School asking daughter to remove small cross despite religious symbols policy

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I'm looking for some advice and thoughts!

DD is 15 and at secondary school. She has always worn a small silver cross - at primary school this was never an issue (it was a church school) Up until this point it's not been an issue at secondary school either. The cross is very small and is tucked into her shirt so you would have to be really looking for it in order to see it. She always removes it for PE etc.

Last Monday her head of year saw the cross and asked her to remove it. My daughter replied that it was her cross, and that she didn't want to. She was then approached and asked to remove it every day for the remainder of the week, with increasing threats of sanctions if she didn't comply with the schools 'no jewelry' rule. My daughter kept reiterating that this was her cross, and asked the teacher to speak with me. Finally on Friday I received an email to tell me that my daughter needed to take her cross off.

I completely understand the new jewelry rule but wonder how this sits alongside the responsibility that the school has under the equalities act 2010. In their uniform policy it states that it will 'allow pupils to wear headscarves and other religious or cultural symbols' I would interpret this to include a cross too?

My daughter wears her cross as a sign of her faith and really wants to continue to do this.

Has anyone come across this situation before? If so, what was the solution?

Right you are, Sir Keir...

i don’t think you can just wear anything because it’s a religious symbol though.

you’ll get kids rocking up with jumpers with crosses on and refusing to take them off as it’s their faith. Or big chunky dangling cross earrings….

if it’s no jewellery then she can find another way to demonstrate her faith.

someone suggested studs but surely that’s jewellery.

but yes I think OP needs to ask the school how she can wear something safely and in the rules.

Can excellent idea.

it’s unsurprising there is an attendance crisis when young people are treated so disrespectfully

So where does that leave you if the school stands equally firm in saying it is not allowed?

There are reasons why the cross is worn on a chain around the neck.

She has a perfect right to wear her cross. Don't budge.

No responsible church leader is going to provide a letter saying it is a requirement of being a practising Christian that you wear a cross. Because it would be untrue.

I thought there was an attendance crisis because thousands of parents pulled their children out of school during term time so that they could get cheaper package holiday deals???

And then the teachers got the blame (grief) when that child failed to get a level 4 or 5 gcse... In the teachers 'appraisal' that poor maths/physics teacher had failed to meet the standards imposed by OFSTED...

I don't think there's an attendance crisis because a girl or 2 hasn't been able to attend school because of a cross... Far more children out of school in marbella or lanzagrotty than due to an argos silver Cross crisis...

We used to. Eventually, the parents and children going ballistic because they went missing from the changing rooms, the panic when a stud fell out because 'it had diamonds on it' or a necklace snapped when it was 'a pure gold St Christopher/Sovereign' and, most of all, the injuries sustained to the neck and throat during scuffles meant that the problem more or less solved itself. Just have to deal with kids needing first aid for manky piercings they've done in the toilets and the occasional accidental bumps in busy queues for lunch or at lesson changeover causing a navel piercing to tear out these days.

It's not really comparable, though, is it, because even in jobs requiring uniform there is rather more freedom around what you wear with the uniforms - nurses, for instance, choose whatever footwear they like, and no-one prescribes what colour socks fire officers wear. Whereas there is a general acceptance that schools have a right to prescribe virtually every item of clothing that is visible, subject only to Equality Act requirements. Whether schools should be able to prescribe uniforms at all is, of course, another issue.

Thank you!!!! Agree

Nothing better for the school or out of school bully to throttle a child with than a metal chain. Cheap chains worse as steel and silver harder to break than soft 22 carat gold :)

No, she doesn't. This would be a very silly hill to die on.

That's a new one. So are Christian school pupils staying away from school in their thousands because they're desperate to wear crosses? Wait till Reform hears about that one.

Yes, she does. No, it wouldn't.

no idea about firemen and socks but nurses have to wear shoes that comply with health, safety and infection control requirements.

No doubt if she can quote where in the Bible or elsewhere there is a requirement on people to wear hats with crosses on, it will be.

Unfortunately there isn't even a requirement to wear any sort of cross, so really that's an end of it.

Obviously, but they aren't told they must specifically choose from a limited range of makes, styles and colours.

Do tell - what is the authority for the proposition that OP's daughter has a right to wear a cross on a chain as jewellery, where other pupils are not allowed to wear jewellery of any sort?

This!

But where is there a requirement that British Christians must practise their religion by wearing bits of cross-shaped metal on chains round their necks? Literally thousands of practising Christians don't. Are they all less devout? Or are they perhaps just less showy?

Tosh.

A cross or crucifix on a chain is an historical and widely acknowledged demonstration of the Christian faith. As such it is protected in British law.

If the school is requesting that the young lady substitute her cross for a different method of expressing her faith, then I went for something on the head so it would be viewed as equal to that of a Muslim or a Jewish person. I am sure the school would be delighted that the young lady has adhered to their health and safety rules and forfeited her cross in lieu of a more acceptable ‘ clothing based’ expression of faith. Or are you saying she has no right to any expression of faith because it’s Christianity?

Untrue. A headscarf is definitely NOT cultural and very much part of the teachings of Islam.

What are you on?

petty rules, bully tactics, yes it’s unsurprising that kids are struggling to attend.

You have such a low view of teenagers I hope you’re not working in school and they can avoid your hatefulness.

I’m grateful my children are in schools with sensible, empathic teachers. Also unsurprisingly no child has been garrotted with a cross here.

As a Christian teaching assistant:
There is a no jewellery rule that means no jewellery
There is not a no head coverings rule

That means that children CAN wear head coverings including if they have a religious reason to do so, or if they are on chemo, or if their get cold heads, or if they like the feeling!

That means the children CAN'T wear jewellery, whether for religious or other reasons.

ENTIRELY FAIR. Especially as there are potential safety reasons for no jewellery and quite honestly there is religious jewellery that is big. Parents and kids can be selfish and stupid - their could be kid that comes in something huge and "in your face", there could be a kid who wears something they physically can't take off themselves. Stop letting your daughter make the teachers' lives harder by trying to justify why she should be allowed to flaunt a very sensible rule.