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.

Yes that's how I feel, I have no idea if the things they have been taught about other religions are true because I don't know enough about them to judge although I did run one thing past a Muslim friend and she confirmed they'd got that wrong as well although she said it could have been true in another branch of Islam.

I was lucky when I went to school back in the 60s. I went to a grammar school and the school would invite representatives from various religions to come and actually tell us about their religions, so for example a Rabbi, an Imam and a Catholic priest. Sounds like the start of a funny story.

Non denominational means Christian - but open to any denomination not just RC or CofE or whatever - so there is no reason they shouldn’t be running a faith based comp.

I think you have to figure out what you want the school to do about it OP, eg have a broader version of the comp that non-Christian kids could do. You can’t expect a Christianity based school not to have Christianity based events.

@Iwasafool Most Catholics don't know about the Immaculate Conception-you need an atheist religion geek like me for that sort of detail!

You can’t expect a Christianity based school not to have Christianity based events.

I can expect a state education institution not to discriminate against children based on their religion. It's pretty basic.

She can if she has no choice but to send her children to a "Christianity based" school.

If you don't enter a competition you don't win a prize. Your children didn't enter.

Schools should not be running 'Christian competitions' Yes the UK is a Christian country but thats beside the point schools need to be inclusive of other religions and athiest.

Schools should not be allowing untrained people in to talk to and influence children in this way.

It wasn't a true competition as everyone won a prize. OP's children couldn't enter as it required them to do something directly against your religion. If your children were told that they could enter a competition to walk a mile but couldn't do so due to a disability, and subsequently discovered that every single child who entered had been given a reward, do you think they might feel excluded and discriminated against?

That would only be remotely OK if they were also running faith based competitions around every other religion represented in the school, with another for atheists. This school isn't.

I haven’t responded for a wee bit as the thread drifted into areas I have little knowledge of so I didn’t have much to pitch in. I sat on it for 24 hours and then wrote an email to the Head outlining what the issues were as I saw them. I was contacted by another parent who is also not happy so they are going to do the same. I think I kept it pretty rational and thanks to everyone who contributed, it helped to get my thoughts in order.

Op I sincerely hope the Head takes your comments on board. Come back and let us know what they say.

I don't see it as a problem if any child could enter but some did not. Your kids did not enter so did not get a prize.

@caringcarer it's not just about the prize it's the nature of the competition.

Op may well have ticked a box saying she doesn't want her DC to be included in Christian worship.

But that doesn't mean you give chocolate to every kid except the non-Christian ones, they could easily have ran a separate competition and given out chocolate bars.

But actually I don't think school is the place for that type of competition at all.

that sounds completely out of order in a state school, not a church school.
that sounds like an activity that a sunday school class might do.
where it would be appropriate. but not in a regular, non church school.

what standards are there in scotland, what is the required curriculum.
does it not mention all world religions, or various festivals.
don't they cover eid, passover, diwali etc ?
if not, why not ?
it sounds v narrow-minded, with practices that might have been standard 50 years ago, but are not acceptable now.

A prize for professions of faith? The prize should be the gift of faith itself, not a profession of it. Sending out a completely wrong and anti Christian message in my book. Back to the old days when people bought papal indulgences, hey?

who runs the school, is it a local authority.
a state school should not be proselytising.
i think they need challenging on this.

Is this essentially a colouring competition if a thing saying something along the lines I'd "Jesus lives"?
If so, I would be ok with that and I am a hard core atheist. That is something anyone can do, you do not have to believe the statement.

For some people it is about Jesus. For others it has nothing to do with Jesus at all.

Easter is about Jesus for Christians. For others it's meaningless- just a couple of days off work- maybe some chocolate. For me it's a tenuous link, a nod to tens of thousands of human history. A spring festival. Like midsummer and Christmas. Humans have been celebrating them since humans began and I like being part of that continuum. If people want to celebrate them as Christians that's fine. But I don't want anyone telling my children as fact that they all started 2000 years ago. I don't want anyone telling my children that belief systems are facts like maths and the capital of Italy.

Easter is also about Passover which is significant to Jews and I think it has a significance to Muslims too.

But all of that is besides the point. Schools should not be running competitions that are not open to all children.
How utterly thought less that the majority of the kids get an Easter egg but the non-Christian kids don't.

I'll take a guess that the people who ran the competition never actually thought it through that they'd be kids who couldn't enter. But the school should have stopped it happening.

But it was a case of could not enter, not did not enter. There is also the factor that, in the event, it turns out that this wasn't a competition at all, in effect it was an excuse to give a treat to the Christian kids only and leave out all the others.

It was actually explaining it like this (not word for word but this was the message) Catholics think sex is dirty, this is obvious when they refer to Mary conceiving Jesus without sex as Immaculate i.e. not dirty. Well as you obviously know Mary conceiving Jesus without sex was actually the Miraculous Conception and nothing at all to do with saying sex is dirty. So whatever anyone thinks of Catholics or if they believe in the Miraculous Conception the fact is what was said was wrong, it is the inaccuracy that bothers me. I mean I wouldn't be happy if she was saying Edward II was married to Anne Boleyn or that Germany won WWI.

I do agree with you though, plenty of Catholics seem quite ignorant about such things.

@Rosula no one physically prevented these children from joining in. They just did not want to. I worked at a Catholic school Sixth form where a few children were not Catholic. They were still welcome to join in Christian activities and several did so. Decorating two words 'Jesus Lives' is not excluding anyone. We live in a Christian country and tolerate all faiths and none but why should children who want to engage in an activity be prevented just because a few don't want to join in? The chocolate was simply an outcome of joining in and the children don't seem to have known about it beforehand. Would OP still be upset if her kids got given a bar of chocolate? I don't think it is the activity at all, just upset her kids did not get given chocolate.

They just did not want to

No, they were not able to because colouring in "Jesus saved me" (which was the phrase used and not "Jesus lives") would mean making a statement incompatible with their own religion (or their atheism for those of no faith).

The competition was totally inappropriate. It could easily have been broadened to include others. It excluded those of other faiths and none.
The chocolate is a side issue.

@caringcarer "no one physically prevented these children from joining in." No, they weren't handcuffed to a chair. But they were prevented because their belief systems, or lack of them meant they could not take part in a profession of faith. I'm not sure how I can express that any more clearly!