Surely this is teaching creationism? How can this be allowed?

[Redspottygranola]

Posted a thread a while ago asking for advice about taking my DS1(5) out of RE and worship as DH and I are atheist but we ended up with a strongly CofE school as we are not in catchment for any other school here and all of the local schools are oversubscribed.
The feedback I had was not to take him out this may have negative repercussions for him amongst his peers etc.
We had parents eve today and I got to look at his books. I was horrified by the RE book which had the following learning objective: I understand that God made everything in the world originally.
Not "some people believe..." Or "Christians believe..." But "I understand". His RE book had more of the same regarding the story of creation etc. It was all presented as factual. What's more a few weeks ago he told me it was a lie that people evolved from monkeys (yes I know it's apes really) because actually God made us and the world.
I am sending him to school to be educated fgs and this is what he is learning!
I spoke to the teacher about it and she said they teach Christianity and Judaism and that is it and she hadn't thought about the way the LO's are worded but she would speak to the RE department about it.
What can I do? Feel so so furious and helpless. Have another 2 DC to go through this and so I will have to deal with this school for 11 more years! Arg!!

Bumping as had a dodgy internet connection earlier!

Hi if it were me I would probably request to not participate in RE despite their warnings of peer issues. I would also want to talk to each teacher that has dealings with my child and request that this type of writing/exercise is not done with my child. I would explain my beliefs and politely request that the school respects that and explain that doing otherwise is incredibly confusing for my child. You could even give the school written examples of what he could write instead or a variety of options for them to write things in a less dogmatic fashion at least. Explain you understand that it is a religious school but that you are there due to necessity not choosing and must be inclusive of all views. Regarding your child I would take care to ensure they receive the messages you want them to receive at home by reading appropriate books e.g. about evolution so that he is equipped with his own understanding and make it clear that others believe different things and ensure he is confident in his own understanding, or at least equipped to ask appropriate questions of himself and others perhaps in the long run!

That's utterly shocking.

They are lying to children. Teachers are lying to their pupils.

Surely you can take this up with the education authority - it's wrong!

Honestly I would take this up with the LEA. They shouldn't be teaching creation myths as fact.

Exercise your right to withdraw. Refuse to let them bully you into not withdrawing. Explain exactly why and that you will be contacting the governors and advising them to ensure the diocesan syllabus is being taught correctly as I've never seen one that specifies Christianity and Judaism only.

I would be more bothered about writing out LOs at age 5. That must take up most of the lesson.

The kids didn't write the LO's gin, they are typed at the top of all their worksheets. I would rather they spent half of the RE lesson writing long sentences than learning exactly how God made the world!
Thanks for the replies so far - I have a lot to think about it seems. No idea how to complain to the LEA - I should probably have a meeting with the SLT first I guess?

What if he grows up to be a devout Christian and does not share your beliefs? In reception and year one all they generally cover is Christianity and Judaism (with a bit of Diwali thrown in). I know you didn't chose a c of e school lightly but if you are so against it you need to remove him from lessons - this is what will happen at a c of e school - in all others the l/o would be the same but worded differently. Your DS may never waiver from a belief in God.

That sounds like the learning intention for a Sunday School class - not for a state school R.E. lesson. I teach Year 1 and we always talk about "Christians believe", "Muslims believe" "some people believe" etc.

If the teacher can't see a problem with the wording of the worksheets, then I think you need to go higher up. The school website should have the structure of complaints (eg teacher then phase leader/key stage leader etc). If in doubt, book an appointment with the Head.

R.E., properly taught, is an excellent subject and I don't think children should be withdrawn. And I say that as an atheist parent myself. But R.E. should be about education not indoctrination. It's completely different from the daily act of worship.

Evolution is now in the KS2 science curriculum - that's going to confuse children if they've been taught creationism in KS1!

purple, read the OP.

The teacher has said they learn about Christianity and Judaism, not Diwali.

And what on earth do you mean by Your DS may never waiver from a belief in God.?

purplesky he can choose his own beliefs when he has the faculties to weigh up all the evidence and come to his own conclusions when he is older. At age 5 children simply believe whatever grown-ups tell them. This is brain washing. Do you really think it's ok to teach children God made the world as a fact??

As a Christian, I don't think you can say creationism is true, or darwinism is true either. I don't get why some feel the need to say 'we are right - you are wrong' when most Christians would say they don't know either.

If you're teaching RE in school as a CofE school, you could say 'as a Christian school we teach that creationism is more likely to be true..., but lots of Christians don't believe this and here's what other religions teach...'. Surely, that way you are declaring that as a school, your belief is X but without saying you are right and everyone else is wrong to believe Y.

Does that sound muddled, as it's not meant to be. Just that you don't need to force your belief on anyone, as even within Christianity, there are shades of meaning and room for differing interpretations of the Bible for instance.

This is almost a AIBU, with the school BU and the OP NBU!

Schools are, by law, not allowed to teach creationism as science (see this news story), but I think what they teach in RE lessons is more of a grey area. I would contact the British Humanist Association or the National Secular Society for advice.

Evolution is "true" in the same sense that the statement "the earth is not the still centre of the universe but orbits the sun" is true.

A Christian who makes belief in creationism an essential part of their faith is being very foolish, as they are making their religion subject to an empirical test, which it fails. "It still moves"

Religious faith is not subject to empirical testing, and can neither be proved or disproved. Science and religion are not in contest, they are about different orders of things.

If creationism is being taught, then the law is being broken.

In the meantime, exercise your right and take the child out of RE lessons.

As a Christian I thoroughly disagree with the last post. Unless we believe God plants false evidence to mislead us (which I don't accept) evolution is clearly true. In scientific terms, despite the pseudo science of creationism, the debate is long since over. It is possible to say that God set up the universe so that we would evolve - after all, there is no scientific reason for the various universal constants to have the values they do and you don't have to change them by much to get a universe in which we could not exist. But the creation stories in the Bible are clearly not literally true (N.B. most people concentrate on Genesis 1 but there is actually a slightly different creation story in Genesis 2). Indeed, Hebrew scholars will tell you that the form of the creation stories in Hebrew is one that indicates they are not intended to be taken as literal truth.

For what it is worth, I would agree with the statement, "God made everything in the world originally" and do not see that as incompatible with evolution. However, the statement, "it is a lie that people evolved from monkeys" is highly misleading (as that isn't what evolution tells us) and should not be taught. We didn't evolve from apes either. Apes and humans are descended from a common ancestor.

This type of teaching is banned in free schools and academies. It is not banned in VA or VC schools but the Education Secretary said last year that any school teaching creationism would have its funding withdrawn. It may be time to remind the head of that.

As a faith school they can set their own RE curriculum but they must follow the national curriculum for science. This is clear that evolution must be taught as fact. That will mean giving the children conflicting messages unless they amend their RE teaching (or, of course, unless they ignore the science curriculum). What they are teaching in RE isn't even compatible with the CofE's official position on evolution.

Rhonda I did read the op - the comment I made was 'a bit of Diwali thrown in' as most primary schools will look at the festival of light on top of Judaism and Christianity which are ks1 topics.

Red as a teacher I do not believe in only teaching one belief or indoctrinating kids - but I know c of e schools do. I was just procrastinating really in a Tuesday night - he may believe now because of what he has been told at school and may always believe.
I am not a Christian by the way.

For "the last post" read "justgoandgetalife". I obviously didn't type quickly enough!

In my post for "the last post" read "justgoandgetalife". I obviously need to type faster!