Mine attend a Church school but only as it happens to be the village school, there is only one non-Christian family there I am aware of (Muslim) but several very vocal Evangelist famillies who are Governors and are massively influential and lead to confusion on aspects of the curriculum such as evolution.
For my family I dont mind the school but desperately wish the school taught more than Christianity with a smidgin of Judaism (the old testament)- I may be well qualified to teach my children about the beliefs of other people (halfeway through final essay of woprld religion degree), but most aren't, and I wonder about the exposure of the teachers to other faith groups, I would suggest t is minimal.
I get aprticularly ocncerned when one lady, Head Governor 9and also a friend thoughw ea rgus this topic often) tries to tell me about the evils of Islam etc and relays stories from the Qur'an which, as someone who has actually read it, I ama ware are quite definitely made up. She even believes its balsphemy to ahve a copy in the house: my argument is that Jesus taught peole to love their neighbours, i think I may have missed the parapgraph about 'but only ones who follow the same belief system as your own'!.
In order for us all to try and exist together we have to understand the absics of each others belief systems- including humanism, athreism and agnosticism. There si so much in common in all belief systems and so much intelligent debate can be ahd from subjects such as 'where does goodness come from/', debate that can be inclusive and enable young people to learn a lot about themselves and their own motivations and priorities: a key factor in a truly effective (not necessarily exam focussed!) education system.
Actually, I think that's how RE should be taught: stuff for the littlies on the basics so they just understand each other- what their friend Aisha is celebrating at Ramadan and why Mr Singh wears a turban, through the 'factual' bits inearly senior school (what the Qur'an and Bhagavad Gita are, etc, witha few of the mythologies) and after that using the knowledges as a reference for exploring themselves and general philosophy a bit more.
I detest this 'people shouldn't believe in God' as much as I detest any person who insists their own faith holds the answers: we are a supposedly free society and just because we don't agree with something doesn't mean its wrong. Or that nothing can be learned from it. yes atrocious things have been done in the name of religion- I suspect most of them would have occurred with other excuses if religion had not existed. And not all religious systems are owners of a violent history- look at Jainism and Buddhism for example, is there any belief system more pacifist than Jainism?
Somebody mentioned the five religions mentioned; in Uni we often discuss the 'big six': Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. the degree used to also cover a separate module on humanism also, but this changed to Jainism (I think when the teaching staff changed but am not certain). There are also cultural modules which refer to Shinto, Tao, Bon, etc and are important for putting the other faiths in their proper context.
Oh and the bit about believing in God.... traditinal Buddhists don't, and they are covered in RE In fact there's a whole world of discussion as to whether Buddhism is a religioon at all, but thats by the by.