To email school AGAIN re religious assemblies

[pineapplepenthouse]

I have twins in year 4 both in different classes. I have expressed my feelings about not letting them be involved in religious assemblies or having anything to do with religion. My children are in different classes. Today for the third time my DDs has come home saying he has been included in the religious assembly.
I have strong feelings on this but other mums just say 'it's not a big deal' and 'it didn't do us any harm'.

AIBU?

Being in the same room as someone spouting religious beliefs isn't forcing stuff down anyone's throats
Unless you are a 'teacher' in a position of power over vulnerable children in compulsory education, instructing them on facts, truths and knowledge.

But good to know its a choice

If a few assemblies and Christmas/ Easter activities were the best form of brainwashing and indoctrination then churches would be full.

It’s not a few, it’s all the bloody time. DDs school has something religious every other week whether it is an assembly or Mr whoever coming in to talk about “morality” or trips to the church, lunchtime religious groups masked as “lunch time crafts”. It is constant.

Irritating they have unfettered access to schools, but any other group would not be allowed to do that.

I wish more people would withdraw their kids, then the schools might get the message. But if you try, you get the snotty attitudes displayed here, talking about “excluding” which is bollocks.

We have a legal right not to have our children take part in these activities and it’s nobody’s place to judge parents who choose to do that.

The school should respect your wishes. The bigger issue here is that one teacher feels she has the right to override the wishes of the parent. I would be having strong words with the head teacher about this.

If they have Christian assembly's once a month and a man singing Jesus songs and the same curriculum/assembly time is not given to other major faiths - then it is a faith school and op won't admit it.
This does not happen in a non-denominational school, if it is happening, which I don't believe then contact Ofsted and it will be stopped.

Schools are difficult places to run if parents get to choose which parts of the curriculum or activities kids do or don't do.
Then they shouldn’t be pushing religion in a non denominational school.

And parents have the right to do this. Schools can just suck it up. We aren’t there to make life easy for them by having all our children squeeze into the one size fits all mindset some schools have. DD misses various parts of the curriculum for various reasons. Thankfully her school doesn’t think it's up to them to choose.

Yabu. You sound very awkward OP. Why not home school, then you can ensure your dc only learn what you like and it'll save you hassling school.

Liketoshop If you're a complete non believer of any religion ie Heathan,

A non believer of any religion is an Atheist, Heathen is a term for anyone who doesn't belong to the Abrahamic God religions i.e. not Jewish, Christian or Islamic, and usually used to refer to polytheistic believers.

Apart from the fact that not all weddings or funerals are religious, there's nothing to prevent someone who doesn't believe in that specific religion to either attend the whole service but not take part in the prayers, hymn singing and sermons, or to step out for those bits.

then it is a faith school and op won't admit it.

Standard practic in all Scottish Schools.

She could report to Ofstead but they aren’t in Scottish Schools either.

Some families may not want their kids to learn about farming because they are vegetarian, some parents may not want their kids to learn about the Holocaust

But those things are all facts, not fairy stories. It's 2019. There's no excuse for people being indoctrinated into this garbage.

I would class myself as an agnostic/atheist and I am still effected by the brain washing of Sunday School and Assemblies, a part of me still believes in God even though I on a realistic level KNOW that it's bullshit.

What's a DDS? And is it p4?
They should be listening to what you're saying, even if they just take him out for the religious bit.

An easy solution to this would be for the school to have a religious club assembly at break time and the 'religious' children can choose to go and do their worshipping if they want.
That way no child has to opt out and no child is forced to be involved.

An even better solution is for children to attend a Sunday school at their local church / religion of choice. And we would stop forcing religion on state educated children.

In non denominational schools we don't have RE lessons on the primary curriculum so that's bollocks as well.

@TigerTooth

Do you have any knowledge of the Scottish curriculum?

RE is on the curriculum in Scotland regardless of what school you go to. I went to a non faith school, I studies RE too.

I don't blame the teacher for disagreeing with you. I'm not religious, but I'll let my daughter learn first and then decide (as most of us do) whether she wants religion to be part of her life.

Who benefits from you making your kids not take part?

Then they shouldn’t be pushing religion in a non denominational school
What is a non denominational school? we dont have them in England. They sound like a faith school.

It’s her motherfucking legal right

END OF

How is that so hard to understand
The law has stated that a parent doesn’t have to send their child to a religious sermon at school

So all of this waffle is irrelevant.

Fucking morons.

I had a similar experience at my youngest sons non- denomonational primary school when a new head teacher took over. She had very strong views about children all joining in a Christian prayer in assembly. After meeting with her and realising she was a staunch Catholic who wasn't going to respect my family belief that no child should be forced to receive R.E in only one belief system and again my son came home saying he was forced to pray, I hand delivered AND e-mailed a letter outlining my intention of voicing my concern to the school governers, the local council, Ofsted and my local mp. I chose that school because of its non-denomination status and didn't like the fact that a new member of staff could have that much power to enforce her belief system over 220 children. The conclusion was that I was asked to come back for another meeting with the head teacher, who informed me that she would allow my child not to attend prayer time. Other parents started to complain and prayers stopped soon after. Victory!

To be pragmatic. Singling them out can be a problem in itself - kids like to fit in. I had this problem - the only JMI school in the village was CofE. I solved this by talking to him about what he'd been forced to listen to. Fairy stories, no basis in truth, stuff & nonsense. Head Teacher was annoyed, but my voice prevailed.

I am a teacher (secondary school) it is not unusual for parents to request students do not attend religious assemblies not that we have many the school should not ignore your wishes even if they do not agree, I can see why they have an issue tbh.

We have no idea if the teacher disagrees. The teacher might be disorganised or lackadaisical or might not know due to poor communication.

But actually that matters not a joy as op has made a request as per her legal right.

Haven’t read whole thread so apologies if doubles up, but have you asked if you can sit in on an assembly? I work in schools and most assemblies now are to talk about trips; give our award certificates; and a generalised theme ( eg eco friendly/ children around the world/ “ values” of the week/ month/ term - eg kindness/ anti- bullying etc). A prayer, IF included, has never been compulsory in any school I have been in in recent years ( usually “ if you would like to... ) . Totally respect your wish not to have religion forced down your DC’s throats , but you might find they are missing out on a fun, communal and sociable part of the school day.

I don't blame the teacher for disagreeing with you. I'm not religious, but I'll let my daughter learn first and then decide (as most of us do) whether she wants religion to be part of her life

No. It should be the other way round. Children shouldn't be indoctrinated into fairy stories when their brains aren't fully developed.

Relax . They are not harming the children in any way. Sometimes in life you have to let it be. This is one of them.

I went to a non denominational school in the north of England and we went to church, sang in the church choirs, took part in Christian events and had a Christian assembly everyday but children who’s parents didn’t want them to attend the assembly for whatever reason just told the school and instead they’d sit with the receptionists and at least one TA with thier reading books. We learnt about other religions in RE. Most of the people I went to school with are not Christians and would be more than annoyed to be thought of as such. I and a few others are still church goers and the kids who sat out either practice their own faith or have no religion. It’s all good. In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t affect anything but if your really now ok with your kids being part of it, then you have every right to complain and request a meeting with the head so they’re exempt from it.

So you expect them to have to get a teacher to watch them whilst Everyone else is at the religious assembly. You sent them to that school and do should accept their policies. It teaches them that sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to. It’s a fact of life. I think your being selfish and unreasonable. By the way I dislike religion.

CelticPrincess, well done your school for taking in the refugee children

RC schools are voluntary aided schools, and provide collective RC worship (Mass, various prayer services) according to the policy of the RC bishops.

www.catholiceducation.org.uk/schools/religious-education/item/1002967-about-religious-education-in-catholic-schools
RE is part of the state mandated curriculum.
How much of the RE curriculum is given to the teaching of other religions?

The RECD does not prescribe how much of the curriculum ought to be devoted to the teaching of other religions, however it is clearly an expectation that it should happen in every key stage. In practice, most Catholic schools would spend approximately one half term per year on the teaching of religions other than Catholic Christianity. The requirement in the revised GCSE that 25% of the study should cover a second religion is not incompatible with this practice. This is because in Catholic schools the 10% of curriculum time which is given to RE is more than is required to teach a GCSE which is designed to be taught in fewer hours than this. The expectation has always been that this additional time which Catholic RE departments have is to be given to the supplementing of the GCSE syllabus in such a way as to allow it to achieve the broader aims of [Catholic] Religious Education outlined above. As a rough estimate, 25% of the GCSE would amount to around 10-15% of the curriculum in KS4 in a Catholic school.

If a child is excluded from RE or collective Christian worship at the behest of the parents it is not up to the parents to find an activity for the child to do. It is up to the school to supervise these children and find an alternative activity for them.

In my DCs' RC school in the US, any students not taking part in religious services had a study hall period, all the sitting out students in the same room with one teacher supervising, and they could do homework or sustained silent reading. My DN in Dublin sat out confirmation prep and read instead.

Amen to all of your posts here, Dahlietta
She is not opposed to RE when it involves the academic study of religions and religious systems. She is opposed to participatory religious activities and activities that teach any sort of religion as objective truth, and wants to exercise her child's right and her right as a parent not to take part in those.