Religious CofE school

[Fisherfree]

Interested in thoughts.

I am a fairly diehard atheist (the type who, in my younger days, preached the virtues of secular states and proposed the outlaw of organised religion).

My OH, while not religious, is certainly more ‘spiritual’ and has mentioned an occasional fluttering belief in ‘god’.

The above pre-amble is necessary because we’re considering primary schools for our DD and OH is VERY keen on a CofE academy. It takes 50% non-Christians but does talk about bringing spirituality to every lesson. There is also a chapel and a fairly religious undertone.

Oh. It’s also ‘outstanding’ rated.

I’m erring towards a veto. But would be interested in the experience of atheist parents sending their kids to these types of schools.

My memory of primary school includes a teacher ‘praying for my soul’ because I told her that, on reflection, I didn’t believe in ‘god’. But I may well be out of the loop in regard to today’s teachers….

My worst nightmare is DD coming home with a bible or other religious text - and me having to read it straight faced.

I would kindly suggest you are out of the loop somewhat with regard to the permissibility of threatening children on the basis of religious beliefs.

If you had to read a religious text, which doesn’t seem likely beyond a nativity script, why would you have to be “straight faced”? Wouldn’t you be honest about your own beliefs?

I would also point out that not going to this school does not mean your child won’t be exposed to the idea of religion, so worth giving some thought to how you would discuss the idea while being respectful of your partner’s stance.

I would say that learning about biblical texts etc is quite useful for e.g. Eng Lit etc. That is different from "every lesson" . Ds went to a school where they had to go to chapel every week - they played chapel bingo whilst there ( which I don't think there were being deliberately rude about. )

Only you can tell - but I am not sure most CoE schools require you to be looking into your souls - they may require you to turn up at church - the one at the end of our village does - but surely conversations at home will have more weight than what is said at school.

We only have CofE schools where I am and we are atheists. Eldest has survived unscathed and youngest is in y5. They take the whole thing with a pinch of salt. Neither one has brought a Bible home. I've attended many church services over the years as well as nativities and similar. I quite enjoyed it in some ways. DD herself (14, atheist and v interested in theology) says it does a good job of engendering community and she's probably right.

@Fisherfree, are the 50% non-Christians mostly made up of other religions, or non-believers?

DD's primary school is CofE, but we're in a multicultural area. Most of the children have religious backgrounds, but quite a range. Although this still means there's an emphasis on faith, it is much more balanced and focuses on respecting other people's beliefs.

No bibles brought home, and the only RE homework has been about other faiths, or comparing Christianity with another faith.

Agree with @ShowOfHands that there are positives to the religious message in terms of moral values and a sense of community.

My children went to a CoE primary school (and secular secondary school) - there are two in our town. I should admit that we are Christians but I would say that we were in a very small minority - maybe 10% of the school's parents would have called themselves that? They attended church once a week and the local vicar was a governor and quite involved generally in the school (and very lovely). I can't say we noticed much more within the school itself. The head was Anglican (and when they retired and another came in, they were too) but I wasn't aware of any of the other teachers being so ( two were Hindu by tradition and certainly others were of no faith).
But the other CoE school in our area was much more religious - pretty much every parent at least went to the attached church for a long while; they seemed to have a lot more faith based stuff in school itself. I did know one teacher there and she had no faith so it certainly wasn't a given that the staff did but I don't know enough about it.
However the feel of both schools was very different. (The other was outstanding and ours was good but ours was much more inclusive in terms of SEN etc and I thought it had a much nicer feel).
What I'm trying to say is - don't go by the label. Go and see how you feel. Two CoE schools can feel like chalk and cheese. There won't be any proper proselytising but inevitably your child might be exposed to more than you're comfortable with. On the other hand it's quite good for them to see that there are other views in the world and that they're not necessarily bad.

My son goes to a CofE school (as did I for a while)

My son is baptised and my husband is baptised and confirmed though isn't practicing. My in laws do practice. I describe myself as culturally Christian, but I don't believe.

My son's school has daily worship and weekly assemblies which include prayers. I'm guess it's much like when I was at school. We put our hands together closed our eyes and recited the Lord's Prayer. At Christmas they did talk about the religious meaning of Christmas - fine. I'm sure they'll do the same at Easter.

None of the other parents I've met so far are church goers.

Religion is there in the school day, but I've not found it over the top.

We moved DS to a CofE school in year 3 as his previous school was pretty bad.

His feedback is that there is A LOT of Jesus.

He was very relieved when covid restrictions meant whole school assemblies couldn't happen as they were very bible heavy and he doesn't like the infrequent church visits but otherwise it seems fine.

I'm an atheist so we just have chats about how there are lots of religions, people believe different things and that it's just stories people tell themselves to make sense of the world.

I have said if he chooses to believe in a religion then that's fine with me, although I might be lying to myself a bit about that.

We haven't been expected to be religious or attend church so it probably depends on the school.

C of E schools are subject to a SIAMs inspection which is linked to the Ofsted expectations.

I would read the schools last one. They have a duty to provide for the whole child regardless of faith or non faith (including staff) and they are expected like any other non faith school to be the best they can be, and compare and contrast different religions. The children often take the lead on sharing their faith with others and explaining the reasons and practices of their belief. They should cover three major religions a year.

Having said that other schools are not so inclusive. What should happen and what does happen varies and hence you need to do your own research on the schools you are considering.
Our Governors are made up of a range of different faiths and some with no faith.

The ethos of a school depends upon the people running it, and as far as religious intensity goes, this can move in either direction with a change of personnel in the leadership team, including governors. I include non-denominational schools in this.
@cabbageking is right about SIAMs inspections, and feedback from those can lead to schools with few or no practising Christians on the staff to introduce measures that comply with recommendations. They might look jarring to the atheist/agnostic eye but aren't really used as anything more than a guide to moral tone - be kind, loyal, hardworking, trustworthy, that kind of thing. Or on the other hand the school might indeed be run by proselyting maniacs (considerably rarer but let's not pretend they don't exist).
Take a look, and see what you think.

Perhaps it is a good thing - she can hear the other side’s view and make up her own mind.