To think DD class should be allowed Christmas decs and music for the last week of term?

[EstherAlma]

DD is in year 4 at a CoE school and this term a girl joined who is a Jehovah's Witness.

The children usually have some decorations up in the classroom and as a treat they listen to Christmas songs whilst working the last week of term. This is happening in the other year 4 class and throughout the rest of the school - however DD's teacher has said because of the new girl's religion they can't do it this year.

DD said if anyone mentions Christmas to the girl she goes red and starts crying. She accidentally got taken to an assembly and was very upset. I'm not sure anyone has thought this through and I really feel sorry for the girl.

AIBU to think that this isn't fair on the other children in the class? I could understand if it was a secular school and also you can't walk into any shop in England right now without hearing a bit of jingle bells!!?

I had a JW child in my class in primary school and we still had Christmas decorations up. He just didn't go to the Christmas assemblies and things like that (well he never went to assembly if I remember right)

Your dds teacher told the rest of the class that they can't do anything associated with Christmas because of this girl?

I find that very hard to believe.

Few schools do Halloween and most do very little Christmas and Easter activities as they progress through the school now because of the curriculum.Who has time to decoration classrooms and why is there any need?

OP as a society there is far too much overkill re Christmas which I think is getting increasingly grating to more and more of the general population. So many could do without the Christmas hysteria. Music playing in classes would be difficult for many kids with SEN. None of this is necessary. If you want to go into a Christmas frenzy crack on and do it at home. Going without decorations and music blaring in classrooms isn’t a hardship and many schools, teachers don’t do this anyway

Another something that didn't happen, or at least not quite the way OP describes it, post.

Some people have little choice in their school. Especially in wales a church school maybe the only school for miles around.

I feel sorry for the child. I'm sure there's enough other Xmas things happening to keep the other kids happy. Like the thought of having a tonne of presents coming in a fortnight.
That child will feel different, alienated, like they are missing out, embarrassed and dreading January when everyone comes back with their long list of gifts.

A few songs and decs is no big deal. It's not the child's fault.

To be honest this would still not be a reason to me ..,somewhere in that school someone lost a family member ‘at Christmas ’.. Christmas still continues etc.even if a mourning family may prefer the joy to stop they would understand that it is just them who feels that way.

school should accommodate the JW child BUT seamlessly so no other children are impacted.
just like other children are accommodated.
Children who need extra help get it : BUT the rest of the class are not stopped from progressing. children who can’t run get a different sports dsy race BUT the rest of the class run on .seemlessly done

i think if the Christian / Santa element is too much for the parents to handle then they should remove the 1 child rather than 29 other children muss out .. or suggest a better alternative. Are all Christmas songs out ? All decorations.., paper chains ? Stars? A tree is just a tree after all

Also BTW for some children the Xmas bits of school make Christmas.. not every flat can have a tree .. or at home there may not be the money for decorations. I’ve always liked that schools provide a Christmas meal - a play - a Carol service so every child gets a Christmas in December

Why don't you take this up with the headteacher and/or PTA if it's so upsetting for everyone?
Your child's happiness is in your hands, as the happiness of the other children is based on parents ensuring the school environment is safe and happy.
Surely there is a parent WA group that can mount a response

I don't think you're going to change their minds with just a few days of term left.

Could DD suggest putting some non-Christmas music on just to cheer things up a little bit?
In the last week of term at Primary I remember mostly playing games and doing crafts - surely they can do this without it having to be heavily Christmas themed?

I think they should have been able to carry on as normal but the school thinks otherwise, there has to be a middle ground that makes things a bit more cheerful for the rest of the class, without going full on festive against whatever they have put in place for the JW family?

They all survived with no ill effects. I think it's one of those things that feels big when your kids are small but really in the grand scheme of things it isn't a big deal.

It's a big deal in that it's teaching those children to be accepting of JW as a religion to be respected. Which is not something I would want my own children to learn. We must be tolerant but JW don't have to be.

I've had JW children in my classes over the years. They go out of the room for RE, don't go to Assembly or birthday or Christmas parties. I've had one child where the parents kept them off on Christmas jumper day and when we did a colour run.

Those saying that the parents may have had no choice in the school - it's a private school so they have actively decided to send the child to a CofE school. The school is inner city and very diverse.

Our state CofE school has SIAMS inspections to check that they are instilling Christian values.

I would suspect the child has an issue with the items. Perhaps from a sensory perspective.

My children attend a multi d they navigate all and those with no religions. This doesn't sound like it's to do with JW. I suspect the school and parents are letting that be the official reason to protect the child's right to health privacy.

The children will be fine without it in their classroom.

Sorry just read your update. I agree it could be more of a sensory thing. I wouldn't be able to focus with music on.

I would be having a word with the school. Completely unacceptable to alter any main stream school activity to suit one child out of 25.

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/why-not-celebrate-christmas/

Not a big fan of JWs for personal reasons that I've had a thread on here about before.

But according to their own website, they don't generally "interfere" with other people celebrating Christmas.

That said, the world is a very strange place these days.

I just can’t believe this is true.

If it's a private school either
A) enrollment is down so they need the fees ( &or parents gave a generous donation)
B) school have never had JW before and have overreacted

Why didn't they put her in a non religious school. That's daft.

That's been our experience with them at the schools I've worked at too. Always very respectful and don't expect everything to stop for their child. I'd be very surprised if this was true tbh, even when we do make allowances we'd never tell the actual parents that it's due to another kids religious beliefs.

We've had worse experiences with disgruntled parents not happy with nativity roles if I'm honest. There's also other faiths that don't celebrate it and more and more atheists are against it too so we've had all sorts!

Sorry what?! They are actively going to try and convert my child who will be a summer born 4 and has literally no idea of the socio-political implications of any religion at that age?! I have no issue if as a consenting adult with a fully formed brain if she chooses a religion and want her to have equal and informed access to religion - but this is a child who has no idea what genocide is because she is four .

that is literally terrifying. If she doesn’t get into the secular school which isn’t in our catchment- what do I do ?! How is that possibly legal when religion is a protected characteristic and children may not have a choice where they attend ? (All our catchment schools are CoE- I’ve listed secular non catchment schools for that reason but obviously out of catchment ) There’s no way coercive indoctrination can possibly be legal.

I already wasn’t sleeping I was so stressed about this - this just makes it 10000% worse. And the appeals process is two weeks after my due date so I am going to be a hormonal sleepless mess!

as you can tell- I’m mindboggled. I thought I was just being overly hormonal with the pregnancy.

I also find it all very hard to believe.

Christmas decorations aren’t actually anything to do with the religious side of Christmas. However, I taught in secondary school and one boy in my form was JW and was kept at home for the last two weeks of term before Christmas.

We had the colour run thing but it was for Holi festival and we had a couple of staunch atheists pull out too so it's understandable imo. 'm struggling to believe OP as the general consensus is they take their kids away from the activity, don't expect it to stop for others and in my exp have always been very respectful with it.
This sounds like a school problem not a JW problem.

I am currently in a country where there are very few Christians, there are decorations and Christmas music everywhere. When we asked about it, we were told although there is no religious element to it, it is an accepted time to just celebrate family and getting together.
I do get quite cross, when in this country it is acceptable to throw tradition out of the window just in case someone, somewhere might be offended, to hell with all the rest.