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?

I agree with every word Schaden.

What tosh, 'faith' schools are desirable for the sharp elbowed middle classes because they are able to select and keep out the undesirables. It called Christian privilege. That's true but it doesn't apply to OP who's in Scotland

Should we pray for a happy outcome to this matter?

Virtue signalling it's all about the virtue signalling

“There is good reason why the Head of OP's school has basically told OP to fuck off!”
Why are you ignoring the people telling you that the Head has a statutory duty to accommodate the OP?

And faith schools which are not oversubscribed are no “better” than any other school in the same catchment. It’s being selective that makes them better, not faith.

It does annoy me that people with contempt for religion will move mountains to get their kids into faith schools so that they can benefit from an ethos they disparage.

A school could select on the basis of parents attending the gym once a week. If it once starts being good, it will continue getting better because it will only admit the engaged children of engaged parents who care enough about education to go to the trouble of fulfilling the requirements and documenting this. Funnily enough the C of E school near us which had a weak Ofsted had no queues of C of E children wanting to go there and continued poor. The Catholic school over the road with an outstanding Ofsted however got a very different demographic, you didn't get in there unless you had signed off regular church attendance, child baptised as a baby etc. No chaotic unsupportive families would get a sniff of a place. I would suggest that it's not the fact of being religious that makes some affiliated schools good but the fact of being selective. On anything that bites.

So perhaps you should be grateful to those people, atheist or otherwise, who are moving mountains to get into a school. They're probably also moving mountains to support the PTA, make sure their child behaves in class, getting tutoring if they ever fall behind academically etc. Having that sort of family rather than the whoever can't (or didn't get their act together to) get their child in elsewhere catchment of the C of E I mentioned previously - that is a big part of what is making your school so good.

I wouldn't send my kid to a religious school if I could avoid it though, the religious side of the community school they're at is more than enough for us.

derxa Of course it happens in Scotland. There are plenty of ways catholic schools discriminate against certain 'types' of pupils. Some subtle some not so much.

Oops I must have forgotten to refresh page - point already made much more concisely.

“It does annoy me that people with contempt for religion will move mountains to get their kids into faith schools so that they can benefit from an ethos they disparage.”
That annoys me too. As does the fact that 30% of state schools have a faith admissions criterion, meaning that people have faith have more choices than people without.

crimsonrose: It is so: people in this country can practice any faith they want. In islam, people are forced to be muslims. They are imprisoned, tortured and killed if anyone even suspects that they have read the Bible. They are not allowed by sharia law - which is the law of the land and religion. Christians are persecuted. They cannot take Holy Communion because alcohol is against sharia law. Every Christian sees their God through Christ's eyes. They learn His teachings and make it their life's work to live by them. It is the most difficult thing in the world to stick to the teaching of Jesus, but none would oppose him. If they did they would not be Christian. The Saints were not perfect all the time. They overcame fierce persecution. How would our children be able to chose if they are never taught the gospel or allowed to join in assemblies with the rest of the school?

SchadenFreundepersonifide: How then would you explain the imortal soul and body to be separate? We are loaned a mortal body to carry us through this life. When it can no longer do so, our soul leaves it. Where do you think the soul rises to?

llizzie Yes you're right, why are you telling me????

If anyone is interested, the teacher called me tonight following on from my letter yesterday. She said she was not actually in class when they went through and she forgot to leave a note for whoever was covering. She apologised and I said it was totally fine and just one of those things.
So hopefully that's the end of it.

t seems, in this case, that out of 2 classes of potentially 30 children each, OP's children are the only ones to have to opt out of assembly 're their mothers bigotry

I honestly don't know if there are other children who sit out and it's none of my business. There definitely used to be another boy in DDs class but they moved abroad.

At least @BlueSlipperSocks got the chance to call me a bigot again though!

people in this country can practice any faith they want. In islam, people are forced to be muslims
Ahhh christian privilege at its finest.
I wonder how a 6 month old baby in this country chooses to be baptised? how a 2 yo chooses to be dragged to church every Sunday? how a 4 yo chooses to attend a faith school?... and so on.
And once indoctrinated how easy is it for a catholic adult to choose their beliefs?
If you read or listen to how brutally traumatising it is for people to deconvert from catholisism you would not be saying people can practise any faith they want.

It didn't harm me by being included in religious assemblies. I was at a 'regular' infant school yet we had regular assemblies where we had to pray at the end. So I don't think it will do them any harm BUTTT as their parent it should be up to you to say you're not comfortable with this, they should respect that.

So yanbu

That's good news pineapplepenthouse, good to hear the teacher isn't a religious bigot fundamentalist.

Lol, well that was a load of fuss about nothing (not you OP, the pages of people saying you were asking a ridiculous and impossible thing).

At least@BlueSlipperSocksgot the chance to call me a bigot again though!

Hopefully one day soon you will see fit for your children to learn that people have differing views on every matter and will do throughout their lives. Somehow I doubt you will allow them to forge a viewpoint that differs from yours.

Good luck to your children for the future. They'll need it.

Hopefully one day soon you will see fit for your children to learn that people have differing views

It's been 38 pages.

“Somehow I doubt you will allow them to forge a viewpoint that differs from yours.”

Such a bizarre thing to say about a poster happy to let her children go to RE lessons- just not to actually pray.

Hopefully one day soon you will see fit for your children to learn that people have differing views on every matter...

Translation - Hopefully one day soon your children will see the light and accept that Jesus is the chosen one who sacrificed himself so he could rise from the dead to forgive them of the sin he gave them to allow them to worship him for all eternity.
You, unfortunately, are damned to hell.

It’s interesting that it’s considered so important for atheist children to experience Christianity but not for Christian children to appreciate atheism......

What tosh, 'faith' schools are desirable for the sharp elbowed middle classes because they are able to select and keep out the undesirables. It called Christian privilege

RUBBISH!

It’s not rubbish. Faith schools that are not oversubscribed are no better or worse than any other school in the catchment. It’s only when selection criteria kick in that the difference shows.

lizzie

I think you've confused me with another poster - I have a deep faith in God and am a committed Christian (though many on here would seem to think I am a soon-to-be-committed lunatic ).