If you don’t let your kids participate in activities at school…

[Soubriquet]

Why not?

Every time there’s a workshop, or an event happening in school (today was children doing dance for Diwali), there is always a couple of children who are sitting to the side because their parents haven’t given permission for them to participate. I always feel sorry for them watching all their classmates have fun when they aren’t allowed to. It’s one thing to decline photos being taken of them, but why not allow them to do the activity?

I do remember when I worked in a nursery once, there was a little JW girl. She was allowed to do winter crafts such as a snow man but she wasn’t allowed to do Christmas crafts cos you know Jesus. She wasn’t allowed to see the nativity or take part and she was only one in the entire group. I felt a little sorry for her especially as her parents pulled her out a few weeks later to home educate because they didn’t want her exposed to any other faith

I've worked at a school with mainly Muslim intake for almost 20 years (majority British Pakistani) and very few have issue with any religious aspect. We still do a Nativity and maybe one family a year objects but once we explain they are fine. Lots do, however, opt out of sex ed. We have many, many discussions about what can and can't (and what has to be taught legally) be covered and there is often issues with talking about homosexuality and trans issues. I've been asked to stop boys wearing princess fancy dress or playing with dolls (which I don't) and I'm just waiting for someone to complain about my new stories about different types of families....
But when I worked in a mainly white working class school 20 years ago parents would object to their kids visiting mosques, temples and synagogues and would have had issues with Indian dancing etc. This was firmly as a result of racism without a doubt.

I only found out years later that one of the boys in my primary school class was Jehovah's Witness so never went to assembly or various other things

He always looked so skinny and sad

The Oxford comma in a list shows the items were all separate to each other. If they'd be ordered the other way round (the being gay one first for example), you wouldn't have read it that way.

How do you know they’ve been refused permission? Isnt it more likely the child just doesn’t want to do it?

Apologies for not being clear. Yoga and mindfulness is Indian in origin and far too close to Hindu or similar practices. They don't agree with any sex ed or similar lessons which tell the kids being gay is OK, or that having safe sex before marriage is OK too.

Ok just to put to bed some misconceptions through working in schools. JW children are allowed to do most things just not anything that includes worship. They do RE as they learn about other religions. They do PTA in fact one of the mums who is the chair of the pta is a JW. They do assemblies and receive rewards etc. It's mainly anything that involves worship. Most of these children enjoy activities with children of other faiths while the rest of the school does the worship part. It's a small part of their learning experience. As for some not going into assemblies, my dgs has only just started participating in assemblies or classroom activities because of SEN and being sensory overloaded so if you see a child on the sidelines or in a classroom with an assistant while other kids are doing something it's most likely that too.

Skinny and sad. My dgs can look sad he's now a JW. He can also look angry and will say he's hungry or thirsty. Stop making silly remarks.

Yes, they do. DD had a JW in her class. She missed a lot of school during the run up to Christmas.

Tbh I looked at taking my dcs put of all of those activities.
Teaching about other faiths is great (as long as you do it right) but involving children in celebrating easter, doing songs/prayers isn’t right to me. For one, this isn’t my or the dcs religion. And I also believe that it’s not my role to teach them to be Christian. That’s up to them to chose what they believe in (so something theyll decide in adulthood)

In RL, I didn’t do it.
And the only thing that happened is that it put both my dcs off all religion completely. 🤪🤪

This might your experience of the JW you have worked with. It's not mine. The JW in my DC class (and I know the Mum very well) doesn't donate to PTA as the PTA fund Xmas activities for the school including panto, which they disagree with. The child doesn't do religious assemblies (obviously as that's worship). This is a non-dom school.

The child does not have any SEN.
During nativity rehearsals, which is 3-4 times a week he sits in a separate room, usually an SLT office, with an iPad

At our school it's often parents who cba filling out & returning the form. My friend used to just forget because it wasn't her priority. My DS almost missed an excursion because the office mislaid his form. I only knew because the teacher emailed me. Of course, office claimed I never provided it, but I clearly remember handing it over.

Very occasionally my DC haven't done something because they really don't want to. I don't force if it's not important / exercise.

There's many reasons.