No choice apart from religious schools

[Janey55]

I fully support and appreciate the importance of religious education however I wholeheartedly disagree with every public funded school in my town being affiliated with religions. My 4 year old son has learnt this week about the significance of eating hot cross buns at Easter; the remembrance of Jesus being nailed to a cross for days! He’s had nightmares every night this week! What a nasty evil story to tell young children and I can’t see any benefit from this. I appreciate he could easily have learned this in a non C of E school in RE but it just confounds my utter disbelief that in 2022 we have no other choice than to send our beloved children to establishments that insist on religious rituals throughout the day. Whether it be saying prayers to God every morning or saying Grace before lunch. There should be the option to send your child to a religious school or not. There is no option apart from C or E or Catholic schools where I live. Sorry, rant over, just wanted to get that off my chest!

Every parent who doesn't share the religious ethos of any religious school is allowed to require that their child is removed from class for any religious elements e.g. prayers and rituals. If there's genuinely no choice there must be a lot of other parents at the school who feel similarly so get organised - one child who is opting out of religious elements may just be told to sit in a corridor with a book and will soon be asking to be allowed to rejoin the class, but if 20 kids are opting out then the school have to start offering something different.

All school are required to have daily collective worship and to teach RE. Yes, if many parents are objecting to content and withdrawing their children then they may be forced to alter the way they they deliver these parts if the curriculum.

Did you not teach your child what Easter is last year? Mine were taught the significance of festivals from the start, and both were given childrens bibles as gifts when born, never gave them nightmares