To think a full day trip to a mosque for 6 year old school trip is a bit much?

[Jint]

I'm all for comparative religious education, learning what other religions believe and what they're about, but my daughter is in year 2 and, with her (non denominational) school, has probably been in the Anglican church for maybe 2 hours (1 hour each year for a carol service), never been to a Synagogue or any other place of worship, but is spending a whole day in a mosque. School trip that we have to pay for, and the girls are 'welcome' to wear headscarves, but not compulsory. This is not in any way an issue with the religion, but not sure why it's such a big investment in one religion. There are 3 muslim pupils in the 60 in her year.

bluegreen themeparks are fun, most children enjoy them. Obviously that wouldn't be an educational trip though, so it would be different.
How do you know the people at the local mosque are 'lovely', by the way? Have you met them?

It's depressing to me that some posters claim their children are so easily bored when offered new experiences.

One of mine went to Tropical World three times at primary! Bit uninspired, but hey ho. Wasn't livid they never went to Temperate World.

a full day would be more than the average teacher could cope with

Mushy did your children genuinely not go on whole-day school trips in KS1? We've done whole day trips with nursery children, KS1 whole day trips involving public transport to get to and from the venue. It's exhausting, yes, but we do it because the children get so much from it. If an average teacher can't cope with a trip then I'd say something's gone wrong.

I've never been in a mosque and I'd love to spend the day in one. As would my dcs.
Can't understand why considered to be offensive OR boring. And why shouldn't a headscarf be worn or shoes removed- how's that different to having to cover your shoulders in Italian churches etc?

Wow, I don't usually post on Mumsnet and reckon I won't again!
I am not!! racist. She is going to the mosque, I didn't for a moment consider refusing. I don't have an objection, I'm not irate, I'm not 'unconsciously prejudiced', I was just interested in whether it was normal or not. She's only ever done 2 full day school trips, one in reception and one in year 1, to a farm and a national trust property. This is quite different and not something I've heard any friends doing.
Bluegreen, I have never taken her to cathedrals, and for the record, I don't object to cathedrals, but would also question if she was taken on a full day trip to to one.

Half day trips are, tbh, unless you are going to somewhere EXTREMELY local, a total waste of time. Lne up for coach, get on coach, go on coach, go to toilet, spend about 45 minutes somewhere, go to loo again, get on coach, come back. It isn't half a day, it's an hour tops. Whereas a full day - probably in reality only 3 hours of learning time - is genuinely worthwhile. I can't think that I have ever taken a class on a half day trip, except, as I say, to a very local event.

Jint, from my experience, i would say that at least 1 full day trip to a place of worsghip from some religion other than Christianity is normal in primary (unless such places of worship are so liocal that they can be walked to, in which case half day visits would be normal), yes. The choice of religion, and whether over the course of their primary years the child goes to 1 or 4 such places of worship is more variable

My 4 have done all the religious visits on the dim and distant past.

They found them all interesting but were slightly pissed off they couldn't get sensible answers about women's place in their teachings. And that goes for all of them. No dd of mine wears a headscarf.

It's a day out they will be fine.

YANBU. Bluegreen totally nailed it earlier.

Anything that promotes tolerance and lessens Islamophobia in next generation is an amazing idea.

'No dd of mine wears a headscarf.'

I just don't get that. Why not? How is it different from taking your shoes off in a house where that is the norm?

jint I suppose it's just strange then that you focused on the headscarf wearing and ONE religion aspect in your OP then, as opposed to the 'whole day' aspect, if you were only wanting to discover whether YWBU to worry about whole day trips.
In the current climate.

I.e maybe they won't go on about headscarfs being fount of all evil.

fatlazy I'm sorry you didn't enjoy going to cathedrals as a child. The issue wasn't with the cathedral but with the abilities and enthusiasm of whoever took you. We've been taking our children to museums, art galleries, castles and cathedrals since they were babies. They've never been bored. You get out what you put in.

I once took my kids to see the Scottish Crown Jewels in Edinburgh Castle. There was a nursery trip being dragged round by caters who told them nothing about what they were seeing and they all looked miserable.

My kids by contrast had a fantastic time because we spent time explaining what they were seeing and telling them stories and making an effort to fire their imagination. It's not that hard and I'm not a teacher.

OP why don't you send a nice email into the school saying that you are fascinated at the choice of trip and would be very much interested to hear further what the plans for the day are?

Or even headscarves

Thank you teacherwith2kids, that's more like what I wanted to hear.

Jint I think that you asked a perfectly reasonable question in your original post and to be honest I am shocked by some of the rather abusive replies you have received.

Spring,

Her DD has already done 2 full day trips in previous years ...... so i do think it might not be about the exhaustingness of day trips....

Spring there is no way that I want my dd thinking she is subservient or that women having to cover anything is ok,it isn't whatever god of modesty it's in the name of.Taking shoes off like men I'd have no problem with.

I would absolutely refuse to let my dd be segregated or put behind a barrier in a mosque either.

I went to a faith school that was once featured on a BBC documentary for being racist and even objected to the Church of England for being too "politically correct" in trying to change its admissions policy.
The school chose to opt out of the standard RE syllabus, to teach a syllabus ONLY about Christianity (we did once spend one hour class on all the other religions combined).
I left school with a top A grade in GCSE RE but not knowing the fundamentals of Islam or any other religions. When I started Uni there were a large number of Muslim students and thankfully one of them taught me the basics and recommended some books.
In a multicultural society we should all know the basics of all the major religions and cultures so we have a better understanding of people from different backgrounds.
I would love it if my son spent a day at a Mosque and I really do not see what you have a problem with. Islam is not some infectious disease, and I doubt he will come back converted after a day trip.

Is a whole day different to a whole day at school then?

I'm assuming they will be travelling there and back by coach (they don't hurl them in the coach like would London commuters) so that will take time and they will have lunch.

I think it is a great experience I would of much preferred it than having to sit down in some R.E lesson which used to send me into daydream land also I would probably unlikely to get around to taking my child myself along with other places.

If you don't want your child to go am sure the teachers can arrange for them to sit in another class or year with some work.

Raf did you not bother to read the op in your rush to screech "racist"?

Op has no issue re learning about other religions but simply with the over concentration on one.

I don't think either if mine would have managed to keep the excitement up for a full day in a UK mosque either at six years old.

At least with a cathedral here in the UK- or an equivalent ancient mosque in the ME- there's some history to be learnt about or some interesting old architecture to look at.

Springheeled, I absolutely did not 'focus' on the headscarf in my original post. My question, i.e the first sentence, was about the whole day on one religion. I mentioned the headscarf because I thought it was a very odd and ambiguous thing to say. I would find it strange for me to have to explain to her why she should wear a headscarf but I don't want her to feel out of place if she's the only one who doesn't.