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?

🤷‍♀️ I remember going to a summer camp with my friend at 15 in the Lake District. It was so religious. I was not religious. It was still the most incredible amount of fun ever. I still remember it fondly and have great memories with it. If didn’t change my faith or affect me negatively in any way. My parents knew it would be religious when they sent me. I actually think it’s quite sad how many parents seem scared of exposing their kids to religion. Do you think they will catch something? 😆

My son attends the local CoE secondary which is a five minute bike ride for him and the top school in our area. The next is private at £9k per term so I thank my lucky stars everyday we bought a house on the ‘right’ street (my best friend lives literally across on the next street and her daughter didn’t get in) and that his two brothers will also get to attend this amazing school.

They can throw bible studies, religious camps, prayer sessions at them and I wouldn’t give a shit. My boys are/will be getting the best education - for free - at the best school in my neck of the woods.

If I had such an issue with religion, and some of my friends have, then you have the option of putting those schools as your first choice. It’s all about choice. Don’t ask a faith school to go against their remit. If it offends you so much, remove your child. It’s all about choices.

I don’t think Jesus is a bad role model but ds has been totally put off the idea of religion when they did the full Easter story which they taught in a lot of detail. Ds was very young at the time.

I’m sure Jesus was a lovely man. I’m just not sure my ds imagined his school residential worshipping Jesus. Either did I. I’m wondering now if they got a cheaper deal with the church camp and that’s why the school switched from the previous one.

I’ll let ds decide what he wants to do.

@ThePenIsBlue

I’m sorry I can’t stop laughing at your username!

Brilliant! No I don’t think he’ll catch anything, who knows he may really love Hesus afterwards.

Are you worried he will be converted? Surely he has come across religious teaching already and survived with his atheism intact.

If he comes back converted to tidying his room up I will praise Jesus.

If you live I a rural area there is v little choice. The 3 nearest primary schools where we live is CofE
It's unrealistic to say that 'chose another school' for most people in those circumstances

Faith schools have yo be assessed by their diocese as well as ofsted and there has been a push to increase the theological teaching in schools. However, this does sound a bit full on.

*are CofE

I guess if you send kids to a faith school regardless of whether there was no alternative or not, then you have to except this sort of thing to occur - your child doesn't have to attend its optional

@Stephthegreat

If he comes back converted to tidying his room up I will praise Jesus.

😆😆😆😆

Mad replies on here. Of course you aren't required to embrace Christianity or bus your kid out of town to a non church school or move house

All our local schools are c of e or catholic. Almost none of the kids are religious, in fact dds class has more kids who describe the self as Hindu than Christian (and we are in a very white area!)

I strongly feel that all schools should be secular but in the meantime, I'm sending dd to our local school and I would be objecting to a residential like that

The ignorance on this thread is astounding. Many local primary schools, especially in rural and semi rural areas are nominally CofE. They're called CofE aided, because as a pp said, there would have been no school in that area without the church funding it. And though we're going back more than 100 years, historically they remain so. I went to one and the kids in the village I grew up in 60 years ago, still do. Their parents would have a hell of a school run to get to a primary school that wasn't.

In general there's barely any religious element to a primary CofE aided school. They're not like RC schools that have religious pictures all over the place and a very religious ethos.

I'm really surprised at the religious element of this trip, and as a parent I'd not be happy.

This is not about people choosing a faith school. It's just the local school. They're not 'faith schools' like RC and Muslim or Jewish schools. They're simply partially funded by the Anglican church due to their history.

So give OP a break with all the "you chose a faith school" bollocks.

@Philisophigal

This has to be a joke. No one can be this stupid.

???

I think yabu but I don't think you deserve all the criticism you've received. I get the lack of choice of schools in your area as that was the situation I was in growing up.

Don't faith schools still allow some children to skip the assemblies / religious activities if requested by parents?

You also don't need to send him on the residential obviously. But it could be a good exercise in teaching him tolerance of other beliefs...I'm an atheist who finds religion interesting but a lot of my atheist friends have zero patience for hearing anything religious at all. Seems like the opposite of the tolerance they claim to defend tbh

@Philisophigal

This has to be a joke. No one can be this stupid.

I think you're the one being stupid. You clearly don't understand the history of such schools. They're not faith schools. They're just partially funded by the church and with usually only a light touch involvement with the local parish church.

YANBU

Such a shame that they have let religion ruin what should be a fun experience. I would not send my DC and hope that enough others would do the same that the school will reconsider for future years. With the parents in my DC's class we'd probably send a joint letter expressing our disappointment with the change.

If schools receive any state funding they should not be allowed to push religion on pupils. The system is ridiculous.

There are several towns and villages near us where the only school is a CofE school and sending kids elsewhere would logistically impossible so I sympathise.

It is wrong to spend taxpayers' money on this when most taxpayers aren't religious (or if they are, they're not Christian). I was brought up by atheists and had to sit (politely) through a great many religious assemblies, church services and circle times at youth clubs. I felt very awkward! I would have been astonished to know at the time that this would still be going on 30 years later.

These days it's Christian bad, every other religion or belief system good.

@Tillymintpolo

All state schools are not faith

Wasn't me that said it but they are insofar as they must have a daily act of collective worship. It's not like the US where religion must not be mentioned, we are compelled to worship daily.

I know this isn’t really what you posting about, but I went to a Catholic school and went on a retreat thing aged 15 and had a really good time. We did loads of team building type stuff and loads of ethic type excises (list of personalities in a plane who gets the parachutes types of stuff) I look back on it really fondly.

Collective worship hasn’t been monitored by ofsted since 2004. I’ve been a teacher for 25 years, we don’t have daily assemblies and those we do have are never religious. No prayers, no hymns, we might have a ‘moment of reflection ‘ but nothing religious at all.

I'm in Ireland where most of our schools are Catholic. We aren't religious so we sent our kids to a school where they are educated through Irish just to avoid a religious school. For secondary that means a 40min bus ride for them when the local school is 10mins walk away. I went to a religious school as a non religious person and it made me feel really uncomfortable when the God bit was done and I didn't want that for my kids.

If you don't feel strongly either way I think a faith school when you aren't religious is fine but if you really don't want you kid doing the Jesus stuff then even if It means travelling you should look elsewhere. That's not to say that I agree with the majority of schools being religious, it sucks but it is what it is.

Yep, all the schools round here are C of E, but tbf there’s not much pushing Jesus. Not like my Catholic school upbringing anyway.

I’d send DC but just make sure you give the background that it’s a story some believe but most people think it’s bollocks.