Is it usual for primary school children to be taught that god created the world?

[strandednomore]

Dd1 is in Yr1 at our local primary school. It is a church of England school but very much our local, community school, walking distance to the house, where a lot of her friends and neighbours go etc.
She has come home from school today with information about what they will be doing this term. This includes "looking at god as the creator". I hadn't realised that "creationism" was being taught in schools. Ok if taught "some people believe..." but I fear it is being taught as the "truth" to a class of 6-yr-old sponges.
I will probably speak to her teacher about this but before I do does anyone know if this is normally taught in UK schools?
Thanks

It is not about a school's teaching being about one person's beliefs. It's about ensuring that religion is taught as a system of beliefs that are personal to each of us and that each of us chooses what we believe.

Not teaching (as in many schools) that such and such is "fact" while these are just some other religions you might hear about, oh and as for atheism, we're not going to cover that at all .

Stranded all the things you've mentioned (visiting mosque, Buddhism, aboriginal beliefs) are the kind of thing your DD will study in RE - give them a chance, she's only in year 1 and I doubt they devote too much time each week to this subject!
I don't think I would like the French secular system. I love that our local schools have a mix of headscarf and turban wearing kids in there - and they learn respect for eachother through RME.

nailak - trying to think of a way to explain how it makes me feel. Imagine your child going to school and the schol saying they were a Tory school. This is your local school, you would struggle to get your child in anywhere else. Every day they have to pray to David Cameron. Every day they are taught that the Tory's policies are the correct ones and although there are other political parties and other policies, these are the ones that are right. Ok I know that is a little facetious but I am trying to show you how I feel.
stitchingmoss Thanks

Ds is at a school that isn't officially CofE but has a Christian ethos. His RS education seems to be pretty broad and includes both evolution and creationism. I think that is normal and certainly what I learnt at my non-faith state school over 40 years ago. What has changed is the interest in other non-Christian religions. Ds knows more about them than I do and it certainly wasn't something that was taught in my primary school.

If you feel so strongly that you don't want your dd to be exposed to teachings you don't agree with you can always remove her from those lessons. You could also move to an area where the local schools don't have the same focus. I'm surprised that you didn't ask about the teaching when you visited the school prior to enrolling your dd if it is something that is so fundamentally important to you.

Stranded given your last post I think that what you need to address is your own rather confused feelings and not the schools ethos which is clearly defined by the CoE in its name.

I absolutely agree. Religion should be an academic subject but that is as far as it should go.

Religion is opium for the masses.

IMO, it should have no place in schools, if you wish your child to be educated in her/his faith do it in your own time and expens

stranded, you're welcome . It's something I feel very strongly about and I thought your analogy was a good one!

It makes me so that the answer from other posters is often "well find another school" "move house" "home ed" as if our children should miss out on attending their local schools just because of our ridiculous education system wrt to RE.

I think it is appalling that humanism/atheism are still not taught as part of the RE curriculum.

I've taught humanism/atheism.

Have not read all of this but yes they ahve been taught the genesis story (non c of e village primary). I can't really see the issue. Were you not taught this at school?

I would prefer it if we could be more like the French with the separation between schools and the church. It always surprises me that surveys indicate that lots of people consider themselves Christian and yet church attendance is so low.

I can see it is important to you stranded but as a previous poster has said, it is possible to 'undo' these beliefs by talking about them at home. What I meant by 'bigger and important' was withdrawing your child from lessons/ assemblies/ celebrations may make Christianity more attractive to your DD1, wondering what she is missing iyswim , a bit like a child who eats all the sweet things at a party because stuff like that is banned at home. Sounds like you are bringing up your DD with an open mind so I'm sure she will weigh it up as she gets older and come to her own conclusions, as my DC did. For as many parents who are atheists as we are, there will be as many, or more who highly value the religious aspects of the school.

If this is bothering you in the infants though, you may be better off in the long run looking for a non-denominational school, as these sort of things will crop up again and again.

OP, if, as your post suggests, you feel so strongly about YOUR personal beliefs, then why not just sit you DC down and tell them what you believe?
Obviously wring for me to tell you to send DC to a different school, but, yeah, send them to a different school if it bugs you so much.
My DS goes to a CofE school, because it's where I went, it's pretty local and it's got small class sizes, which is far more important to me than the religious stuff.
I am an athiest, but I went to Sunday School when little, and DS is perfectly capable of making his own mind up regarding this stuff.
Like I said, if you feel that strongly about it then just tell DC what your beliefs are and let them make their own choices.

The OP has said that she will go in to school to talk to the teacher about an area of the curriculum she is concerned with - in the first instance to find out a bit more about what they are teaching. She hasn't said she is marching in there and starting a campaign.

Even if they are not teaching literal creationism there is a difference between teaching:

"There is a god who created the universe and there are different stories that different cultures and religions tell to make sense of it, and here is one of them, let's use it to learn about god"

And

"different cultures and religions have different stories about how the universe came into being and here is one of them, let's use it to learn about religion"

It is reasonable for the OP to want to find out which one it is (and it may not be obvious from what her DC says). The first version is opinion presented as fact, the second version is factual.

I don't think it is about shielding her child from learning about religion, it is about knowing whether the school is working in the interests of the local community by teaching a fact-based RE curriculum, in a way that is sensitive to different cultures, or whether it is working in the interests of the church by using their captive audience for "Sunday school" type instruction.

Either way, she may not want to pull her child out, for other reasons, but it it is important to know whether in relation to RE she will be able to say to her child "your teacher is right, there are lots of different beliefs, isn't that interesting etc..." or "your teacher is lying when she tells you that there is definately a god who created the universe, that is just a belief of some people"

... If it is the second one the school is putting parents in a horrible and awkward position. That is not the OPs fault for being an uppity atheist, who can't be bothered to homeschool.

I am sorry to disagree but a CoE school is a faith school and if you don't want your child to learn about the basics of that faith don't send her to that school. You say it is your nearest school and central to your community-what if your nearest school was RC or another faith? You cannot expect your school to leave out a huge part of its RS curriculum to suit you. The most you can expect is to have her withdrawn from those lessons.

I would very much doubt they were taught creationism. Very few Bible-believing Christians accecpt a literal 6 day creation. I am a strong Christian, and a scientist to boot. I believe God created the world, but used evolution to do it. Genesis does not contradict this. Evolution provides the "How", and Genesis, the "Why"....

I just asked dd1 (yr2) what they are taught in school about how th eworld was made and she told me that "Christians believe God made world
, Australians believe the rainbow snake made the world" (She meant aborigine people) and then she told me a long story about a box of darkness and bats making stars by scratching, which she said was an African story and a story about people being made from earth, which she says Muslims believe. I was really pleased that she seems to have been shown lots of different beliefs and slightly embarrassed by my own ignorance! This is a community school though, not C of E....

pranma, you're missing the point. What I (and many others) believe is that there should be no state C0fE/Catholic or any other faith schools so all children attend their local school, are taught about all religions and if parents want their children to go to a school which only indoctrinates teaches them about one faith they pay for the privilege.

I am not really missing the point at all. My point is simply that a CoE school will teach aspects of Christianity.It will also teach aspects of other religions but because it is affiliated to the local church then Christian teachings will be important. You(and others) may wish that there were no state faith schools but there are. There are also many excellent non faith schools.To say,or imply, that teaching Christianity is indoctrination but teaching atheism isn't is not helpful. Choose your school. What if your idea was adopted would only rich people be able to choose ,to have religious instruction for their DC?
By the way I did 6 years supply teaching in a range of primary and secondary schools in the Bradford/Keighley/Skipton area. Without exception the faith schools,both CoE and RC were the happiest andcalmest environments. This was so much the case that when my DD was looking for a school for dgs I suggested she go for a small church school if at all possible.
She did and although she and her dh have no religious affinity they expect their DC to be influenced by both home and school,to discuss what they learn and ,as an adult,make an informed decision which will not be in any sense 'indoctrinated'. I do hate this silly striking out of words.

Thank you again, stitchingmoss, himalaya and others. I hope I get a chance to speak to her teacher this week, then I can report back what she says!
It is a "faith" school but they do not take on the basis of faith - after special needs and siblings, the next reason for getting in is proximity to the school. I would therefore not have much luck getting her into any of the other very over-subscribed schools around here even if I wanted to move her (which of course I don't).
Personally I think it is extremely important that local children go to the local school and just because the CoE once owned the land or something (and how did they come by that land anyway? And why should a church own land???) I will not be made to feel I should not send my child there (sorry is that a double negative?)?

If you wonder why a church should own land you need to read a LOT more British History

There are no "atheist" schools though are there? I would prefer noone was able to chose a faith school as religion is something to teach at home and not at school.

As for your point about faith schools being happier and calmer than non-faith schools you know very well that has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with the way church schools can cherry pick their pupils. To imply religion makes a school happier is utter nonsense.

My 'indoctrination' comment was tongue in cheek.

in most rural areas, church schools are the ONLY schools and are not in the least bit selective - many are nowhere near full
ah, the londoncentric bias of Mumsnet comes to the fore again

Stranded
I do think you may be overreacting to this.

Creationism and Intelligent Design are very, very wrong. I would be up in arms if my chikdren were expksed to any creationist or ID teaching.

But, saying "God is the creator" is not creationism. It is a theological belief, like Jesus was the son of God, that Jesus rose from the dead, that Jesus performed miracles.

In a C of E school, you have to expect they will teach their religious beliefs. They are beliefs and oresented as such. They sre nit oresented as scientific fact.

C of E schools will teqch evolution alongside the belief that Gid is the Creator.

If it helps I don't live in London or anywhere near London. I live in a large town, but 2005 happened to be a very large birth year and all our local schools (ie on our side of town, and many in the surrounding areas)were oversubscribed.
I hope I am not over-reacting, I actually haven't done anything more than air it as a subject here on MN. I will probably speak to the teacher as I think I would like to know exactly WHAT they are being taught so I can then decide what to do. I personally don't think that is over-reacting.

But I thought the point of the op was not that the school 'cherry picked' but it that it was the local school. None of the schools to which I was referring were selecting pupils except that the RC schools had a large proportion of RC pupils they also had Sikh and Muslim children.They were in poor areas of poor towns. I thought that County primary schools whilst not defining themselves as atheist would be totally non denominational.
Anyway we aren't going to agree so I will back off now-very interesting discussion though