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.

There isnt a faith forum on MN pipbin. Not even a hint of one about spiritual things.

Yes there is.

There is also the rest of the internet you know. I hear there is quite a lot of it.

How much time do you want a school to spend in teaching religion? Your child can get educated at a non faith school, and you can teach him about your faith at home.

I don't think the teacher did mock, did she? She gave her opinion. As I said, not uncommon in secondary school RE lessons

We will have to disagree. My understanding from what I have been told by other parents,other children and my own DC is that she did mock her. Of course I was not there so I can only go on what I have been told by those who were.

Howver, unlike it seems the majority here, I would preferit if my DC weretaught RE by someone with a religious faith ( I do not care which one). I am pretty sure that in an RC school the RE lessons are not taught by atheists ( even if some of the teachers are atheist). I believe that an RE teacher in a faith school has to hold the faith.

Of course I cannot have that. I may well have to at least temporarily remove my DC from RE lessons. I know a couple of JH's do this in the school but I would have preferred not to cause my DC to be identified more by my withdrawing her. But I will not put up with teachers making insensitive and mocking remarks about faith however they want to phrase it. An opinion or otherwise. I do not go around evangelising them, I do not want them telling my DC what they think.

Your child can practise her / your faith at church. That's what churches are for.

If your child is being bullied at school that's a different issue and needs to be dealt with via the appropriate channels.

Agree with NancyJones 100%.

Has your child actively chosen to share the same faith as you by the way? Seems to be an awful lot about your demands and rights, and not much about your child feeling that she needs more religion in her school life.

Ohmychrist I find that incredibly offensive. People can choose what to believe and what to not believe but you don't go about mocking people for it.

"We will have to disagree. My understanding from what I have been told by other parents,other children and my own DC is that she did mock her. Of course I was not there so I can only go on what I have been told by those who were."

So what did she actually say? Because nothing you have said so far sounds at all mocking.

There is also the rest of the internet you know. I hear there is quite a lot of it

Maybe, but nowhere as knowledgeable as MN when it comes to knowing how to get your DC into the school of your choice.

Well, before you do anything, I would ring the faith schools and check on the religious affiliations of everyone in the RE department.......

Has your child actively chosen to share the same faith as you by the way

I feel very blessed that my DC has chosen to share our faith. However, she does not express it in the same way as we do. Whilst we go to a non conformist denomination, I know my DC actually has leanings toward a quieter contempative approach and may well decide when she is older to travel a path toward either the High Church C of E or even Roman Catholicism. I do not know what her path will be. That isnt for me to decide. But it is not for others to mock either.

Please could you say in what way she was mocked?

I think you need to recognise that RE in secondary schools, faith or non-faith, private or state, isn't just teaching kids what certain religions believe. The secondary RE syllabus is far more broad than that. As well as faiths, and the reasons why some people have faith and others don't, your child should be discussing the pros and cons of organised religion, atheism, how religion fits into the modern world, philosophy, the Big Bang, abortion, euthanasia and a whole load of other ethical topics too. Most kids surprisingly enjoy these, and a good teacher should facilitate debate and discussion. They do NOT need to have a faith themselves and often shouldn't in order to remain objective.

titchy that is a massively good point. DD1 is in Yr9 and in RE at the moment she is working on the concept of marriage - what it means in different faiths, the implications towards the rights of men, women and children, marriage equality and its implications in those countries where it has been implemented... If well taught, RE is a wide-ranging and enormously thought-provoking subject. The way DD1 is being taught now has restored my faith in the subject after 2 years of relentless Christian evangelism from a teacher who was essentially incompetent.

Faith should be a private thing. I have a fundamental problem with it being taught in schools, other than "this is what different faiths believe".

I have an even bigger problem with the state funding of religious schools to enable them to brainwash children. It's entirely possible to teach morality and ethics without resorting to dogma and religion.

But until the state funding of religious schools stops, then I think it's perfectly fine to suddenly acquire a religion in order to get into them. I pay for them, why shouldn't my children be able to access them? To expect anything else is disingenuous - there are far more places in religious schools in the uk than there are genuinely religious people.

She shares your faith because she knows no different. When she grows up she'll probably reject silly Christian nonsense along with other fantasies like the tooth fairy and father Christmas

You do not know that. It is no more likely she will reject her faith than it is that she will follow my particular path of expression.

You might like that to be the case but I doubt it will be. Most people born into families with little or no religious affiliation stay that way and most who are in families with a faith remain there too. My DD has never believed in the tooth fairy fwiw.

How was she mocked?

I pay for them, why shouldn't my children be able to access them?

I pay for them too, so why should I equally not be able to access them? Why should I have to accept otherwise? I have a genuine faith. As you point out, there arent too many of us left.

She was told she was a nutcase because she has an imaginary friend called Jesus. She was told Jesus hadnever existed and it was all a fairy tale. The class laughed at her for being a " siilly girl believing in airy stories" That is how she was mocked.

That is what I have been told happened.

To add insult to it I understand that the teacher actually started off by asking who went to church and what religion different children held too. As my DD is currently not talking much in school ,other children pointed her out just to help the teacher along. As my DD said to me, she would not have chosen to disclose such information in the classroom setting and certainly not to this teacher.

Yes, it's rubbish that you've been given an expectation that you can get a state education that also prioritises your faith and your child over children of other faiths and none.

You should never have been given that expectation, except we have an education system that is hopelessly discriminatory and unfair and prioritises certain faiths at the expense of vast numbers of children.

Your child's school soon sounds bad, so you need to address that. It's not bad because it's a community school. It's bad because it's bad.

You should also recognise your privilege in that your children have had a primary education in a school of your chosen faith in a system that denies large numbers of children a local education because it prioritises the children of churchgoers. I don't have a great deal of sympathy that the state is not continuing to find your daughter's faith school education in a way that is convenient for you.

"She was told she was a nutcase because she has an imaginary friend called Jesus. She was told Jesus hadnever existed and it was all a fairy tale. The class laughed at her for being a " siilly girl believing in airy stories" That is how she was mocked"

The teacher told her she was a nutcase? And a silly girl believing in fairy stories? And she is still at that school exactly why? If she was mine she wouldn't have gone back.