School and religion

[ThisLittleKitty]

Is it normal for a school (not a faith school) to teach children about Jesus? My son came home today telling me he had been told about "baby Jesus" and how he was "born on Christmas Day" I'm a little surprised by this as didn't realise the school would be saying this kind of thing. It's a very diverse school in south east london so many religions and we are not a religious family. Aibu to think this is not right?

So let me get this straight, you have a problem with your son learning about the meaning of Christmas... in the run up to Christmas? Okay then... As a Catholic, I spent fourteen years in faith schools but I do believe that as the state religion is Church of England, even non faith schools are required to teach Religious Education which will include learning about Christianity as well other religions. If you really have a problem you probably have the option for him to 'opt out' of acts of worship but he will still be required to participate in Religious Education classes as part of the curriculum

I am a year 1 teacher and an atheist. I have been teaching my class about the Nativity story this week. I told them that it is a story that Christians believe/ tell. Throughout the year I also teach my class about Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam and Buddhism. I spend roughly the same amount of time on each religion. Although I am an atheist myself I think that it's important for children to learn about different religions.

So I hoped you told him there is no Santa too and that he won't be getting any presents either!

So you have a problem with school talking about christian beliefs at christmas?

And you were also in a mood over your DC's coat or bag?

And you are fed up with school contacting you about your child's behaviour?

And yoy won't be receptive to school at all even if it means getting your child help because you won't even consider engaging?

Oh and you and your sister claim the school picks on your child and is picking on you.

Sounds like you have a whole load of issues with school abd are the professional victim.

I'd just say that is what Christians believe. Just be matter of fact about it.

I wouldn't have a problem with it. First off it's the story of Christmas. It's not about the presents. There is significance to the story rvrb if only symbolic. And secondly if they have no exposure whatsoever to any sort of religion (hence RE I assume?) how can they make any sort of informed decision about religion in the future (rejecting/accepting/following)?

So you don't like your kids being told stuff that is not true
Told them about Santa have you by any chance

Oh gosh, yes. How did the behaviour chat go?

Christianity is the official religion of this country tied to its culture, history and laws. It is nearly Christmas. Just give it a break. I’d be pissed off if my DS wasn’t taught this!

Our school has a minister who goes in to class every few weeks and tells Christian fairy tales to the children. It irritates me because no other organisation has such unfettered access to schools, but that’s how it is. I know I have the right to withdraw her from it if I wanted to, but she enjoys the activities and the stories so that’s fair enough. We’ve had the conversation about how some people believe it and some don’t and leave it up to her to decide.

FFS.

It is WRONG to teach religious supposition as FACT. Why do so many MNers refuse to accept that?

The OP is not saying she's worried that he's heard about Jesus just that it's being taught as fact. And she's right to be pissed off.

Although I think it's important for all religions to be taught in school, what I'm opposed to is when they are taught as fact, as it was when I was at school. That is just not on. It is a belief. Very important to many, but a belief nonetheless, and the language used by teachers should reflect that. Are children also being taught about pagan festivals at school (I honestly don't know)?

My DD came home talking about this the other day and I was also pretty surprised. She's 4 and in reception in a non-faith school. She talked about the baby Jesus, which I expected because they're doing a Nativity thing, but then said Jesus died and came back to life. She mentioned the Bible and the Koran.

I'm going to ask the teacher what she's being taught. But basically I've told DD that some people go to church and read the Bible, some people go to mosques and read the Koran, and that they're both books of stories that some people believe.

Kids work out what is true or not by themselves anyway.

Fwiw, archeologists think that Jesus was born sometime in spring. The reason we have Christmas in December is because the Roman festival of Saturnalia and the Viking festival of Yule was celebrated at this time and the newer religion adopted the timing.

So sweat the small stuff OP.

*Don't sweat the small stuff

Given your attitude I am
assuming that you will be treating 25th December as just an ordinary day? If not are you somewhat hypocritical? Do you celebrate or ignore all othet religions festivals?

RS and PE are the only two compulsory subjects. The rest is measured by Ofsted and schools have to show a broad and balanced curriculum, but legally it’s just RS and PE. Not many people know that.

And why would you object to your son saying that Jesus was born on Christmas Day??

The stuff about Christianity taught in schools are all nice things like being kind to each, be a good person, family, community, our social norms, culture etc.. I'm an atheist but I can't see why anyone would have a problem with it. It's part of growing up in the UK.
Rolling my eyes at the Isaac Newton story. Only on mumsnet would you hear such pedantic rubbish.

It’s what comes of having a state religion.

There is a state religion? What is it?

As an atheist, I am forced to take 25th December off, because in my job, London is closed and the tubes, which employ me, is also closed.

thefairyfellersmasterstroke

Christainity. The head of the Church of England is the Queen.

But yy I don’t think we can safely assume that a 5 year old is always giving an accurate recall of what they have learnt at school.

TabbyMack
Can only speak for myself but I'm all too familar with how what story gets told later is different to what happened.

And my levels are alrrady raised given how pissed off she gets at seemingly everything yhe school does on multipme threads (including that the school is targeting her and picking on her child).
Consequently, my view is spend less time getting annoyed by whatever new irritation you've found that is a no issue.

I'd also rather Christianity wasn't taught as fact. But fwiw it's been fairly easy to counter at home so far (DD is 7). If your child is at a multi cultural school in some ways it's easier, as she knows some of her friends believe in Islam, some Christianity, some Judaism and some don't believe in a god like us.

We usually get a curriculum report at the beginning of the year which also details what they are going to learn in RE, so it might be worth asking for some info if you haven't had similar.

As a rule most teachers preceed religious teachings with “Christians believe” “Muslims believe” etc. However many children will take this as fact because we are adults and teachers and know everything. When discussing Greek Gods with yr 5s a couple of yes ago it turned out that, despite hardly any of them being practising Christians, most of them believed that all the gods they knew of, Islamic, Christian, Judaic, Ancient Greek, Egyptian or Roman were real things!