I'm a teacher in a church school and I wouldn't be comfortable with what you describe..,

Op I'd ask to speak to the head and discuss your concerns as I do think they are valid.

Op i also think you should bring it up with the school.
I don't even like the idea of them just being members of the local church coming in to talk to kids. That really doesn't sit right with me.

Hope your kids are ok.

OP I'm sorry your children experienced this blatant discrimination. I don't think I need to add much other than my support for you.

This is absolutely not an appropriate activity for a school.
If they had instead decorated professions of faith, where each child chose their own wording and they were encouraged to do it about any religion, or about atheism, or any set of beliefs / values: that MIGHT have been ok.
But not having to proclaim that Jesus had saved them.

I would address it using this comment from your son, @IDontWantRealism

"The boys were upset, my oldest said he didn’t want to lie but he would have been given chocolate if he did."

I had a feeling there was a Christian parable about how it's not great to force people to pretend to follow a religion they don't believe in. Maybe closer study of the story of The Fiery Furnace would help the church volunteers realise they're being inappropriate?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadrach,_Meshach,_and_Abednego

I agree with all of this post.

(And out of interest, OP, what was the rest of the class doing while some children were decorating their professions of faith?)

I just can't believe this actually happened as described. It's completely bizarre.

The problem is that it deliberately excludes children who are not Christian and thus discriminated against them on the basis of a protected characteristic.

they do not have the same opportunities as Christian children

honestly there are a number of poster on this thread who are either a bit dim or a bigoted if they cannot see that excluding a group of young children on the basis of religion/ethnicity is a problem

it’s deeply unpleasant

Oh, I see. U only read to the but where she said she didn't want to give details because it had been in the newspaper.

I think the details - like it was voluntary, but done during class time, that the message was 'Jesus saved me', that chocolate eggs were handed out and the kids are quite little and got upset - these are all important.

What newspaper?

The OP said the competition had been in the local paper

Oh right, I missed that, it though you meant the thread has been published by a paper.

@Soontobe60 "
Would you consider that getting children to decorate an Eid card is exclusive?"

No. Because it isn't. What were you hoping people would say? "No, that's OK because it's about Islam. We only have a problem with Christianity."?

The school discriminated against non-Christian children, definitely not on and you are right to speak to the head about it.

I bet some of the people in this thread saying there's nothing wrong with it wouldn't be happy if their child's school had a competition in class where everyone who wrote and decorated "I worship Satan" got a prize. Writing "Jesus saved me" is on the same level as that, its a faith statement not just an Easter-related phrase.

The school could make amends by providing lavish 'competition' prizes to the excluded children for making posters of the words "Jesus didn't save a chocolate egg for me".

I'd have an issue if they were forced to participate. I have more of an issue with anti Catholic view expressed by a couple of teachers at my kids old school when my kids were there and now my GC is there. What they feel about my religion is there own business but not appropriate to share it with children, particularly when they are making statements that aren't true. If you want to criticise our beliefs then at least check out what they are.

One poster asked a good question what we're the kids doing when others were colouring the posters?

The more I think about it the more off it is. Especially it not even being someone trained coming in and giving messages to the kids.
You wouldn't allow any other random person into a school to talk to kids

The OP already said there was a separate activity but not one that meant they could enter an alternative competition

Card carrying Christian here and former Sunday school teacher and I think this is awful. I was very careful what I did in my sessions and would never pull bullshit like this. Even the children of churchgoers I treat as essentially undecided in matters of religion because that's what they are.

It does depend a little on what the phrase was though. To pass with me it would have to be possible to treat the Easter story as a folktale. So "the tomb was empty" is okay. Even "Jesus was alive" okay. Jesus is alive probably not (would use it in church on Easter day but otherwise not) And something like "Jesus is my saviour" absolutely vomit worthy. "Jesus is Lord" terrible phrase meaningless to almost everyone.

As an aside, Christians should be a whole lot more choosy about this sort of pat brainwashing because it's unhelpful to anyone over about four years old and creates more atheists than believers. I have binned many many stickers with "Jesus is the reason for the season" and similar awful tripe. They are ruinous to any nascent faith and completely cringe to boot.

I wonder if there was a lack of communication between the people in the classroom (who would have been aware that some children didn't participate but thought only one child would win) and the people who decided everyone should win / those who came in later to give out the prizes (who may not have been aware of or thought about the fact that some children did not participate).
Either way, it's dreadfully ill thought-through, and I feel very sorry for the children who were excluded. I don't think the fault lies with the school, but the church should be made aware of the effect of their actions, so that they can make amends to those children. Can you contact the minister directly? Maybe a quiet word with him/her to let them know that their congregation's misguided attempt at evangelism has backfired, would be effective.

English educational law states that they must have a daily act of Christian worship. There is no such thing as a non-faith state school in reality.