To think why moan about sending your child to a faith school?

[farmerswifey33]

We are lucky in that where we live schools are undersubscribed and you have a very good choice of 3 primary schools 2 of which are faith (CofE) and the other isn’t.
We have so many parents at the school who moan about the fact it’s too goddy 🙄 or that there is a nativity play as they don’t believe. Worst thing I think is how they tell their children this who then tell my children they are stupid for believing in god and Jesus!
I just wonder why they would send their children here because they DO have a choice! I don’t get it?

Religion, except taught as theory, has no place in schools at all - in your case perhaps the religious schools are better so why should non religious children miss out ??... they shouldn’t is the answer.
The church have wheedled their way into schools to indoctrinate the young - all kinds of wrong!!

There's a dad round at the school who is always loudly talking about the time he went to 'teach the head a thing or two about the crusades and what a bunch of terrorists they were/are'

but part of the problem is the lack of faith schools

so it might seem like parents are complaining pointlessly but if you wanted to send your DC to a non-religious school, you literally might not have had the option. And I don't see why that should happen to anyone. Schools can be secular and still teach religious studies.

I will be sending my children to Catholic schools, we are Catholic and I went to Catholic schools myself. I believe that religious education is an important part of my child's overall education.
I cannot understand why a non-religious person would choose a faith school if there are other options available. The problems comes where there are no other options available. Perhaps faith schools should be viewed as an entirely different entity, not as a school suitable for all children. I can see why an atheist wouldn't want their child learning about God.
If the parents had a choice though and chose the faith school because it has better Ofsted reports or whatever then I don't think they have a right to moan.

"Worst thing I think is how they tell their children this who then tell my children they are stupid for believing in god and Jesus!"

children will say stuff like that though, I mean, it's going to happen regardless of schools. Also you say about the schools being undersubscribed - all of them? So the non-faith school could cope with all the children whose parents want them to attend?

I'm curious to know about this place tbh!! (don't worry, I realise you won't reveal your location).

My DC's go to "normal" state school and they still teach them about God and Jesus to the extent that they have both gone through stages of believing it's true. Our family is not religious so this annoys me.

It also annoys me that schools focus so much of the Christian aspect of Christmas. Christmas was around long before Christianity came to this part of the world but this seems long forgotten.

im going to be sending my children to catholic secondary school even though we are not religious. Purely doing it because they have the best SEN provsion out of all the mainstreams in the area. Feel a bit crap that the other schools SEN provision is so shit that my children cant just go to the local comp with their mates, but am willing to put up with the religious aspect, and have told my children that they do not have to believe everything, but they DO have to respect other peoples beliefs.

what I mean, is that people might have good reasons for choosing that school that you might be unaware of.

I actually think ALL state schools should be secular

My DD started reception in a faith school, only school in our catchment in a rural area. They pushed the faith aspect so much all my DD did when she came home was talk about Jesus and God. I didn't complain about it, but I wasn't happy that all the learning in the school was based around faith, almost all the books in the reception reading corner were children's books about God.

I moved her to an inconvenient for us school, 5 miles away. She learned all about lots of religions at the second school and is very accepting of people's religious beliefs.

I think a lot of Faith schools these days are really pushing the religious aspect, maybe because church attendance is falling off and they are looking for more parishioners.

So maybe YABU because these days it seems Faith schools are doing too much religious teaching and not enough actual teaching, which is the point of going to school, to learn to read and write etc, not to learn about God.

My DD is now 12 and she only went the the faith school for 4 months and she still remembers that all they did at that school was talk about God.

No nativity plays at all? Christ, I've heard it all now.

Most people who complain about faith schools are those that think they shouldn't exist.

Yeah. Most of these schools are exceptional. Not all, but most are good, great pastoral care, and superb results. If you like that kind of thing, I guess.
If you don't. Apply for a different school. Move. You've got nearly 5 years, since birth, to try and move, to a place that has a primary school you like. Then another 7 years to move, to a good place, that has a secondary, that you like.
Yes, moving is hard for some. But not impossible. for most.
especially not in 12 years. Should be possible.

Why would you live in a place, if you didn't like the school? Surely you'd at least TRY to move, in the previous 4 years?

We choose to send our ds's to RC primary and secondary. Our choice.

They don't just talk about God at our school. There are tonnes of books, not about God. Enough about Kipper, Chip etc to last a lifetime!!!
Plus they talk about every other religion aswell, go and visit a mosque etc.
Maybe ours isn't as 'hardcore' as pp. Does have a loving ethos though.

The church have wheedled their way into schools to indoctrinate the young - all kinds of wrong!

What a thoroughly ignorant comment!
I hope you realise that hundreds of years ago churches set up charity schools, teaching poor children to read, write, and other necessary parts of education. They were maintained by religious organisations, which provided clothing and education to students freely or at little charge.

Churches still own the land that CofE and Catholic schools stand on so no, there is nothing that can be done to eradicate church schools.

We are catholic, DTs are at a catholic primary. They're doing the nutcracker this year. there is a carol service in the church on the last day of term.

My dc went to a CofE primary because it is our village school and is less than 2 minutes' walk from our front door. We are atheists (as are our dc). Pretty much all of the primaries in our area are CofE. I would prefer it if the school weren't a church school (so, I suspect, would the Headteacher), but I there was no way I was going to drive my dc for miles to a school where none of their village friends went.

My dc do think that believing in god is very silly, but they would not be so rude as to say that to someone who believed.

Faith schools are very popular in my very multi-cultural city, and the C of E primaries which prioritise faith apply that criterion to any faith not just C of E. I think it is important to teach your children to respect other people's beliefs, even if you don't share them.
Nativity plays were very popular with families at the primary where I taught; the only problem we ever had was when Mary(Hindu) sulked because she didn't fancy Joseph(Muslim). We replaced her with a Sikh girl.
We also put on a stupendous Diwali play.

Children should not be divided by the faith that their parents happen to be. Fucking ridiculous. Imagine dividing children by their parent's political leanings? Just bonkers.

Why would you live in a place, if you didn't like the school?

Seriously? You think people should base their whole life around one single aspect of their child's schooling?

How fucking privileged and unaware do you have to be to think anyone can just 'move'? And where are people supposed to move to that has a plethora of good non-religious schools?

There should be good non-religious schools available everywhere. Until there is, parents will and should complain.

I'm not a Christian but it's annoying that so many atheists forget their values as soon as it comes to schools.

What values? It's not as if they are going to be struck down by a bolt of lightning from God for sending their kids to a faith school.

Suggesting to children that those who believe in god are stupid or anything else is just ignorant.

My DS goes to a CoE school we had a choice of many in our area we deemed this one to be the best neither I or dh believe but happy for him to make his own decisions and be aware of people's differences. If we weren't happy with the RE element then we would have chosen elsewhere but parents have made decision for their children to attend there and so need to accept the teachings that will come from a CoE school.

My dd and SiL are not at all religious, but will be sending their dcs - if they can - to a C of E primary which is not only the closest but also a very good and happy school.

The majority of children will 'unbelieve' soon enough anyway once they get older, unless the parents are religious, and often enough even when they are. Dh and I both gre up in an era when there was quite a lot of C of E at school, hymns and prayers every morning, plus Sunday School when little, and his parents did go to church, but it didn't turn us into remotely religious people once we were old enough to decide for ourselves.

But quite apart from all that, I don't think a bit of mild religion is a bad thing - so much of our own and European history is bound up with religion - it's all part of general knowledge, which they can be aware of without believing in it once they're older. (Not that general knowledge is very 'general' nowadays, if it ever was.)

FWIW my dds both went to an independent Catholic primary for a while - one for just one year, and one for 4. It was not from choice, but because we had just returned from a long period abroad and it was the only school that had places for them.
Despite a great deal of God there (more than one teacher was a nun) and having to write AMDG (to the greater glory of God) on every page of their exercise books, neither of them was 'turned religious' by it. It was incidentally a very good and happy school, and a number of children of non Christian faiths, including Muslims, went there. Since it was an independent, they were not allowed to be excused from any of the lessons on religion, but I never heard anyone complain. The vast maj. of parents were more concerned with the general quality of teaching. which was excellent.

If I told you I had founded my own religion called Banananity which was based on the premise that there was an all mighty banana in the sky that created man from banana peel and that I believed that if I found the eating of such sacred fruits abhorrent would you respect my beliefs?

Whilst I would never be happy to hear my children call someone stupid for any reason I would actually be proud if they realised that believing in a god/gods is ignorant of science and nonsensical.

YANBU!

It's really irritating how hypocritical or plain stupid some people can be. Have a very firm opinion about religion, and express it loudly in a secular school by all means.
In a faith school... you cannot argue with stupid, you really can't.

Some of our local faith schools have superb results, so some parents lie and push to have their kids benefit from them, then complain once they are in! Idiots. It's the fashion of the permanently offended. When the schools are so over suscribed, no child ends up there by accident. The pupils are there because the parents applied specifically.

Commuter - just because they own the land it shouldn’t be allowed that they can preach to school children about a god without any empirical evidence. The church does lots of work across the world to help those less fortunate Which is great, they have plenty of money to do this, but it still shouldn’t give them the right to preach to our young children

If I told you I had founded my own religion called Banananity which was based on the premise that there was an all mighty banana in the sky that created man from banana peel and that I believed that if I found the eating of such sacred fruits abhorrent would you respect my beliefs?

I have heard worst, I would respect your beliefs and would absolutely not send my kids to your Bananity school to be taught bananism because I don't agree with it.

YABU, it's a ridiculous system that we have so many faith schools in the first place.

Non religious parents shouldn't be in a position where they have to restrict their options significantly, accept below par schools for their children, or move half way across the country.

They can moan all they want. They're right.