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.

You aren't making sense at all now, wuzzup, so you're right, it's best if you don't engage any further.

BTW, if you don't llke the typeface, talk to MNHQ

Secular - Oxford Dictionary definition:

adjective
1Not connected with religious or spiritual matters: secular buildings secular attitudes to death Contrasted with sacred.

Secularity (adjective form secular,[1] from Latin saecularis meaning "worldly" or "temporal") is the state of being separate from religion, or not being exclusively allied with or against any particular religion.

BTW, if you don't llke the typeface, talk to MNHQ

I would never dream of reporting anyone to MNHQ for anything. I believe in free speech and will defend with my life your right to say something even if I do not like it or disagree with it.

That is one of the values this country we like in stands for (still) and one people diedfor ( and which we will commemorate in just a week's time).

That you can make that comment at all means you probably do not understand what that freedom has cost and that you would quickly complain if "offended". Says it all about you really.

Your comment about the typeface has nothing to do with Remembrance Sunday, wuzzup.

It was in the last sentence of your tirade upthread.

I wonder why somebody would move from being a University lecturer to teaching in a comp.
I also wonder why a class teacher would have access to the pastoral records of pupils' faith backgrounds - that would be a DP no no in the schools round here.

I wonder what OP thinks of having her stance defended in such a manner.

Hi folks. We know this is a subject people feel strongly about on both sides, but could we remind everyone to remain civil when posting, please? Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines just to refresh everyone's memories. Thanks!
www.mumsnet.com/info/netiquette

talkinpeace, that was my point really, about the personal data of students.

I have access to it in my school because one of my jobs is managing attendance. We also have a one-page data sheet available for teachers to view when, for example, they need to contact a parent urgently. I'm struggling to think of any reason that would require a teacher to collect data on students' personal religious beliefs and memorise it, unless they had the HT's express permission to do so.

Simply saying it enables you to interact with students better would be no defence at all, because it isn't necessary to know a student's personal religious beliefs in order to interact with them effectively as a teacher.

Suburban,I agree with Wuzzup. I also want my children to have a Classical education in the great British tradition. I am also an intellectual snob. I don't want child centred " discovery " " make your own mind up" history. I want British history.
And no matter how many times you deny it Britain is a Christian country. You may not like it but it is a fact...it's not my imagination, or hearsay, or history...it's a fact. Get over it as you would say.
Also Suburban, stop being so bloody aggressive in your questioning...you come across as full of hatred. Wuzzup is entitled to her views. You are not the arbiter of what is right, or what people are allowed to think.

yes I agree and I think alot of people do consider themselves Christian even if they don't go to church. it is entwined with our history, our laws and our culture but we seem to have to apologise for it.

for goodness sake don't apologise for it. Don't be bullied by the likes of Suburban Rhonda and Talkinpeace who simply want to shout everybody else down.
As I said above, I am now an atheist but my dcs will be brought up Christian as I was. They attend a Christian school and attend Church weekly. I do this because of our Christian heritage. I actually think all state schools should teach the religion of the country...Christianity. Parents can always opt out on behalf of their dcs if they don't like it.

Words fail me!

good

3kids, this thread isn't in any way about what you want for your children in terms of their education. You don't make education policy (thank goodness!) so it's interesting, but irrelevant. Or perhaps just irrelevant.

But I would urge you to rein in the personal attacks, as per MNHQ's comment, following wuzzup's post to me at 10:50:16 today.

HTH.

I haven't attacked anyone. I have just suggested that posters resist bullying.
I have also suggested that your questioning of Wuzzup appeared to me to be very aggressive. I still think that. I also think they were personal attacks. And I suggest MNHQ's comments were probably aimed at you because my suggestions were made after their comment.
There are many comments on here about what people want for their dcs...indeed the original post is about that very thing!

Also Suburban, stop being so bloody aggressive in your questioning...you come across as full of hatred.

Not really "suggesting" that my questioning of wuzzup "appeared" to be very aggressive, is it?

It's hard to know who MNHQ's comment was aimed at, but it did appear straight after I reported wuzzup's post.

Oh, so if you don't like what someone says you report them do you?
I see.
Goodnight and God Bless!

MNHQ strongly encourage reporting of any posts that break the talk guidelines. I have also reported posts on this thread.

Why imply that this is a wrong thing to do?

I work part time (teaching A level only and I am year group a tutor) because it suits my lifestyle. It was what suited my needs after I married and had my family. There is nothing sinister about it. Lots of people do what I did.

That anyone needs to question it seems to suggest that they belive teachers are somehow lesser able or less worthy in some way. Do posters really believe that?

I find the concept of bringing your children up in a faith you have decided, presumably for good reasons, to reject completely bizarre. And implies a level of intellectual dishonestly that can't possibly be good for family relationships.

I'm also a bit about a self-professed atheist signing off with "God bless".

For someone who has been accused of using the 'true Christian' argument by you Hakluyt on previous threads,you are getting dangerously close to prescribing what a 'true atheist' should look like. Would it not be safer to accept that there is a broad range of thought through Atheism,agnosticism and theism and it makes the world a more interesting place because of it. Imagine we were all the same. What a boring world that would be.
Is saying God bless as an atheist any different to saying 'oh my god' as an Atheist. Or Jesus Christ as an atheist. I object to it because I hate to hear it but I know plenty atheists who delight in using such language!

There is only one sort of atheist. Because the only thing that makes an atheist an atheist is the not believing in God thing. There are lots of different sorts of Christian. Only one sort of atheist.

so an atheist has one core belief that makes them an atheist, but apart from that can believe anything they like about any other topic and this does not affect their atheism.I get that and I accept that.
I would say a Theist believes in God,full stop. Outside of that they may hold all sorts of other ideas that some theists will agree with and others wont.Most major world religions are monotheist.
Christians follow Christ,and there may be a diverse range of ways in which that is expressed in their lives. Is there a reason that they all have to behave in exactly the same way?
The fact that Christians follow Christ but have a range of opinions about other stuff is often used by Atheists to try and undermine the core belief and yet there is no such expectation for Atheists who can not believe in God but be free to have diverse opinions about everything else.

No Hakluyt, that is the exact equivalent to saying "There is only one sort of Christian. Because the only thing that makes a Christian a Christian is the believing that Jesus was the son of God thing".

There are as many different types of atheist as there are atheists.

Even Christians, Jews and Muslims are atheist when it comes to gods other than their own.

Woddayaknow, can you expand on what you see as the different types of atheist in terms of what they believe?

For me, there is a big problem with saying that different kinds of Christianity is directly equivalent to different kinds of atheism. Different kinds of Christianity have different belief systems supporting the fundamental tenet of faith; atheism is the absence of a religious belief full stop.

In answer to vdb's post, one reason I'm no longer religious having been brought up that way was the lack of consistency - so yes, I can see why people ask about consistency of belief around religion, because it's one thing that just never made sense to me and ultimately why I am now an atheist. As an atheist, my opinions are entirely consistent with my beliefs around a deity, as I'm sure Hak's are with hers. I'm aware just from what I've read of her on MN, we have some extraordinarily different opinions and we've disagreed pretty violently (but politely!) in the past. But her opinions are consistent with her atheism as I hope mine are with my 'belief system'.

I don't think anyone's suggesting all Christians must think alike - but if those opinions are incompatible with the belief system being professed then that's an issue - particularly if that belief system is being pressed on others.

I don't really care what other people believe as long as they don't expect it to give them a special status in society that gives them greater privilege or more rights than others.

Even Christians, Jews and Muslims are atheist when it comes to gods other than their own.

Er, no. That's not what atheism means.