How hard is it to find a non-religious primary school in a village?

[MegBusset]

Have been indulging my fantasies of moving out of the smoke before DS gets to school age and finding a lovely village somewhere (prob in Yorkshire). But it seems to be the case that every village I look at, the local school is attached to the church. DH and I feel very strongly (as atheists) that we do not want DS to go to a faith school, but will this mean an end to my dreams of the rural idyll? Would love to hear if (and where) anyone has found a village school that's not religious...

All other state schools, even though they may not be C of E, will have to teach RE as part of the NC.

Yes, but its one thing to be taught about ALL religions during RE lessons, and to have a school with a religious ethos, collective worship etc

Our village school is non denominational but they still have hymn practise and are taught about Christianity, even non demoninational schools have to have a 'broadly christian' ethos.

That's exactly like the village school where DD is now layla - in fact I'm getting annoyed about how much 'jesus' and 'God' stuff my DD is chatting about at home. I'm an aetheist but haven't told her that.

The next school the kids are going to is a C of E (my old primary) and I know they venture into the church every week!

IMO religion should be kept out of schools altogether... but that's another argument! At least at a non-faith school they will be learning about religion rather than being brought up in a religion.

Also I think a lot of community schools will allow you to withdraw your child from the act of worship etc. Presumably not the case at a CE school!

Anyway, it's good to see that non-denominational village schools do exist...

Our DTDs go to a CofE school.

I think village schools tend to be associated with the church for historical reasons.

TBH the school itself isn't actually religeous per se - they go to church next door 4 times a year but I don't think the day to day activities are any more religeous than they would be in a town school not linked to any particular faith.

But parents can opt out of collective worship if they want to, and a school without faith connection shouldn't have any business promoting religion

Would you consider moving a bit further north - to Scotland? Different history for education here so village schools are almost always ordinary state primaries. Bigger towns may also have seperate RC schools, but in a village everyone goes to same school. Only problem is local authorities keep trying to close the smaller ones.

Being an aethiest myself, DH is agnostic, I dreaded DS going to a Church School. Now he does have SEN issuses so that is a mitigating factor. But he was coming home spouting all this God stuff (I had to really work at it not to put a swear word there) and asking me if it was true. Now my problem then was how do I critisise the teachings without critisising the teacher/s. I couldn't. I found it very hard to keep my tongue still when he eventually was so brainwashed that he was terrified of saying boo becuase he thought he was going to Hell.
A Church school can't help but preach, in everything it does, it permeates the woodwork. But a solid grounding in disbelief will soon cure your DC's, mine had other problems that made him suseptible, yours don't.

I just think it would be hypocritical to send DS to a church school then object to all the religious stuff! Ideally I would send him to a completely secular school, but sadly they don't exist in the UK (so much for parental choice). If we moved to a village I would definitely want him to go to the local school so it just depends on finding where the non-faith ones are. That's interesting about Scotland, I will bear that in mind.

I live in a village and the school is a church school, as are the next 2 nearest schools in local villages. I am with you on the MegBusset, we don't have any choice but to send her there really and I am not particularly happy about all the god stuff. That said my DD absolutely loves going into the church and currently she doesn't really understand the significance of it although whilst looking through her science book the other day she found out how the world actually began .

I think the best way to view is to forget the religious stuff and just think about how it gives a sense of community and actually how much the kids enjoy it.

I too would love a secular school- even independent schools are in the main faith orientated.

All schools have to teach RE and all have to hold collective worship each day. Obviously a CofE school will have connections with the church and the vicar taking an assembly but all schools will have an Assembly-sing hymns etc.(How they do it is up to them but they are breaking the law not to).

Our village primary is non religious, most of the ones around us here are, in Devon.

though saying that, more of the teachers seem to be Christian than in our two previous community primaries, but the school itself isn't.

that wasn't very clear in my post, I meant to say that most of the village primaries near us are non-religious.

ours is a normal state school and they don't seem to sing hymns (although I must admit, from a purely musical perspective, I quite like them!). Religion is taught but they get taught lots of different religions which is fine by me.

I think you just need to look around a bit more!

All religions will have to be taught -it is required by law.I would be very surprised if they didn't have any hymns-all modern (not the old type).

our large town has plenty of non-religious schools so perhaps you may need to broaden your search?

mind you, i think it is healthy for a child to be exposed to churches even if not your beliefs - without it they are going to wonder what all these churches are for and whether they are allowed in them - as its a large part of our society i think it can help encourage understanding and tolerance even if it is not your family views - so perhaps not the end of the world if you choose a church school

I agree newgirl, if you are an atheist then your child can hardly make a free informed choice in later years if they haven't been exposed to the alternatives. It is very narrow to say 'I am an atheist and therefore my child must be one'.-Just as bad as a Christian saying 'My child must be a Christian'.They may have opinions totally different from yours.