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 have expressed my feelings about not letting them be involved in religious assemblies or having anything to do with religion.

As other people have said, surely you knew what the school was like before you sent your children there.

OP Out of curiosity, do your children not take part in any of the Christmas activities at school and do you not celebrate Christmas as a family? Fair enough if you don't but if you do, it's a bit hypocritical to pick and choose what you participate in

Mathanxiety the branches of Catholicism are Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and Anglican.

I'll accept the Coptic Catholic Church, the Orthodox Catholic Church, obv the Roman Catholic Church, but if you insist on the Anglican Church then you will have to include all the Reformed churches and their descendants, which would be odd as the whole point of the Reformation was a break with Rome...

My DC has to sit through assemblies from an evangelical Christian group at school. They didn’t believe a word of it but it was the highlight of their week. The sight of former heroin addicts who had found God reenacting Lazarus rising from the dead appealed to my dc’s senses of humour.

I’m a satanist, but my kids go to a CofE school. I think learning about all the different religions is important to them. I wouldn’t want them to grow up to be one of those ignorant Britain first dick weeds who fears those who are different because they’ve never bothered to learn anything about anyone other than themselves.

What are the school supposed to do with your children when not I assembly or class with the rest?

are you expecting someone else to rearrange their day for your convenience?

Ridiculous questions. How is it in any way imposing on the school to ask them to do what the law requires them to do? You might just as well ask what the school is supposed to do with the children who have health problems that sometimes require them to be out of class. If you work in a school you have to assume that you must comply with the law imposed on schools, you can't decide not to just because it's mildly inconvenient.

In practice I suspect one of the teachers or TAs is absolutely delighted to have an excuse not to sit through their millionth assembly trying to look interested.

There’s no such thing as a non religious Scottish school - they are either catholic or non-denominational which is default Protestant.

If you’ve withdrawn him from he religious aspect then the teacher doesn’t have the right to overrule it.

Speak to the Head and if you get no joy then speak to the education dept.

Notumbongo - agree. Now what's a Satanist exactly?!

It shouldn't be difficult for the school to meet the OP's request. I work in a secular school that is very religion-light, all faiths get the odd mention here and there when it's a relevant festival time or similar so our parents almost never object (it's always presented as "this week is important to Christians because" "tomorrow is special for Hindus because").

The only time we have students asking to be out is when the Gideons come and dish out the Bible. I take the students who can't be in it to the library, or outside if it's nice, as I don't believe (as an atheist) it's fair that the other major religions don't get the same 'airtime'. I've worked in a very multicultural school where there was a rolling programme of assembly speakers from the majority of mainstream faiths, that also worked well.

He also won’t be the only child withdrawn so schools have a set up for it.

Some have good set ups, some just have kids sat reading near the office.

In previous years my kids have been excluded from anything religious
How miserable for them. All their friends are preparing for an assembly and they are in a separate room 'reading a book'.

@wafflethewonderdog really good point actually. I’d like to know the answer to that!

Fair enough if you don't but if you do, it's a bit hypocritical to pick and choose what you participate in hmm

Hold on. The op hasn't explained how this works and if she does/ is able to withdraw her children from the religious worship that leaks into regular classroom time.

To pull the face on the off-chance that sheay be hypocritical in her approach is rather rude.

I might just lean on any other thread and tell other ops that they would be hypocritical if the did this one thing that they never said that they did just for sport and see how that goes.

It doesn’t matter whether we agree with the OP. She hasn’t asked if it ok if I take my children out of religious worship. If the OP has expressly written to ask that her child be excluded for religious worship then that’s what has to happen. It is completely inappropriate for the teacher to decide otherwise and I would write to the head and tell her it is unacceptable.

As an atheist I am not personally bothered and when we moved the only school was c of e.
However, you have the right to withdraw from collective worship and no teacher should overrule that.

Ps it obviously isn’t difficult to manage because her daughter’s teacher at the same school manages it perfectly well.

Disappointingly, many teachers aren't that great. That's also part of the life skills our kids learn from school! Older doesn't mean wiser or more professional.

Gosh you're a treat @Putitdownnow! 🙄What's your career? If you've got school age DC, I'm very glad I'm not their teacher and on the receiving end of your views after my 60 hour week!

@Flatwhite32

I wasn't talking about you specifically. I work in a local authority, where the no redundancy policy means you can't get rid of the dross. Same in teaching. You may be great and work long hours, but can you look around the staff room and say the same for all your colleagues? Aren't there quite a few who aren't up to date with things like digital skills, or who do the bare minimum just to get through the day, or who are happy for you to pick up the slack, or who say stupid things in the comfort they are at the top of their grade and will never be sacked or demoted?

Come on, there's good out there but also a lot of dross.

You expect the school to agree to exclude your child from assemblies because you are anti religion? Correct me if I'm wrong by all means OP.

She's expecting the school to comply with the law, @monty27. Why do you apparently find that a difficult concept to grasp?

How do you suppose that would help his education?

Why wouldn't it help his education? Assemblies aren't there to be educational. The child will get as much or more educational input by sitting reading in the classroom or library.

Pps Im an atheist whose child goes to collective worship but what I do or what anyone else dies isntvthe issue.

Would you feel you had failed as a parent if your kids became religious op?

how do your dc feel about this, do they want to go to these assemblies? in my experience most kids don't want to be singled out.
I'm not in any way religious, neither is my dh, my 3 dd's all enjoy visiting church with school, learning stories from the bible etc, we joke about it, but they can come to they're own decisions on what they believe or not.

Are you really a satanist Unbongo? What do they do? I am genuinely fascinated!

Your making being an atheist almost like a type of extreme religion in its own right.

Excluding your kids from every religious teaching or ceremony is you forcing your views on them.

It's good to learn about all religions to help you understand the world you live in. You should be strong enough in your beliefs to not worry this is going to harm or effect them.

I'm an atheist and have taught my children why I feel the way I do and let them make their own minds up.

The teacher most definitely should respect your views but also you need to think about your own extreme views and actions.

How about letting your children decide for themselves what they want to believe in ?

Many children of that age hate feeling ‘different’ from their peers. Assemblies are usually for notices, awards and little extras in the school day.
By excluding your dc you may be adding some stress to their school day .

I'm guessing you don't celebrate Christmas or have Easter eggs

Not that old chestnut. Both Christmas and Easter eggs have origins that have nothing to do with Christianity.

Religion in school is about exposing them to what some people believe rather than indoctrination, so they have an understanding of the world around them.

Surely that only works if schools offered assemblies in every religion. But they don't, do they?