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?

OP on the flip side. How do your DC feel about being singled out and not attending the assembly? You said they are y4 so 8/9, I think at that age they might want to fit in rather than stand out.
I also think what iamkahleesi said would be a kinder approach. You have created a taboo, what else will your children have to hide In the future from you?

If she meant a mass, then its a faith school presumably? And I do have problems with people who complain about the religious aspect of a FAITH school!

Mass? Hymns and prayer are not restricted to mass and find their way into all schools who are compelled to offer Christian worship - most state schools.

Yanbu op it makes the teacher sound very arrogant.

then that's not really clear, my kids RE are in the religious assemblies, that's exactly what these assemblies are in their schools

DonCorleone, if your children's school only teaches RE via Christian assemblies, it's breaking the law in a different way, and it's not educating them properly.

@speakout, I believe in science is a quote from Nacho Libre which I find amusing! They are little and I'm not misleading them or telling them that atheism is a religion. They aren't that picky about semantics.

Thanks for all your responses!
It is not a faith school.
We live in a village so it's the only school.
It might be if interest to know that I did Higher RE and studied a course at Uni on religion so I'm definitely not opposed to learning about religion, just makes me uncomfortable that my children are taught it as fact. Why is that?
There's also another man who comes to the school with his guitar and sings Jesus songs and plays games with the kids. Why is he allowed to do this?
My mum is a primary teacher and whilst she agrees with my view she also says it's a 'pain in the arse' for the teachers to get cover for the excluded kids. So I see it from all view points!

"it has exactly the same place than history, geography, current events!
You don't have to believe in anything, but you have to be pretty thick to not see the impact of religions in the world everyday!"

Then study this in HISTORY! However studying religion per se has no place in schools imo. I did history and social studies at school and learned about culture, religion and political dynasties. But I didn't go to religious classes to learn that. It wasn't necessary. Any good education curriculum would encompass some of those without holding religious worship classes.

Christians are perfectly well aware that Jesus was not born on Dec 25th, allergictoironing.
It is his “official” birthday (much like the queen), as nobody knows when his actual one occurred.
The date was chosen as Jesus is the Light of the World, so it was logical to pick a day after the winter solstice when the daylight was noticeably returning, but far enough away from the shortest day on Dec 21st to avoid confusion with the pagan solstice celebrations.
Easter eggs symbolise the stone that was rolled away from the tomb at Jesus’ resurrection.
Christians celebrate Easter around the time of Jewish Passover, as we do know that is when He went to Jerusalem and had the Last Supper.
Maybe if more people had attended their school assemblies, they wouldn’t be so woefully ignorant of their country’s Christian culture and heritage?!

How would the christians feel if some of the assemblies, say once a week were of a Muslim nature? Jewish? Hindu? Buddhist? Maybe they could worship a different deity every day? Introduce them to worshipping as many religions as possible - if the idea is all about being open minded and accepting of other people's worship, let's do it properly!

It is his “official” birthday (much like the queen) that's brilliant!

And for what it's worth, I think if OP doesn't want her child exposed to religion then the school should comply.

The OP is not saying she doesn’t want her child “exposed to religion”. She is saying that she does not want her child to be expected to pray. Two very, very different things.

@Dahlietta

Yes, I was going to say HENCE the colour of Santa's outfit. While it wasn't originally a marketing concept, it had turned into it in the first half of last century. Check your history. And sorry, but you are very ill-informed. Christians did indeed co-opt the pagan festivals, hence holding them at the same time and embracing and adopting most of the themes. It seems you are quite ignorant on history, and I suggest you read into this more.

There's a difference between education on faith beliefs, and actual worship.

I'm a Christian, and I still think it's appalling for a teacher to impose her own beliefs on someone else's child, in defiance of the law.

Yes, to pray, to listen to the Jesus songs, to be taught religion as fact, all valid things to object to. My kids have learned some corkers from out school, such as 'girls are sensible, boys are silly'. There's a lot of stuff to constantly counter at home.

They do teach rubbish in primary assemblies sometimes too. DD can home telling me that god created the world in 7 days and was quite put out when I told her that no he didn’t the world was probably created after giant explosion and then formed over millions of years.

I think there's a difference between religious studies - which should be about what different religions believe - and assemblies which are group worship (we had prayers as well as hymns).

I also think if OP has sent letters it is not up to her DCs teachers to decide it's no harm and disregard her wishes.

My 2penneth worth. RS should be compulsory. Assemblies should either be secular, or optional.

Not that I'm saying that is a religious belief! I'm just using another example of a teacher's opinion being taught as fact.

There's also another man who comes to the school with his guitar and sings Jesus songs and plays games with the kids. Why is he allowed to do this?

Ours is a community school. The local church is part of the community. So they come in once a week and do a bible story assembly.

What they also do is take our Harvest Festival gifts to families in need. They have a charity I’ve dipped into (I’m the school’s family support worker) to fund a replacement heater for a family’s trailer and other essential items. One of their team is a trained bereavement counsellor and has provided this support to several of our children.

If they didn’t offer these services, the LA certainly wouldn’t, at least not for free. Having to listen to a few happy clappy songs seems small price to pay for what our school community gets in return.

It's your right to choose whether or not your kids attend the assembly's.

I would however have a good think about whether or not you want your children singled out and excluded from part school life. Surely you can just tell your children that it's what some people believe and other people believe this and that you believe in nothing at all? Just treat it like a story.

I don't really see what the problem is, but that's just me. I'm not religious at all, but have no problem with my children taking part in religious assembly's, I wouldn't mind what regligion it was either.

Gamer- even for a Literalist Christian (you can be a believer in God and the Big Bang - I am not a literalist) that is wrong. It was 6. He had a rest on day 7.

The answer is simple OP. Just go and see the head and point out your concerns. It's a wee local school where everybody knows everybody else. So you want your DS to not take part in assemblies with a religious content just like his sibling. It's easy to arrange.

Could it be that the child has decided he wants to join?

OP what a shame that you're not giving your children the choice whether or not they want to follow a religion. They should be allowed to learn about it and decide for themselves.

@Babdoc

The timing of Christmas is Roman. Jesus's birth was not celebrated until the Constantine conversion of Rome. Over the next 100 years there was a Christianification of existing festival periods.

TBF, Easter is the better dated festival and traditionally the most important one in Christianity.