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 ??

“Miss are Unicorns and Fairies real?”

…what is she supposed to say ?

I very much doubt she said “have a nice weekend everyone, and, by the way, mythical creatures are not real”

I’m Catholic, I’m a governor at a Catholic High School, my daugher went to Catholic School. No issues with unicorns, fairies, Santa, tooth fairy, Harry Potter, Halloween Disco (not at high school), we teach about other cultures and religions, support Pride, don’t mandate anyone goes to church…. And we’ve never minded magic (we wouldn’t be particularly happy if someone bought an Ouija Board in. Our biggest issues are trying to stop vaping, lack of mental health service, lack of money (like any other school)

Mine are in the Catholic system. There is s difference between not teaching that mythical beings are real and not squashing the wonderful imagination of little people.

Our primary would not have come out and told them they were myths, they would have been far more likely to play along and ask them questions about their fairies and unicorns and encouraged story telling.

Not quite the same as dinosaurs are real (just extinct) but one of the teachers did a whole topic on dinosaurs involving the eggs being found, investigating them the eggs hatching overnight and there being footprints around the classroom and more investigating and trying to identify the dinosaurs. Anyway dd got well in to it and believed it had been real for several years. Her teacher did mention it to us one parents evening that she was a little concerned that dd thought it was real but not one teacher ever broke her bubble.

That teacher/school sounds a disaster.

We’re in Ireland but not religious (I’m aetheist and DH was brought up a Protestant). We sent DS to a Catholic NS/primary school as it was in walking distance of home.

The teachers at his school wouldn’t have ever said that fairies didn’t exist as they have mentioned the tooth fairy when a child loses a baby tooth. Thankfully, they were perfectly fine with DS opting out of the Mass and other religious services, so it wasn’t really an issue for us and a few other non religious families.

I'm going to agree with pp, you made an active choice to send your child to an RC school. There is always another choice. You say that the other one had a "bad report", and you have problems with transport. That being the case, you must have compromised on religious beliefs, so you'll just have to agree with their doctrine, or move your child.
What are you going to do when the rest of the class have their First Holy Communion?

Yes. There is the monster under the bed and one in the cupboard. Never leave your cupboard door open at night, or he will jump out at you, and you have to jump out of bed to ensure the one under there doesn't catch your ankles.

No all schools absolutely do not have an element of religion

A teacher teaching facts to the children? Disgraceful.

@QuietDragon I didn't want anyone to tell her they were real. But I did not expect for a teacher to go up to a group of 4 year olds and tell them what they were talking about wasn't real.
Unprovoked and uncalled for

@toadasoda thank you for this!
No mention of Halloween as of yet. And after some of these comments... I will bid my hope of it goodbye! Sadly. As we love it here at home!!
But as for Christmas yes. They immerse themselves in it and there is lots of talk of Santa etc.
same at Easter with the Easter bunny.
Which is why I am shocked

OP, is she upset at all? Or is it you who is upset?

We are off to London for a few nights for our half term and my 5 year old asked if we can go visit Paddington at the Browns house… I didn’t know he thought it was real or not because it’s simply never come up in conversation before! I just said that Paddington is just pretending, he’s not real. And he was ok with it. No tears shed.

should I have led him on a bit?

How are you squaring the RC beliefs with her?
I find it strange that you've made that significant compromise, yet have issues with this.
Does it get her into a better secondary?

I worked at a catholic school and the kids weren't even allowed to dress up for a school organised disco happening on halloween.

Are people really suggesting that non-Catholic schools tell children fairies and unicorns are real? 🤔

Because they are made up?

Doesn't mean they can't still enjoy them.

if you were a vegan would you work in an abattoir and then moan about the animals being killed?

Why are you whinging about a Catholics schools beliefs if your family is not Catholic?

Remove your child, the school is not at fault for having beliefs you don't like!

which is still somewhat a religious school

How can a school be somewhat religious. What does that even mean

Having said that - I went to all catholic schools myself and remember going to a halloween disco at the church hall!

I think it varies school to school.

What a sad thing to say to a young child!

But this is religion so you should’ve expected it.
Wait til they suck all the joy out of Halloween and tell them witches are evil.
The patriarchy lives on in our schools 🙄

Shocking! She murdered a fairy by saying that!

Ask for a refund

Hang on if 90% of children there are Muslim, the Catholicism won't be dominant in their lives at all. So how do the other parents manage? Have they opted their children out of all religious activities of the school - which is a choice you have?

Would a Muslim dominant Catholic school ever even do Halloween? Will all her classmates be opted out of Christmas activities?

This. We’re catholic and my dd is at catholic school and the non religious parents, who send their children because it’s a cut above all other schools really piss me off when they moan about the religious aspect.

In DS’s village Primary at least 4 kids in his class didn’t do Communion. It’s not that unusual these days. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Usually when they all go across to the church, the kids not taking part spend the time sat at the back reading/colouring in or just watching the proceedings.

The only time DS felt left out was when he realised how much cash these kids receive from their extended families after attending first communion etc. It’s pretty obscene in my view bribing kids to take part in religion. 🤔

Are people being deliberately provocative? The OP didn't say that she wanted the school to teach her children that unicorns and fairies are real. But there is quite a big gap between that, and telling a load of 4 year olds that fairies are made up and therefore the tooth fairy isn't real! Just do what most adults do and keep quiet about it unless asked a direct question and then preface an answer with 'well I believe this but other people might think differently' or some other woolly answer.
And plenty catholics have contributed to this thread and confirmed that 'magic' is still celebrated at their Catholic school so clearly there is no way the OP could have known that the teacher was likely to say this. And I know a lot of people who would send their child to a religious school purely for its good teaching reputation even though they weren't religious, especially when the alternative is a failing school

Also this really depends on the context:

‘Miss, are unicorns real because I think they are and Evie says they aren’t?’
‘Well, there are lots of amazing animals that are real, like flamingos and elephants, but unicorns aren’t real. It’s fun to believe in them and make up stories isn’t it.’

or

‘Miss, I’ve drawn you a picture of a unicorn’.
‘How dare you wicked child. Don’t you know that unicorns are the work of the devil and are made up just to let evil into your mind. The devil makes these things up just to confuse children. Go and say 6 Hail Marys’

Agree. There's some pretty ignorant religious bigotry going on.