To think that a RECEPTION teacher shouldn't have said this ???

[AutumnalPumpkin]

My daughter goes to a catholic school (it was the only school available to us) we are not a religious family, but it does not bother me that she is being immersed in religion. After all, she will only make her own mind up later in life anyway. But this is relevant.
They use god in almost every part of the day, and in all aspects of learning.
As those who are not religious will know, we and a lot of others view god as "made up" or a myth, if you will.
Now this brings me to where I have a problem - her reception teacher has picked up on some of the class talking about unicorns. A typical 4/5 year old thing... and has proceeded to tell them that Unicorns, fairies and dragons etc are all made up, and do not exist.
This is absolute insanity to me!!? They are 4/5 and all have wonderful vivid imaginations.
We regularly take my daughter to "the fairy forest" and she immerses herself into it and tries to find clues to where the fairies could be hiding, and loves to think that at nighttime all of the magical creatures come out to play.
She's now come home saying that it's all untrue and they are made up.
I'm actually really upset about this.
How can you push the belief of god, and they go all out for Santa etc. but actively shut down the belief of magical creatures ??

Yes it was mean if her, be prepared for her to say Santa isn’t real too. I totally see the irony of it and I would be looking for another school while she is still young enough to adapt

I think you should be more grateful that the teacher told them they didn't exist. I was lead to believe they didn't get to the Ark in time...that messed (and still does) my mind more.

Edit. Sorry, that came across as mean. I meant they will eventually learn they don't exist like Santa and the tooth fairy at some point anyway. It's just sooner. You could mitigate it by saying some believe, some don't. Just as some believe in a god and others don't. Try and get her to shrug it off.

Santa comes from a Catholic Saint though

Catholic schools don't always celebrate Christmas with Santa. Many have a tableau.

I think that you need to consider another school, Op.

My convent school did

I'm no killjoy and I'm often told I'm too imaginative, but I'm quite taken aback by this! Your kids would have had their bubble burst by other kids sooner or later. It's not like a culturally/societally agreed falsehood like Santa or the Tooth Fairy or even Easter Bunny.

Probably many kids suspect the characters in their stories (unicorns, fairies, ghosts, monsters, animals speaking English, demons, etc) exist secretly, and I might leave the question a bit open-ended.

But I thought all kids knew you're not going to find them in any big science for kids books or A-Z animal flashcards any time soon!

Anyway, I thought the whole charm/fun/point of them being magical is that they DON'T exist in verifiable form? Like if you could just pop into the zoo or forest to look at them, what makes them different from a giraffe etc? Giraffes have cool bodies and cool abilities too!

Since you are treating the "fairy forest" like an actual educational tour (instead of just an imaginative play opportunity – kids like to play pretend), why not just talk about woodland creatures that come out at night instead? I don't get it!

Also if it helps, being told the myth background/suspected sightings of Nessie, mermaids (mermaid or dugong?) etc really added to the mystery as a child. Moreso than if I was told they were a forest creature with abilities, which essentially many animals fall under.

Btw, I am an atheist too, but the validity of religion (as well as things like the afterlife) is still debated among adults. It can neither be proved or disproved definitively – for every prominent scientist or theoretical physicist or what have you that claims so, another one claims the opposite.

Whereas I don't think any adult in this world believes unicorns are real. So it's not really a question of cultural respect etc

i don’t see how it’s mean - why assume the worst ?

Many others on this thread with kids that age have said their kids don’t believe in fairies and they’d assume children are old enough to know that /be told that. So it’s not necessarily she was being spiteful.

I think OP already said the school goes hard for Santa anyway . And because of the huge cultural impact of Santa I’d assume most adults would know kids that age are told it’s real and would not feel it’s their place to tell them he’s not.

So it’s very different from fairies/unicorns, where many adults would reasonably assume kids are not being told they exist.

I've told my 4 year old they're not real. It's important he knows the difference between biology and stories. I'm not religious.

I don't understand the problem unless she was rude about it.

This

I never knew that children needed to believe in them to enjoy the idea and I'm not Catholic

Saint Nicholas was an actual Catholic bishop, canonised by the Catholic Church for his charitable works.

I don't think it has anything to do with being Catholic either.

Why would a school teach that fairies and unicorns and mythical creatures are real? They're from myths and children can enjoy imaginative play. If the expectation is they teach unicorns and fairies literally exist because some children like imaginative play, should teachers also teach that superheroes really do exist with magic powers and fly around saving people too?

I’m very anti religion but I wouldn’t pretend to my child that unicorns were real, that’s weird!!!

I know it’s controversial but I told my daughter from the beginning that Santa and Co. we’re all made up.
Despite this awareness, she was fully immersed in Christmas, the tooth fairy etc. and fact that she knew the truth didn’t stop the traditions being fun.
She understood that some people believe and that it was wrong to disagree with them.
Through circumstance she also attended a religious school. These days she’s Christmas obsessed but definitely but not keen on religion (hypocritical) or Halloween (tacky).
My point is, children love stories and they eventually workout what they’re happy to believe.
While concept of truth is much more complex than Santa; I’d be very uncomfortable with consciously telling my child lies of any kind.

Teachers of Reception children have to teach the difference between fantasy and reality.
Children are taught about different genres when sharing books.Information books are about real things, non fiction. Fiction books tell us stories, which can be sbout talking animals or faries or unicorns, which aren’t real.
Even very young children deserve the truth from their trusted adults. It doesn’t stop their imagination, anyone of any age can enjoy fantasy and imagine different worlds.Children who know what is fictitious still play imaginatively, often beginning the game with, “Let’s pretend that…”
The teacher was quite correct.

Not sure what being Catholic has to do it with it? We're not religious but my 4 year old dd knows unicorns and fairies don't really exist. Don't drag religion into it unless the teacher said that Catholics don't believe in unicorns. I wouldn't expect the teacher at our non-religious school to tell them they exist so why would a Catholic teacher say anything different?

@CaptainMyCaptain @Lostcotter I’ve been at a Surrey school for ten years, we’ve never taught the Lord’s Prayer and the closest we get to a prayer after assembly is to ‘reflect’.

I work in a non-faith school and I would try to avoid doing halloween/bonfire night stuff if I can (unless I'm ordered to by SLT) as my own professional judgement is that lots of children won't celebrate these festivals/may cause upset to families if they're religious. Definitely a catholic school will be unlikely to mention bonfire night or they may present it in a way that sympathises with guy fawkes (my kids school did - was joint CE & RC). I'm not sure the catholic perspective on fairies/unicorns, sounds like it was just a teacher thing, not a whole school. Catholic schools go all out at christmas and easter - and that side of things is quite lovely.

It's a school. Why on earth would you expect a teacher to not correct something? Unicorns and fairies aren't real. Stories are still wonderful and children can still enjoy having an active imagination without being deliberately told things that are false.

Also agree with others that you maybe should know a bit more about Catholicism of you are sending your child to a Catholic school.

So there ARE non-religious schools locally, you’ve just chosen to send your child to the Catholic primary because it had a better Ofsted report.

This is what you signed up for. It’s not the school’s fault you don’t like the reality of a religious education. I say this an an atheist who went to a convent school (we lived in a Catholic country).

And you are deluded if you think a five year old is going to get through school without being told fairies and unicorns aren’t real - the other kids would have told her if the teacher hadn’t. Mine came back on 1st December of reception and announced that his friend had told him Santa wasn’t real, it was your parents. There’s always one child with older siblings who tells everyone else it’s made up.

@bakedbrain “Whereas I don't think any adult in this world believes unicorns are real.”

Sadly, I think you overestimate the intelligence of many adults 🤣

A steiner school might be more up your street if you're into fairies! They love all that stuff

Teacher here…please and I mean please…do not make a complaint to the school about unicorns and fairies. Please…don’t…thank you 🙄(unless you want to be the conversation of the staff room and ‘that mum’ for your child’s entire schooling)
(and yes I do have children of my own)

You are talking about 4 yr olds and apparently the teacher just interrupted a group of little girls and told them what they were talking about was not real. Can anyone be 100% certain that that is how it played out?

I don't think there was ever a time when my children believed in fairies or unicorns but it didn't stop them dressing up, pretending or turning rocking horses into unicorns.