How Christian is a C of E primary school?

[tiffsayshi]

Hi all,
Currently on the search for a new house, and have found one which I am quite interested in. I was looking at schools in the area for my daughter, and the closest is a C of E primary rated outstanding, which is less than a mile away. This would be convenient, but the only issue is that our family is atheist. The next closest primary school is 4 miles away and rated good by ofsted. Are there any other atheist parents who have children enrolled in C of E schools, and how heavy are they on the religious aspect of things?

Unhelpfully, it completely depends on the school. Look at the admissions criteria, and how many pupils are admitted under each criteria - if it regularly admits a reasonable number of pupils of no/other faith, it's likely to be less religious than one that is always oversubscribed under the faith criteria.

It will depend on the school. But if its a village school, it will likely take all the local children regardless of religion and it might just be the vicar coming in regularly. (For what it's worth, two of the community primaries my children have attended had similar visits)

Definitely depends on the school. I taught at a small C of E school in a city. Daily collective worship including singing assembly when they learn Christian songs, big emphasis on RE (it's a core subject) so between 1 hour - 1 hour 15 mins a week (although exploring six major religions, not just Christianity), school inspections that are separate to Ofsted looking at Christian values (although they tend to be more common sense like kindness etc), half-termly church services and visits, vicar and other Christian speakers coming in.

Some schools will do less, I suppose. But this was an outstanding school with Ofsted and with the Christian inspection (SIAMS). It's going to naturally be Christian in character, but any decent school is going to teach about a wide range of religions and be accepting to those of all faiths and none.

Ours told us the religious side would be light. maybe it's because we are atheist, but I wouldn't call it light. 2 weeks into the school year our daughter was asking to go to church. She also comes up with stuff like 'the world was created jn 7 days'. I would say she mentions Jesus three or four times a week.
I would probably still send her to this school if I had my time again as it is academically strong. I just wish they hadn't lied to us. Other schools in the area were much more upfront about it.

Totally depends on the school, the staff and the relationship with the local church.

I would say the 3 village schools round here with no church connections have far more religious input that the church of England school in a neighbouring village.

Same where I used to live up north, Christian parents were choosing the non-church school because it did far more Christian activity than the church school.

I absolutely agree that it depends on the school and also the extent of the head's own beliefs. When recruiting heads, many CE schools only require candidates to be supportive of a Christian ethos rather than a practising Christian (so they can attract the best people).

As a very general point, voluntary aided schools tend to be a bit more full-on than voluntary controlled. This is partly because VA schools always have a majority of foundation governors (appointed by the church) on the Governing Body. Whereas VC schools only have to have 2 foundation governors up to a maximum of 1/4 of the GB.

BUT - all the above you can disregard if it's an academy!

I visit schools all the time in my work and I would say that CE schools are definitely some of the loveliest in terms of their culture of love and compassion so don't let it put you off. Some you would barely realise that they are CE at all.

Ours is fabulous.

I wanted a cofe school and they're beyond amazing.

Why consider cofe if you are atheist.

🧐

@Iloveallofthem

Ours is fabulous.

I wanted a cofe school and they're beyond amazing.

Why consider cofe if you are atheist.

🧐

Because I also wanted a minimal school run and small class sizes. It has a Good rating, a lovely feel, marvellous facilities and the children all seem happy. I also very much liked the Head, I felt reassured by her.

OP, as pp have said, it's really dependent on the individual school. Nothing particularly religious filters through to home via ds from his school. I don't mind him learning about religions etc. He doesn't accuse me of blasphemy when I say 'Jesus Christ!' 8 times a day, so no indoctrination seems to be happening.

@Iloveallofthem

Ours is fabulous.

I wanted a cofe school and they're beyond amazing.

Why consider cofe if you are atheist.

🧐

Because in rural villages it's often your only choice,

Ours is CofE but says it focuses on kindness and inclusion over religion. There definitely have been a few phases where it’s felt a lot of religion has been involved but in hindsight, maybe that’s to be expected in the build up to Christmas or Easter. The school does teach about all religious holidays and beliefs as well though.

Overall, it’s a fantastic village school that I would send them to every time I had the option.

We moved to a village where the infant school isn’t c of e, but the junior school is, with no other real option for alternative juniors. As an atheist, I was uncertain whether it would be ok or not, so I asked others who lived here. There’s quite a sizeable Muslim population, and they all seemed to happily attend the school as well. I was assured it would be fine and we’ve found that to be the case. The infant school was pretty strongly Christian as well (visits from the church etc). But we just carried on as we are, and actually when the children went to the more Christian junior school, they started showing an inclination to pay less attention to the religious aspects. We never said anything “bad” about Christianity, didnt make it “them and us” but the kids know we don’t believe, though some of their friends families do, and so do some people in our families. The most I’d do would be to say, with a slight eye roll, when looking at the boards in school which declared “our Christian values are kindness, respect etc” , I’d say “or as I like to call them, ‘values’”.
The children coexist happily with other non-religious families, Christian, Muslim and Jewish families. But I do think it depends a lot on the head as well.

Omg sorry for block of text. Must use paragraphs.

I have experience of 2 C of E village schools. Both say prayers daily and have an assembly including hymns and prayers 3x per week or more.

DD goes to a C of E junior school as it it is the feeder school from the non- C of E infant school over the road.
I think they have collective worship a couple of times a week. She comes home telling us odd bits about it. DH and I definitely do not believe in God but just tell DD some people believe, some don't we're all different and it's up to her what she believes. I remember being taught about God in primary school and it wasn't C of E. She doesn't seem to be learning much different to what we did .

My DD goes to a c of e school and we are atheists/agnostic. They attend church 3 times a year, they have the local priest/Vicar visit every 4-6 weeks. My DD has come out of school chatting about and asking questions about God frequently and we always just rephrase things with her as 'some people believe...' and she is aware that she can believe whatever she wants but neither myself or her dad believe in god, at least not in the way she is being taught and she accepts that. Her class is very diverse with many different religions across the 30 children so she knows not everyone believes what the school preaches and has learnt a lot about other religions thanks to this.

My children’s school is heavy on the Christianity. We’re in London and there are 2 other outstanding primaries within a 10 minute walk, so local parents make an active choice and know what they’re signing up for. Plenty from other faiths and with no religious beliefs chose it because of the good results and strong community spirit, but understand that there will be regular church services, vicar visits and prayer weeks involved.

I think if a school is the only choice for miles around and parents have less choice about they’re “buying into”, then the ethos is probably a bit more neutral.