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Primary education

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Opting out of RE - real experiences please

77 replies

Redspottygranola · 09/09/2015 20:59

DS1 has just started year 1 of a CofE primary. It is the only school we are in catchment for and all the other local schools are oversubscribed so there is no chance we can move him (or DS2 and DD when they are old enough). The school is excellent except that it is way more religious than I thought it would be. DH and I are atheists although DH doesn't get anywhere near as bothered as me about the brain washing. They thank god before lunch and say lots of prayers at assembly- their RE content is around how good Christians can please god rather than exploring other cultures and beliefs. DS1 is sponging it all up hook line and sinker and it's really starting to grate on me. Am considering opting him out of the worshipping and RE but would like to hear other parents' experiences. No god botherers please.

OP posts:
Sadik · 13/09/2015 20:55

"stay with the RE curriculum. Which is about all faiths, unless the school is unusually bad."

DD went to a community primary school, NOT a faith school. There was (according to her, but since everyone else I know & have spoken to about the subject has heard the same thing I have no reason to disbelieve her) effectively no teaching about other religions than Christianity. They said prayers three times a day: in assembly, at lunchtime, and at going home time. They had one week in yr 5/6 (mixed class) where the entirety of every afternoon was given over to a Bible studies course taught by an evangelical christian group that came into the school. Every child was given a hard back illustrated bible. I could go on, but you get the picture. There was no other realistic option - the next nearest primary (6 miles) shares a head teacher with dd's old school, the next again is equally religious.

Even in secondary, when Gideon bibles were given out there was no option to avoid it - not like when I was in secondary where it was 'those who want one go to this side of the hall, those who don't go to the other side.

Short of moving to a city, in large swathes of the country, this is the norm. As it happens, it doesn't bother me greatly beyond the waste of time, when we're told that many many things 'can't be fitted in' because of the constraints of curriculum time. But given that the last British Social Attitudes survey found that 51% of the population said they had 'no religion' compared to 42% who said they were Christian, it's not surprising some people are unimpressed. (FWIW it's not that we're in a particularly religious area, DD's now in secondary, apparantly when here RS class were asked if any of them went to church, one boy said his family 'went occasionally' - that was it.)

spanieleyes · 13/09/2015 21:16

Perhaps faith schools are better about teaching a range of faiths rather than just one than seems to be the case in some community schools!

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