Cant get DC into a faith school

[angelfireabbey]

I know this is possibly the wrong place because it seems the whole of MN is atheist or totally secular. However, there is a lot of discussion by MNers here about getting intofaith schools ( often without any faith because they are good schools).

I am a little bit fed up with it. I take my faith seriously. I take my DC to church and we believe. I wanted my DC to have a faith education. There are only two faith schools where I live. They are oversubscribed by parents who seem to have suddenly aquired a need to attend church to get a vicars signiture.

I had my pastors signiture but we didnt get a place. So instead my DC is stuck in a state school where the teachers and other children laugh and say that they have " imaginary friends" ( or simply they are nutters!) and that they believe in fairly stories etc. Sound familiar MN parents? ( I bet you wouldnt say it if someone were of say Jewish or Muslim faith though would you?). It is offensive you know.

They have an atheist teacher who clearly knows next to nothing about Christianity.

I would settle for any faith school although there are no others ( of any faith ) within 40 miles of us.

So how do I get into one? I have asked my church community. I know they are doing their best and we are praying hard but I am sure some savvy non religious types must know more here. So I am asking.
I see thread on thread where parents are scamming the system.So how does a genuine person get in?

Thanks.

I can offer an example of a teacher who called a pupil a "bar in front of 30 witnesses and a TA. It does happen

And nothing was done when the family complained????? Wow! Because I haven't seen anything like that tolerated in 24 years of teaching

I think the important phrase that was used was 'unlikely' not 'impossible'. As said up thread. Absolutely everyone agreed that, if reported as it happened, the event was totally unacceptable. No one said otherwise.

wuzzup, you've completely missed the point of what I posted.

Because I've worked in a school setting for several years and because I know about how complaints are handled, I would say on the balance of probability, it's unlikely that a complaint as serious as the Op's would be completely ignored by the school. Like PP, I'm guessing the OP's child either misunderstood what was said, or the OP didn't pursue the complaint, for whatever reason.

It's got nothing to do with "your experience is greater than mine", ffs.

Really SuberbanRhonda? Lets just take the first paragraph to pieces shall we asn see what the OP said? I am in bold,OP in plain Fact? is because I do not know, I have to accept this

I know this is possibly the wrong place because it seems the whole of MN is atheist or totally secular.(expressing an opinion - "seems like", she might well be justified by some of the responses on this thread too)

However, there is a lot of discussion by MNers here about getting intofaith schools ( often without any faith because they are good schools). ( yes there is a whole thread on it. Fact.)

I am a little bit fed up with it. (Opinion and expression of feeling)

I take my faith seriously.(Fact?) I take my DC to church (fact?) and we believe.(fact?) I wanted my DC to have a faith education.
(expression of a wish) There are only two faith schools where I live.
(fact) They are oversubscribed by parents who seem to have suddenly aquired a need to attend church to get a vicars signiture. (fact?)

One mans accusation is anothers desperation I think. Tone is difficult to read here

Pick it apart if you really must, wuzzup.

It's possible to be desperate and judgemental in the same paragraph.

Poisonwoodlife - I have just taken it to pieces for you above.

But hey, what a sad case I am turning into here. Its time I did something else.

Rhonda - I have seen many things in 22 years and being in management too. You would be surprised at how many things get covered up, swept under the carpet, hidden, ignored...... they get dealt with only if they do not go away and then often time is taken ( its called investigating).

Judgement? Where? I see only expression of feeling.

I have just read through this thread from start to finish. What OP says the teacher actually said was

'The teacher told my daughter that God did not exist her opinion and that Jesus was an imaginary friend to Christians .'

This incident started with the teacher getting kids with a faith to identify themselves.OP's child was identified via pointing by her classmates. Having identified the child,the teacher proceeded to dismiss their beliefs which in turn caused amusement to the rest of the class.
I think the word nutcase is what OP is using to state how she feels her daughter was made to feel. I expect a teacher could talk their way out of this by saying that they had made it clear it was just their opinion, but the full context is pretty unpleasant.

OP,on a different note I would caution you about considering the Brethren school. My parents left that group of Brethren in 1970 as it was becoming very culty. It has got far worse since then and whilst the schools are state of the art, they have been set up because Brethren children are not allowed to eat or really socialise with non-Brethren kids and the ones from a different Christian background are sometimes considered worse than the non-Christians.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2265258/Probe-strict-Christian-sect-school-shut-girl-pupil-37-days-making-Facebook-page.html

This article is about a Brethren school. You will note that no charges were upheld but from what my parents know of the 'sect' I would be fairly convinced that events happened as claimed.

If, as you say, the OP had simply expressed her feelings, there would not have been the large number of posts saying that her way of expressing herself wasn't doing her any favours.

Several PPs took offence at her suggestion that it was normal for staff in community schools to mock religious beliefs, to give just one example. If that's not judgemental (as well as being completely unfounded), I don't know what is.

I think the word nutcase is what OP is using to state how she feels her daughter was made to feel.

Well, if this is what the OP took to the Head as "evidence", I'm not surprised they didn't follow it up.

SuburbanRhonda you think it is acceptable for a teacher to ask children to identify themselves as having a faith, tell them you believe their faith to be nonsense, and then let the rest of the class laugh at them. How is that acceptable on any level?

Please point out to me in which post I stated that, vdb.

vdbfamily
Agree about your view of Brethren schools.
DH did some work with them - girls are not expected to speak or learn.
The teachers are all non Brethren because they themselves are so ill educated.

FWIW the extremely rude people on my plane were NOT Christian.
They clearly regarded all those not of their faith and all females to be beneath them.
Atrocious manners.

vdb in her opening post the OP claimed it was teachers and other children treating her DD in this way, only later did she narrow that down to one teacher.

wuzzup focus on the attitudes and perceptions underlying the post. She was just upset but underneath she has respect for community schools and the teachers in them? Has respect for those of other faiths and none? Really?

If this was my DD And one teacher had indeed acted in this way I would of course be rightly upset and angry but, I would not be derogatory and lashing out about those of other faiths and none, or community schools and their pupils and teachers in general. I would be able to put the incident in perspective, because though I am of faith myself I do understand that the world is a plural place with lots of shades off grey in terms of other people's attitudes and behaviour and it is not them against us. And. I would be in the school talking to them to understand the situation....

I expect a teacher could talk their way out of this by saying that they had made it clear it was just their opinion, but the full context is pretty unpleasant.

vdbfamily, I would agree with you on this one. Which is why it may not have resulted in apparent action by the school. I have seen (only my experience before anyone says more) teachers crawl out from under worse comments.

The "opinion" of the teacher, as explained, I have heard expressed many times by RE teachers in classes. I personally do not think it is appropriate at all - or rather in explaining the faith it is unnecessary. But it seems to go on. Its considered to be part of "getting the pupils to consider different points of view". Its not sensitive though. I do not think the pupils with faith of any kind needed to be identified either, although I can see that a teacher may want to identify the proportion of children in a class who may fall into different faith groups.

On a different note, the incident I mentioned above where a teacher used a rude word to describe a pupil was actually forgiven because the teacher explained it as "a sudden reaction of shock" to the fact the child was throwing a chair at her, which actually hit her, at the time. Perfectly understandable in context maybe.

I still hope the OP gets a satisfactory outcome for herself and DD.

a teacher used a rude word to describe a pupil was actually forgiven because the teacher explained it as "a sudden reaction of shock" to the fact the child was throwing a chair at her, which actually hit her, at the time.

What a shame you didn't mention that fact when you used this as an example of poor behaviour by teachers, wuzzup

Gosh, wazzup, how hostile. I was interested in whether you knew if your experience about long journeys to school was representative (as you implied in your statement to me) or an outlier. I'll look it up in a sec, I'm happy to contribute to conversations in a meaningful way.

Since it has been mentioned above, it may well be, although not clearly expressed, that the teacher suggesting the "imaginary friends" could have been interpreted by other pupils as being "a nutter" and therefore left the childopen to ridicule and laughter. This has also been within my experience, which is why such comments should be avoided imo.

Similarly, it is often difficult to know how many pupils may actively have a faith or at least nominally accept one from their family. When I taught RE in the difficult circumstance I mentioned, which was very similar to what OP has said, I was told by the RE teacher concerned that most of the pupils had no faith or understood it at all and that only one belonged to an "evangelical group" who worshipped in the school buildings at the time.

When I spoke to the classes I found out that a minority of around a third belonged to the community church who used the school. It seems they were a silent minority. Their ranks were increased I found later by nominal RC adherents, all of whom had been quiet about their faith.

I could continue and discuss what I also found out had been taught by the RE teacher because for two years thereafter I was often asked questions about it. It seems that Dawkins had been high on the agenda in class discussions. I had several discussions about this. However, none of it was on the GCSE syllabus we were following.

Surburbanrhonda...sorry if I misunderstood but that is how I read your comment that preceded mine.

Funny, how a statement here can be interpreted as "hostile" when there was no intent. Probably explains so much really.

This is well off topic now. I think its unfair to the OP to continue in this way, although it has been interesting.

What a shame you didn't mention that fact when you used this as an example of poor behaviour by teachers, wuzzup

It was still poor behaviour SuburbanRhonda
I am not defending the teacher or justifying the pupil.

Frankly I got bored part way through on this thread. Reverting to the actual question 'how do I get in my faith school', and ignoring the waffle you added for no use whatsoever, you fill the form in. It's quite simple. It's multiple choice.

They start by asking if the child is vulnerable, adopted etc. tick that if yes. And on you go ticking as appropriate. Then the pastor does their bit.

All that goes in a spreadsheet. Those with closest to 'full marks' get in and so on down the line. If you're unhappy you then appeal.

It's the same process we all follow. Irritating but I really don't see how you can jig up a form to get in.

The kids can still go to church whilst not at a church school and do all church stuff. Doesn't mean they have to be atheists.

tobeabat - it actually took me a very long time to work out who and how many pupils belonged to the church. Mostly it became revealed in small group discussions I had with them when we were discussing the Christian faith and the questions and exercises in the book we used
(GCSE). I never directly asked. The information was volunteered as we went through the subject matter we had to cover.

Missed the point again, wuzzup.

You cited that story as an example of a teacher behaving badly. You completely omitted that her response was as a direct result of being violently assaulted in class by a pupil.

Basically, you related half a story to try to make a point.