Arg! Primary school is a minefield. Another one...

[Rosieeo]

DD came home today and told me that her teacher makes them say grace before they eat. DD has no idea what it's all about; she thinks she's saying thank you to the person who gave her lunch, i.e. me!

The school has no religious affiliation although the prospectus alludes to 'collective daily worship'. I appreciate that schools are somewhat obliged to provide some kind of 'spiritual' stuff. I just expected it to be Harvest Festival or a few hymns in assembly.

Obviously I have no problem with religious education, as long as it is 'education' (some people believe this, others believe that) and not religion presented as fact.

I went to a CofE primary school and even they didn't make us say grace! AIBU to be vaguely annoyed/disturbed and to possibly have a quick word with the teacher?

Any thoughts? Sorry if this has been done to death by the way, DD is my eldest and this is unexplored territory.

fairphyllis

i think maybe the op doesn't want to have her dd removed from lunchtime altogether, as that would likely affect her socialisation

often now in many schools the content of songs and assemblies is non-religious or pan-religious, in order to be respectful to the many children of other faiths or those of no religion

as you pointed out, home-ed or private school is not possible for most people

defn of non-denom:

non·de·nom·i·na·tion·al (nnd-nm-nsh-nl)
adj.
Not restricted to or associated with a religious denomination.

If you read the Education Acts you would know that collective worship is laid down in law and which percentage has to be Christian.
People seem to assume that Head teachers get a choice! As a supply teacher I go to more assemblies than most over a broad range of schools and you are quite wrong theslumbertaker.
If you want to see the difficulties then read read thisit is advice for muslim parents as to what they should do about collective worship. I don't think that grace as such is a problem-it probably takes all of 5 seconds! Assembly is more of a problem-it takes about 20 mins every morning.

Non denominational means broadly Christian, but not associated with one particular branch of Christianity.

piscs - clarification of then minister for Education (1998) "no single act [of collective worship] need contain only Christian material", and that "secular assemblies may be held as well" [as well as broadly Christian acts of collective worship, acts broadly following other religions, or acts based around several religious traditions, on other days] ? so long as the majority is broadly Christian.

Technically, this means that only 51% of school days each term need have an act of worship of a broadly Christian character. And how you interpret "broadly christian" is presumably down to each head teacher.

Somewhere I have seen the percentage that has to be Christian-not sure where. A lot of assemblies are secular-e.g. class assemblies- but they generally start with a hymn and finish with a prayer. My link is interesting because it shows the steps the Head has to go through to change things-not easy.
Of course the Head will influence things, so that a very religious Head in a non faith schoolthey may still have grace etc. In OP's case the teacher obviously thinks grace is a good idea, but that is unusual which is why I think she should go in and have a word.

law doesn't give a percentage just says majority has to be "broadly christian"

This isn't where I originally saw it, but it is 51% Christian which is what I had come across somewhere else. see here
This doesn't mean that 49% is secular-it means that everything else has to fit into the 49%.

My link is one particular school but OFSTED will be looking for the spiritual welfare of the DCs.

Oh I agree that removing the kid from lunch isn't practical (and that's actually why I find it weird that grace is said at all, because children can't be removed if their parents object to their child even being present when it is said). But if the OP is uncomfortable with her child saying grace then she can either tell her DD that she doesn't have to do it or have a quiet word with the teacher and say she'd rather her child didn't participate. OP - you seemed to be worried that this would cause problems for your DD - I really don't think that will be the case. This must have come up before at the school.

My broader point was that it seems to be an inconsistent position and if the OP is uncomfortable with prayer, why isn't the child withdrawn from assembly?

Thanks for pointing out the syllable segmentation and pronunciation of 'non-denominational', slumbertaker. I guess I wouldn't have known that if someone hadn't lifted that from an internet dictionary for me. 'Non-denominational' is frequently used to mean broadly Christian but not of any particular denomination, and if you've genuinely never heard it used in that sense then I am quite surprised. Lots of Christian churches are non-denominational, but that doesn't make them secular or multi-faith, which I think is closer to what you are suggesting.