Atheism / Church of England school

[Starbuck8419]

Ok, first of all, this thread is not an attack on any religion. I’m not here to debate the rights/wrongs/truth or facts about anyone’s beliefs. I’m merely asking for advice especially from people who have been in this situation before.

My husband and I moved from a large town so we could raise our daughter in the countryside/village atmosphere. Part of the allure was the small village type schools which we are lucky enough to be surrounded by two good/outstanding rated ones.
Our daughter started in September and when we went to visit, the head showed us round and we asked him how our atheist beliefs fit in with the C of E teachings and philosophies.
We are aware that every school must follow the national curriculum but we essentially wanted to know how religious it would be there on a day to day basis.

The head advised us that even though it’s a small school only about five families are practicing christians and they have a small prayer corner in each classroom because they have too and anything else is essentially, tick boxing. A child/family could be as religious or non religious as they wanted without it being thrown down our necks.

In the past few months I’m starting to get a different insight into it though.

They have assemblies where parents can go and it’s very religious. One of the teachers is a devout Jehovah’s Witness yet she presumably (given the age group she looks after,) teaches science and yesterday my daughter came out with ash on her forehead.

Now look, before anyone says “it’s a c of e I don’t know what you expected” please remember I never went to this type of school. This is my only child so I have no experience of this sort of thing and the school wasn’t quite sold to us in this way.

I’m just wondering if anyone else is an atheist and sends their kid to a Christian school and how they deal with these sorts of things?

Thank you xx

I went to a CofE village school then a secular community secondary school. I came out of all that as an atheist. My daughter has gone to urban city community schools and has learned much about her friends' religions. She herself is agnostic. If she were to follow a religion I wouldn't understand why but I would support her right to those beliefs.

In terms of what you’d feel ok with, perhaps ask yourself how you’d feel if she came out with a Bindi on her head rather than an ash mark as they’d been studying Hinduism in that lesson. Other than having a small ? about cultural sensitivity and appropriation, would you mind?

I think when you’ve had an education like mine (and by the sound of it yours was very similar) that was full of religious doggerel, you perhaps become a bit overly sensitive to what your child might be being exposed too. Hands up, I know I’ve had questions. However, it’s on a really different level to what we would have experienced (eg homosexuals need praying for, lust is inherently wrong, we’re all full of sin etc etc) and just focuses mainly on New Testament messages, be nice to others and forgive mostly! I don’t think it does hurts and they do ask questions of you which allows you to put your own views across.

Our children are at CofE primary despite us not being Christian. I’m fine with it (I was raised Catholic though and attended CofE primary myself so it’s quite familiar). There are lots of good things - the additional funding being one. The school values are closely aligned with Christianity, but work well for the children, they’re nice and moralistic. I was a bit weirded out on a parents’ drop in session when they all started reciting the school prayer, and have had some interesting discussions about different beliefs. We have a lot of talk about God and Jesus in our house, but we discuss respectfully and talk about how different people believe different things. We have a lot of Siri requests for rousing Christian music though

When my DC were at Primary they only got ashed if they choose to - admittedly if their best friend chose to then they probably would. The Vicar used to cone in to do it most years.

JW's are totally different, and I'd hope no JW teacher would spread their specific beliefs.

In Infant school my DC's strongest ideas of religion were about food. My youngest wanted to be Jewish as the food was tasty. Even though their school was C of E the strongest message was that different people believe different things - but everyone should be respected. (They even learnt about Native American religions in year 5).

C of E schools are not always sought after, don't always offer places mainly to believers etc. A local one is mainly Muslim, another is the 4th out of 5 choices in my town.

@Wearywithteens our school does have a funding arrangement with the local diocese, based on fundraising by the PTA. There are stipulations on what it can be spent on, but it's a funding stream that isn't available to all schools.

My DC’s went to a Cof E primary, they had a good all round education. If they asked us any faith-based questions we talked to them about it on the basis that it was a belief and other views were held elsewhere.

They all formed a view around the age of about 9/10 that they were not Christians.

Again this is all really informative and yes I probably do have a previous history with religious schooling so I’m quite anti-it to be frank but the school itself is good so I’m just going to have to put my thoughts aside and let her get on with it 😊

I’m not quite sure like I said before why the ash on the forehead particularly bothered me but it just did for some reason. Maybe it was because it was the last thing I expected that day.

The Diocese provides funding for selected capital projects in VA schools, often those which are essential to the safety of the building, though not routine repair work. This has to be applied for and is allocated from a limited pot of money, so not all schools who apply will be awarded anything. The school (governors account) has to pay 10% of LCVAP funding. Sometimes this 10% is indirectly funded by the PTA.

I'm surprised about the ash. I would have expected a letter home giving you the opportunity to opt out on behalf of your child.
Other religions are taught a part of national curriculum.
If it is a church school they will have values that can be called school values or Christian values. (I'm not a fan of them being called Christian values)
I think a teacher being a JW is a bit of a red herring, she will have to teach National Curriculum.
What does their SIAMS report say?

@Paddington68 I’m almost certain that’s the bit that irked me the most. The inability to have any say in it but then I guess as it’s a C of E, the authorisation is probably assumed to be given.

I hadn’t heard of the SIAMS report before so I’m just reading now.

My main point about the JW is not that I have any issue with her personal beliefs in any way. It’s to do with how someone who is so staunchly religious in that manner can positively teach an aspect of say science that they don’t remotely agree with.

You are not teaching your belief you are teaching what the core beliefs of religions are for children to compare and contrast.

You are teaching science regardless of your belief.
Just as an atheist can teach RE.
The school will have a RE statement and policy about what and how it is taught.
Science will comply with the curriculum requirements as will all other subjects.
The Siams is linked to academic performance. You can't get an Outstanding Siams ( Now Excellent) with poor progress and a poor Ofsted. You could previously but it has been linked to the whole child for many years.

There are good and bad faith schools the same as there are good and bad non faith schools.

Starbuck8419 I work with CofE schools they all write to parents and parents/carers can opt out.

I think a good teacher can teach things they don't believe. The old 'some people believe' is the standard line. A class teacher in primary will teach about a faith that isn't their own, so I think the same would apply to science, although the big bang is a pretty accepted theory.

We don't teach creationalism.

Ahh ok thank you. I think it would have been nice to have had the heads up regarding a few things the do just so I was aware. Common courtesy and all that but I guess it is their school and I should have realised she would be exposed to this sort of thing.

She was telling me about Jesus etc and I told her mummy and daddy don’t believe in it as we think it’s a story. She got very cross with me so we just go along with it for now 😊

Is your dh secondary teacher or primary teacher, OP?

Secondary 😊

But on one of your deleted thread, you said your dh was a primary teacher.

Maybe he got moved up to the big school.

No I didn’t. My husband has never worked in primary school. My mother in law is a head of a one though.

Mine went to Christian schools as we don't really have many community schools.
I think you need to embrace what they offer or leave. If the kids don't join in with the others in the village they will become isolated.
Towns and cities are better for kids as well unless you want to be a taxi service for up to 21 years.
Mine decided to be atheist, it was their choice. At least you are giving your child the chance to decide for themselves, they might become believers if their parents don't fight against it.

I don’t quite understand how you can land on town schools being better for kids because the parents will end up being taxis for 21 years if they go to rural ones. That’s not an issue for the child and it’s completely not true.

What happened to the abuser parent in your school, OP? I hope you have sorted it out and children are safe at school now.

Threads still there love

Yeah, I know. It ended that you googled him and informed other parents. Just wondered, what happened afterwards.