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?

MY DD's friends are jealous that she gets to sit out!
Yes mine too. She is an oddball though, but that's unrelated to religious assemblies, probably hereditary

Just think though please! What happens when it comes to Christmas and the like? They will feel left out. They aren't going to be indoctrinated with it. Your setting yourself up for more hassle which won't benefit either you or your children, Ofcourse it is your decision and choice. There are alot of ways this could backfire on you is why I am posting

Find out the schools schedule for these assemblies and bring them to school later

@Jody31,that would be illegal as parents have a duty to ensure their children receive full time education. And how would it work if the assembly is in the middle of the school day?

It’s not about children’s rights, is about what can be offered.

It's about parents' rights and the requirements of the law. "What can be offered" doesn't come into it.

1:1 staffing for pupils isn’t affordable and isn’t practical.

Why is 1:1 staffing needed? It's just someone to supervise a few children during assembly, and can be and often is done by sitting them in reception. If not, it's hardly going to be difficult to arrange for one teacher or TA to miss assembly, they'd probably be absolutely delighted.

I strongly believe that if you feel that way, it is your responsibility to ensure your wishes are met

You can strongly believe this all you want, the fact remains that the law is not on your side,

SaturdayNext
WTAF again, the op clearly states in her post she doesn’t want them to have anything to do with religion. How are you interpreting that differently?

OP you asked if you are being unreasonable. Yes is the answer

But attending the Christmas party is hardly the same as attending a religious assembly where they're being told about facts?

How many of you honestly celebrate Christmas because you are religious?

Even my Hindu friend celebrates Christmas because she's lived here so long now and it's part of our culture.

They are included in all parts of the Christmas celebrations apart from the church service on the last day.

I meant being told religion as fact.

Just pointing out that during assembly time since the recent staffing and finance cuts I am running the intervention that the TA used to do, before she went.
I'm quite happy to have extras though. I just think it needs saying that teachers not in assembly are not having a nice cup of tea.

What a delightful thread. I do enjoy being called a psychopath.

OP, you have made a request to the teacher, and it should be granted.
As a teacher, I can validate that kids do drop off in assembly so no chance of indoctrination. But the point of the thread is a teacher not doing as the parent has asked. Simple request. We wouldn't let a child join in with P.E with an injury because we judged them to be ok when a parent has asked not to.
Remind the teacher and suggest your children can sit outside the hall and read or something

So in Scotland a parent has the choice of a Catholic school or a Protestant (non denominational) school. That is so backward.

It would be much better to have at least half the schools non faith, so the parent has a choice to escape this religious indoctrination.

But that's christian privilege for you

4yr olds probably want to go along with their friends. Hardly going to be about hell and damnation at that age is it

You'd be surprised.

sima74, what OP has said more than once is that she is happy for her children to attend RE lessons. It really isn't difficult to go through the OP's posts, either by hitting control and F and putting her name in, or setting your choices so that the OP's posts are shown in a different colour.

How exactly is the OP being unreasonable in expecting the school to obey the law?

Exactly walking there is no choice of a non religious school. There have been a few campaigns and apparently there is 60% suppprt for the establishment of community schools:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.scotsman.com/news/community-schools-with-no-religious-observance-backed-by-60-of-scots-1-4787101/amp

As a current teacher in a non denom Scottish school I find it hard to believe there would be any real Christian indoctrination taking place!

Yes we still have assemblies that our local Church of Scotland chaplaincy team deliver a couple of times a term at the most but the point is more to teach the children about certain core values ie friendship, kindness etc. They tell a correlating bible story & say a prayer at the end. Always with the big disclaimer, I must add, that you don't need to take part if you don't want too. Those children just sit quietly for at the most 20 seconds!

In my opinion there is very little offence to be taken & possibly your child's teacher is seeing the bigger picture here & that more harm is being done from your DS being excluded from a whole school assembly whereby he is being taken away from his peers. I would suggest you say to your kids take what you want from it & leave the rest which is what I'm sure 99% of the kids do anyway!

I accept tho it's your right as a parent to not want your children part of it & the school will ultimately have to listen to you!

Scottish schools are either Catholic or Non-Denominational. Not Catholic or Protestant.

You can exclude them, but it will be a positive influence for them learning about religion they won't be converted just from an assembly!!!!!

So in Scotland a parent has the choice of a Catholic school or a Protestant (non denominational) school. That is so backward

Non denominational is not Christian so it's hardly backwards. The church have very little input in nom denom schools- I was at a school assembly in a church recently and Jesus wasn't mentioned and no hymns were sung.

The non-faith schools are non-religious schools that have religious observance about 6 times a year, which parents can opt their children out of. That’s pretty fair from being a “Protestant school”. Religion does not permeate the school day in the way it would in a Catholic school.

I'm Scottish and my best friend at primary was excluded from assemblies as her family are dedicated atheists. There was also another girl who was Jehovahs Witness and was excluded too. They both sat in the lunch room and played board games during the religious parts of assembly and came back in for the general school info stuff. Bring it up again, and make sure your DS knows to leave the hall. It was up to my friend to come in and out when she needed to.

In WoS protestant is pretty much a synonym for not Catholic.

Are your children happy to miss the assemblies? I'm just picturing a large schools and everyone going off to assembly except for your children who have to sit in a separate room on their own/with a teacher. Everyone then coming back and grilling them on why they didn't attend.

My daughter went to a C of E primary school and they were involved in the church but now she is older, 21, she doesn’t believe in religion, even though she was taught it in high school and got a B in her GCSE, a subject which was compulsory .
I didn’t have her baptised , when she was a baby, as I felt it was up to her whether she wanted to follow the church. I don’t think it will do your children any harm.

@pineapplepenthouse
Teachers are crazy busy. Do you think it’s possible that the teacher needs reminding? When you have 1 million things in your head it’s really easy to forget to remind the Jehovah’s Witness child to go to the office with his reading book. Especially if he really actually wants to go with his buddies to assembly and doesn’t remind the teacher that he should be excluded.

Every educated person should know the Bible, irrespective of beliefs - get over it.

Why @MrsMarigold?

You also have my support OP. My children go to a non-religious school but it seems like every year there is either a teacher or a TA teaching Christian beliefs as facts. This year it was a TA who was covering RE for the term. She was teaching the nativity as historical. It confused my daughter who has always been taught contrary at home.