to not want my kid to go to a mosque ...again!

[moaningminnie2]

We live in North Yorkshire and every year the village Cof E school run a whole-school trip to Bradford.First they went to a mosque, then the following year a Gurdwara and then a Hindu temple, and now this year back to a mosque again.They do that in the morning, then have lunch and a run around in a park, and then in the afternoon a quick visit to 'Bombay Stores' and then back home for school pick up. DD and her friends don't want to go ( they went in Y2) and I resent having to pay £13 for each of my 2 kids at the school.Whaty is the point of going to the same place again, and do the school get 'Brownie Points' for doing this sort of RE trip.

Well if you can't afford it then talk to the school. It's only a 'voluntary' contribution so pay what you can if it's the cost which is the problem

I would object to £13 for a school trip to the same place (unless the focus was going to be in something different). I wouldn't object to a trip to a mosque...even if it is twice in three years.
Sounds like they have a robust RE programme at the school...nowt wrong with that,

Aslam Alaikam

This is all getting a bit; " Some of my best friends are black" isn't it?

Khuda Haviz

I am actually amazed that this didn't turn into a huge bunfight.

I'm not sure why people think 13 for a coach is a lot? It isn't 'popping across town'. It's a trip from a small town somwehere in North Yorkshire, into Bradford.

For God's sake, Ofsted don't give our brownie points for visiting a mosque! Or a church, or a synagogue or a bloody stone circle. You really think a school will be judged outstanding on the basis of whether it visits a mosque twice in a child's lifetime? This school isn't trying to 'score' points, it's trying to educate its children about the world around them.

£13 is a lot for a coach, but coaches do cost a lot. North Yorkshire to West Yorkshire isn't a trip across town - it could be up to an hour's journey there and back depending on where the OP lives. And anyway, as Laurie says this isn't about the cost (or the bloody brownie points).

Believe it or not, schools do get extra "brownie points", well, less of a criticism anyway if they do stuff like this, especially if they are a rural, predominantly white British school. www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Pupils-white-Devon-school-visit-London-cultures/story-21212051-detail/story.html

Coaches are expensive, but the school can only ask you for a voluntary contribution, so you don't have to pay. Or you can pay less. If enough parents don't contribute you might even get the trip cancelled between you. Then the children lose out.
Educational trips are tied into work back in class, so the focus of that work will be different now that the children are older. You could even ask the teacher how the trip will be tied into the curriculum, if you're interested.

Not being able to afford to pay for school trips is something completely separate.

You don't get to decide that it's an unnecessary repeat trip as it's already been explained that the children will get a greater understanding 3 years later.

Unless you're completely sure as an educator and that you were their teacher 3 years ago and you covered everything about Islam that they currently need to know?

And crucially that they remember everything you taught them 3 years ago?

If you'd posted a thread saying you couldn't afford one school trip
a year at £13 that was part of the curriculum we'd all have told you to tell the school and they would likely have helped fund it.

But you didn't.

You've decided that either you don't want your children to learn about Islam or that you think you're children are such geniuses that they remember all about Islam from 3 years ago

If you're now trying to claim it's just about one £13 trip a year, I for one don't believe you.

Sounds like a lovely school trip to me.

OP - I agree with all the other posters who are picking you up on your bigoted views.

Why is it even relevant where they are going? You say you don't want anyone identifying you, but by listing the school trips every year you're doing a pretty good job of that yourself.

Why didn't you just say your child is going on the same school trip in Yr 4 that they went on in Yr 1?

Maybe because you thought the rest of us might also start frothing about the ide of going to a mosque twice.

Luckily most people on here don't seem to share your small minded views.

Of course they will be learning something different. What they learn in year 1 is very different to what they learn in year 4!

This is laughable. What part of 'national curriculum' are people not getting?

Why is it on these threads it's only ever mosque's people object to? Never the synagogue and certainly not the churches/cathedrals! Just the mosques and always dressed up as 'too much', 'too often', etc.

£13 is very cheap for a school trip for the day - and yes, it will cover the cost of the coach and insurance.

Threads like this always bring out the closet racists who are secretly terrified of all them Muslamists and how, if we take our kids on educational trips to mosques, they'll all get brainwashed into becoming terrorists.

Ridiculous.

A school being criticised for not being "multicultural" is hardly the same as schools getting "brownie points from Ofsted" for putting on trips to see other cultures and religions. If anyone's interested enough to bother it's easy to see what is required under the National Curriculum. That is what Ofsted are interested in, among other things.
I must admit I sometimes sigh a little when I read parents directing such ire against Ofsted. It may not be a perfect system but the bottom line is that they are inspecting schools to try to make sure that the children - our children - are getting the best deal they can.

My dc went to a school that really did think it would "earn Brownie points" if it played down all things British or Christian and put a greater emphasis on all things non British and Christian.
New school totally different yet has more cultural diversity within it's pupils.
However all major Christian festivals are observed and trips tend to be a short distance away.
All children wear Asian clothes for Divali, and all pupils attend the local church at Easter, Harvest Festival and Christmas; often accompanied by parents of all faiths.

You sound like one of my managers. "I don't need to go to diversity training. I've done it once"

And name changing because you knew how unpleasant this sounds, whatever reason you give. You just don't want it associated with your normal user name.

YABU, 3 years is a long time at that age.

Personally I think 13 quid is too much, last school trip it was 3 quid to a museum about ninety minutes away.

That school won't have received the overall judgement it did purely based on that observation. Ofsted suggested they 'improve links with contrasting communities' - they didn't say that if they didn't do this they would be put into special measures, for example.

A 'contrasting community' could mean one in an urban area, or a mining community or a midlands town that's landlocked - this school chose to widen its children's awareness of multicultural communities, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

If this was an 'area for development' it's not about gaining 'points', its about suggested ways the school could widen its opportunities. Another area for development could be to improve children's understanding of their environment by getting them to build a school garden, for example.

Thanks for the link though, was wondering what it was all about further up the thread.

Op, I don't know if you're registered as eligible for Pupil Premium funding (Free School Meals) but if you are and money is tight then you could speak to the school. Some are using PP funding to assist with the cost of trips.

Well, maybe some people are not so keen on Mosques due to the horrible crimes being done in the name of Islam at the moment?

If that's the case (which is actually racism) then we should really keep our kids out anywhere that's Christian, given all the wars, etc carried out in the name of Christianity in the past.

But hey ho, don't let history get in the way of your rampant DM frothing will you?

And let's not visit Catholic churches because of all the child abuse eh?

Thank you motherinferior! I love that link.

If it was about £13 per trip you wouldn't have mentioned, duh, duh, duh. THE MOSQUE.....

I am not frothing.

I am not even saying that is what I think.

I am not even being racist.