School residential is religious

[Stephthegreat]

Dcs school is CofE and as there are four faith schools closest to us we sent dcs to the nearest one. Neither me or dh are religious but we support the values of the faith and the school.

The school used to go to a really fab place for residential and it was full of activities, adventuring, just a really fun weekend. Ds is due to go on camp soon and the new residential the school have chosen looks extremely religious. Ds really doesn’t enjoy this side of school and has his own ideas about faith.

The programme involves daily bible study and ‘getting to know jesus’. There are bible related games and quizzes and prayer sessions. It looks like they do bushcraft and have a bonfire too which is up Ds street. He’s a bit put off by the whole idea and I also think it’s quite serious!

AIBU?

It’s a faith school

Quite serious? Um it’s a church school sending kids to a camp that has a Christian element.

I expect you'll get lots of posters saying "YABU, you chose to send him to a faith school", but I think YANBU. My DC attended a faith school just because it was the local school - I'm not sending them to a school miles away when there's a perfectly good school nearby! I (and they) would have been disappointed if the residential had been replaced by a "church camp".

Yes the nearest community school is a good 25mins by car and we wouldn’t have got in as so far away.

The school have only done this churchy style residential quite recently.

So he goes to a faith school and you're finding it difficult that they're sharing their faith?

Where does their funding come from?

Think you'll need to suck it up.
Or remove your child and pay the fine.

It seems very evangelical, I looked on the CofE website and I think they are trying to ‘send out the message’ more nowadays

Yes Ds not really excited about it any more. Not sure about the funding.

@Stephthegreat

Yes the nearest community school is a good 25mins by car and we wouldn’t have got in as so far away.

The school have only done this churchy style residential quite recently.

Well you should have moved closer to the non faith school then!

I'd keep him off it @Stephthegreat.

Lots of schools are CofE for historical reasons. And while you can actively chose religious schools, you can't opt out of them. They are often just the local school.

The school need to be sensitive to the actual population needs, not the idealistic ones. (Making the religious bits optional for example)

Plenty of faith schools are the only school in the catchment area, particularly at primary level. its certainly the case where I grew up. We would be very unlikely to get into our only local non faith school, it's massively oversubscribed, and we're out of area. So people often have little choice but to send their child to a faith school.

Don't send your children to a faith school, then complain when they share their faith.

If you object to a religious message being part of school events, choose a secular school.

It is basically that simple.

@HELLITHURT not an option for us unfortunately, the houses are more expensive there

@TooBigForMyBootstoobig yes I’m beginning to think he’d prefer not to go

The title says ‘School residential is religious’ when you’ve literally sent your child to a religious school?😂 I don’t really understand.

It’s as if you sent him there but then expected them to do NOTHING religious. Most religious schools I know do morning prayers and have a church service once a week. If all you have to worry about is a church camp (or whatever it is) then just don’t send him and pay the fine as a pp said?

@MadMadMadamMim

As I said before the only local schools are church and we can’t afford private

The community school is a long way and it’s massively oversubscribed. Moving was not an option due to our finances

My school was supposedly CofE and we certainly never did anything religious apart from the odd hymn and the local vicar popping in once a year. Our residential was to Haven. It's not about faith, it's that Bible camp isn't a fun treat for kids.

YABU. It's a faith school.

Don't send him if he's not keen - he can have bushcraft and bonfires at Scouts.

Well @Stephthegreat you could take him out of that school and travel the 25 minutes or so to the non faith school.

[quote Stephthegreat]@HELLITHURT not an option for us unfortunately, the houses are more expensive there

@TooBigForMyBootstoobig yes I’m beginning to think he’d prefer not to go[/quote]
I'm h well then if you can't afford it, that's tough! You've sent you're child to a church school, then deal with it!

I do not believe that a non church school is not accessible for you.

It honestly baffles me why people send their kids to a faith school if they're not religious. You shouldn't be allowed to go if your views don't align but no doubt that school was better as they usually are and you decided to send your child there.

Don't let him go, let him miss out going with his friends and then maybe look at your finances to move and send him to a non faith school

Just because it's a faith school doesn't mean everything always has to constantly be about Jesus though?

Have you read the thread @uptonogoode? All the schools near the OP are faith schools.

People are being ridiculous suggesting that you should move house to avoid your local school being C of E, as if people can just up and sell their house/find a new suitable place to rent just like that. Absolute nonsense.

No, what should actually happen is that all schools should be secular and should teach a little about all religions for tolerance. The church needs to butt out of schools IMO, our local one had these little old ladies spouting all sorts of religious nonsense to the kids.

It sounds crap OP but it is what it is and I'd let him decide if he wants to attend or not. I'd also let school know how disappointed he is that the venue for the trip has changed and why - and encourage others to do the same. It might be too late to change things this year but it might help others as lets face it no child is ever going to be vaguely interested in going on a trip to do bible study.