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 ??

@notahappybunny7 I'm not moaning about the religious aspect. I have no problem with it at all

@InsomniacA it's really tough isn't it.
I like elements from both types of school

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

YANBU

Its different if a pupil asked directly “Teacher, are unicorns/fairies actually real?” (to which I would actually respond, “a few adults/children believe they’ve seen them, but there’s no scientific evidence they exist” - but whatever).

But yeah, the teacher just picking up on random chatter in the classroom and then butting in with “By the way …” sounds pretty killjoy to me. Let kids figure stuff out themselves rather than dividing the world into real/fake categories at the age of 4.

Particularly not a smart move if your whole school/moral ethos is built around the worship of a mythical being. They’ll soon be asking what else isn’t actually real. 😃

(unfortunately though, Catholic school so Catholic rules…)

You’re being ridiculous. If this is the only complaint you have about the school then I’d urge you to think again about moving schools.

Since when were we supposed to pretend that fairies and unicorns are real? I loved getting excited about fairies in the woods when I was your DD’s age, but I was perfectly aware that adults didn’t think they existed.

@JMSA thank you

@EmmaOvary her teacher is Hindu. You cannot make it up

In some small villages and rural areas a church school can be the only option for miles around.

V surprised to hear of Catholics stamping out myths, magic and Halloween. Not my experience at all. I'm a Catholic but my Catholic children attended a Cof E primary. The Catholic church never took against fairies, ghosts, witches and magic specifically because they just viewed it as NOT TRUE and therefore a bit of fun.

The cofE school, however, would not 'do' Halloween- no themed craft activities or anything. But they did try and counter it with a Festival of light.

I used to volunteer in the school library and many kids were not allowed to read Harry Potter or children's fiction featuring fairies, ghosts, witches or magic. i was shocked. I'd never come across those opinions in my life.

@CaptainMyCaptain

Teachers teach

doesnt really apply at religious schools, though does it. Unless they preface every “God says/thinks/teaches” throughout the day with a “We Believe…”. Which of course they don’t.

@Litchrally you haven't read this properly. I don't want these things to be taught. But I don't expect them to be shut down unprovoked

My LG goes to a quite a strict catholic school. They would never have said fairies unicorns etc aren’t real.
it surprises me that people are justifying it with ‘well they aren’t’ lots of things aren’t real. My daughter thought she was meeting the real Jasmine in Disneyland, I didn’t say she’s not real though as she was hugging her. Kids think loads of things are real that aren’t, so doesn’t mean the teacher was right. My daughters school would have supported imaginative play and beliefs, alongside being a religious school

Not all catholic people believe this ime.
It's also not just catholic people, some other Christians have the same belief. It was a couple of fairly strict CofE families who questioned us using books about witches and wizards in school.

Santa Claus is a representation of Saint Nicholas though

She sounds like a right miserable cow. No need to tell them that unicorns or fairies are real - but no need to tell them they're not either.

Tell your dd that people believe in all sorts of different things - for example the teacher believes in god and you don't and that's fine. The teacher doesn't believe in fairies and unicorns and you 100% do, you've never seen one you definitely believe they're out there somewhere. Tell her it's important to be tolerant of different people's beliefs.

Hopefully she'll then go in and explain tolerance of different beliefs to the miserable cow of a teacher 😂

Catholic schools vary widely. I know one that forbids any Halloween stuff at all and one that had a Halloween disco.

Surely it's easy to address the Not Real stuff with your daughter?

"Lots of beautiful things exist in stories and imagination, that doesn't mean they aren't wonderful. Sometimes we can decide to believe in something for a while because it's fun."

Copied and pasted

Santa Claus is really St. Nicholas of Bari (or Myra), a fourth-century Catholic bishop in Turkey. (“Santa Claus” comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas, which means “St. Nicholas.”)

I think you are being very unfair. You are happily profiting from the fact that religious schools (generally) get better results but don’t actually want them to teach your child what they believe when it comes to … unicorns. And fairies, of all things.

i don’t think you get to play the rationalist card about God (where, frankly, the jury is still out) when you are simultaneously encouraging your child to believe in complete nonsense. I thought kids got the distinction quite early on (and should be encouraged to) eg dinosaurs used to exist but don’t now whereas dragons never existed, or horses and narwhals are real, unicorns are made up)

Catholics belive that God is real, but that is the only fictional creature they believe in. They do not believe in unicorns or fairies. So teachers will promote the idea that God is real, but not promote the idea that other imaginary creatures are real.

I would be worried if a teacher was letting their pupils think that unicorns were real.

There is. It's your legal right to have your child removed from religious activity including prayers and hymns. Kids usually go an sit in the library. Do you really think the Muslim parents will let their dcs do confirmation classes?

Oh give over. I grew up strict catholic, went to a convent school . Taught by nuns and catholic teachers alike. Now non practising/agnostic. And can categorically say no teacher is out there poo pooing ideas that unicorns are real for religious purposes. This was just this one teacher. She chose to tell them that, it was nothing to do with religion.😂

I work at a non-affiliated state school.
We still don't really do anything regarding Halloween anyway.

We don't ban talk about it and children will mention it or that they're going trick or treating, but we don't do Halloween activities in school specifically. We have some pumpkins out at the moment with children scooping out the flesh, looking at the seeds, etc but again not making lanterns or anything - it is more about the science/nature aspect of them, plus they are nice and big so more than one child can be involved at a time.
I don't remember DD's primary doing specific Halloween stuff either, in the past.

I think there is a very big difference between expecting a teacher (in any school) to teach that fairies and unicorns are real and expecting them to just not involve themselves in a 4yr olds olay and chat amongst themselves to tell them all its all made up nonsense. From the OPs post it looks like the second scenario that has happened, and I dint think it was necessary or kind. If she did insert herself unnecessarily into this game ir conversation then she will also have to correct every child talking about Santas sleigh and travelling around the world in a night, or that it was your parents that left the money under your pillow and your easter egg not the tooth fairy or easter bunny. I just dont see why she needed to say anything, Catholic school or not

@MILLYmo0se yes it was the 2nd scenario. Thank you for understanding this. As it seems a lot of people are taking things out of context x

Unicorns are real. They're just fat, grey and we call them rhinos.

My DD attends a very catholic school, the church doors enter their school playground and they go every day - she is not catholic and we have never had this issue.