To speak to the school?

[Orchwoid]

I've just been to collect my son from his school and he's told me that he won't be cast in his school Christmas play but all the other children will.

I am fumming. I am going to go and speak to his teacher first thing tomorrow morning but I am so angry that I can't work out whether I'm being reasonable or not.

Sooty, there was a thread the other day about a woman not wanting her DD to sing religious choral music in her sixth form choir. The replies were something along the lines of 'pretty much the entirety of the choral tradition is religious, and the vast majority of atheists are entirely happy singing it'. You can't expect that just because I don't believe in God, I therefore entirely divorce myself from 2000 years of the cultural traditions of this country!

A C of E school is not a standard state school though.

Not of course that the UK has been Christian that long, but you get the gist.

Well enjoying a good tune and watching your kids being cute has nothing to do with centuries of cultural tradition.

Sooty if a C of E school is not a standard state school, what do you call it then? It's our catchment school - the only one - and most years, such is the demand for places, there is no option whatsoever to get a place at a different school anywhere in the city, even if you were willing to travel 3 miles to school. If local people want their children educated in the state system, then a C of E school is it.

A C of E school is a church school.

I should think most parents enjoy the nativity because it's full of good tunes and has lots of cute kids in, whether they are Christian or not. And what do you mean, enjoying a good tune has nothing to do with centuries of cultural tradition? I have sung choral music at a high level for 20 years because I enjoy a good tune - ok, I can put it in more high-level terms than that - like that there's nothing on earth like the experience of singing the Mozart requiem in an amazing 200-strong choir, and that it is transcendental in a way that has nothing to do with whether or not I believe in Jesus, the holy Trinity or all of the other trappings of the established church. But a good tune is where it all starts!

Soup - er, yes! So what? if it's also your only option for a state education, then it's a standard state school. Leaving aside the fact that a daily act of religious worship is a compulsory part of the curriculum for all state schools...

It's a church school where the Diocese influences the policies and procedures and you would expect religion to be factored in.

A state school which is not a church school is very different. I taught for years in both.

have just googled fumming! Im so upset I was going to try an include fumming in conversation today but I have now decided against it. Who knew there was a word for that!

Souredstones
"Tue 17-Sep-13 18:05:10 - Can you swap him for a westlife cd?"

Literally PMSL!!

The daily act of worship in standard state
schools often has a very tenuous link with religion.

Don't you think the fumming thing has gone on long enough?

Soup - er, yes! So what? if it's also your only option for a state education, then it's a standard state school.

Except it isn't a standard state school. It may be your local school and the only option but it is not a standard state school. It is a church school and tied into the church.

I know that they are different, Sooty, but the question is, so what? if I don't have the choice of which one to go to it's not terribly relevant is it?! Many people's experience of state education in this country involve a compulsory religious environment, surely that's the relevant point, not nit-picking over whether it is 'standard' or not.

DDs primary is a standard state school with no religious affiliation at all beyond the requirement of a "broadly Christian" act of worship. We would not have got into our local C of E school because we don't go to church.

Tidydancer and Gluezilla beware! I can see this hitting FIVE threads!!

Not sure why you're saying "so what?" when you asked Sooty if a C of E school is not a standard state school, what do you call it then?

And before anybody says 'oh but you can withdraw from religious worship' - actually I think it's a hobson's choice. Withdraw from religious worship, and have your child excluded from a major part of the life of the school, including things like a nativity play that all the children will be excited about for months at a time. Hurray, that's precisely the kind of choice I think parents should have to make if they are entitled enough to want a state education for their children! Oh, wait.

Ok, soup - well, I was trying to point out that it's a 'standard' state school in the sense that it is the local school that you can either go to, or home school. I wasn't trying to imply there were no non-religious schools, or get into a nit-picking discussion about what 'standard' means.

I keep thinking that I must leave MN, it is such a time waster, and then a funny thread like this one comes along and reminds me why it so addictive!
I wonder if Orchwoid understands the point being made-it doesn't seem so or she would be using the appointment to tell the headteacher that she had changed her mind. I would love to be a fly on the wall when she says my boy is not getting all this shit.I do hope that OP reports back.

"DDs primary is a standard state school with no religious affiliation at all beyond the requirement of a "broadly Christian" act of worship. We would not have got into our local C of E school because we don't go to church."

• I'm delighted there was that choice available to you. In our city, in our catchment, in most years, there isn't.

There is not much fervent religious stuff going on in ordinary state schools.

And I still believe that if you withdraw your child from worship on religious grounds it's hypocritical to expect to coo while you watch him warble Away in a Manger while being third shepherd with a teatowel on his head.

This thread just keeps on giving.

As an atheist I would not expect to pick and choose aspects of a religion. You either go with all of it in a respectful manner (whether you believe or not) or you go with none.