Currently the law in Scotland means that all primary and secondary schools must hold regular acts of religious observance?

[NovaSkycrest]

We are planning on relocating to Scotland in 2024, but now I am finding out about this law and I have to know how much religion is brought up or taught in State schools?

We are not religious and we don't think religion (of any kind) belongs in schools, especially government funded ones. If you want to send your kids to a religious private school that matches your faith, more power to you.

But this makes me very uncomfortable thinking this is something our child would have to deal with daily while attending school.

How much does religion play in a daily routine of a child attending state school?

I would agree with @bridgeoveranxiouswaters that it can vary - my friend sent her kids to a non-denominational primary school even though she is catholic and was then horrified at the local minister popping by multiple times a week, harvest festival and regular trips to the local CoS church. So def varies! Some catholic schools can be as much as 70% non-catholic pupils and tend to do less random praying if that is the case but will still prepare kids for sacraments, etc...

OP, the main difference is- if you’re looking at schools in England they usually have their faith in the school name so ‘St Blah CofE school’ or ‘Holy Blah RC school’ then non dom would be ‘Name of school only’.

In Scotland it’s only really the catholic schools that do this. My dcs school is ‘Name of town’ school, which would suggest no faith but it is a faith school with Christian assemblies with the local minister and pre covid attending the local church for Easter, Christmas services. I didn’t know this when he started as we moved from a city school (also ‘name of school’ only but it wasn’t aligned to the local church or minister) and pre covid I asked at a parents night about the assemblies and why only a Christian minister came in to host them. I was told it was part of being in the local community. Our friends are Catholic and they requested their children did not attend the church services at primary, but they have to collect their child, as school don’t provide an alternative on school premises. They are going on to a Catholic high school, whereas the feeder for the ‘name of area school’ primary is supposedly non dom too- which I think is generally the case for secondary schools in Scotland?
If you are considering private route, you should check that too as the private schools nearest to us hold Christian services which I believe is also done on an opt out basis.

OP, I totally agree with your sentiment around this. The whole thing is totally outdated. Religion should not have a place in state education - other than learning about religion within RMPS etc. obviously.
But in my experience you can definitely opt your child out of assemblies with the minister etc. and religion definitely isn't part of the daily routine.

It depends on the school. My dc attended 2 small village schools. In the first one 'music' lessons consisted of the pupils learning the hymns for assembly. They also had a morning prayer and said grace at lunchtime. The assemblies certainly had a Christian component. Local minister attended regularly and end of term services were held in the local church (together with another village school). We opted out of the religious observance bit but according to my dc they still got a fair bit of Christian teaching.
2nd village school was actually very similar but persuaded us not to opt out. Only difference was they didn't spend their music lessons signing hymns and I don't think they did the morning prayer either.

The school I work in has a short assembly for the whole school once a week. Usually lead my senior management with some sort of a theme. Then awards are handed out and recognition for winning sports things, uniformed organisations etc.

In nursery we have a lot of Nepalese children this so as well as our usual learning from different cultures we have had their parents to help us learn about their celebrations etc.

My DC went to a village church school. They did things like Christingle and harvest festival at the church.
We are not religeous but I felt it gave them a taste of tradition and it was a kind family like environment.
Neither of them caught religeon and they are fully atheist adults now.

My primary school and that of my children 30 years later didn't have anything at all except a talk at Easter which was mostly about bunnies and chocolate and Christmas with a Santa. They cover a lot of other festivals too, like Eid and Chinese new year, so Christianity just blended into general religion.

I'd actually say that I'd have benefited from knowing more about religion as I ended up accidentally going to a talk on Scripture, expecting it to be about stage writing.

Are you maybe looking at the Catholic schools?

Some councils have got rid of religious observance in non dom schools.

I find English schools more religious

English schools also have to have a daily act of worship of a ‘broadly Christian’ nature. What values would you prefer they adopt? Christianity’s central message is about love and treating your neighbour as yourself - what exactly is it that you are afraid of?

It depends on the school.

DD's went to primary school in a town for the first few years & there was very little religion/church involvement - think minister came along to Christmas assembly.

We moved to a small rural village when they were 8 &10 and the school practically co-existed with the church. They were directly across the road from each other, all assemblies had prayers, the minister was on the parent council (even though they had no kids let alone any at the school). Didn't bother me as I was an active member of the church but it would be a bit full on for someone who wasn't religious.

Reading through this thread makes it sound like the schools I went to were a bit heavier on the Christianity than most... in any case, I was an atheist all through school. Still am. So it didn’t convert me or anything. I liked singing though so I enjoyed the Jesus songs haha.

Depends on the school. My own primary school was a small village school and involved praying at the end of every day, in every assembly, lots of religion being taght as fact, regular trips to the local Church. My kids school I think is basically a case of the local minister gives an assembly at Easter and Christmas and that's it really.

So minimal it's hardly worth a mention.

IME it’s minimal at most non dom primaries and non existent and most non dom secondaries.

Primary schools usually do something once term around Christmas and Easter and a leavers service in June. They may also have events to mark other things such as Halloween , Diwali, Chinese new year.

It often depends on the demographics of the pupils - teachers use these events / celebrations to make all the children feel included and to educate them.eg a school with Ukrainian children might do an event around old new year on 14 January .

Contrary to what some people seem to believe, teachers are not religious nutters out to indoctrinate your child. They are too busy trying to get through the curriculum and give your child a broad general education. Learning about different faiths and beliefs ( like your own @NovaSkycrest ) is a small part of that.

As PP have said, any church services are usually of the Christianity lite “ be kind “ variety. Yes you can withdraw your child from this but I’d ask you to think twice before doing that.

It can be quite sad for your child as they feel excluded from what they see as fun events that everyone else is doing. Do you really want your child to sit in a classroom alone colouring while everyone else is practising for the nativity play, dressing up as angels /shepherds and signing songs about donkeys?

IME the only parents who withdraw their kids are the militant aetheists or very strict Christian sects. The Muslim / Hindu / Jewish / Buddhist kids are all up there taking part. Their parents don’t seem worried that they will “catch Christianity “ by seeing a doll in a cardboard box lined with straw or eating a chocolate Easter egg.

You need to accept that If you send your child to school in Scotland you are not going to be able to stop them learning about any other belief systems apart from yours. They will be taught about many beliefs in RMPS and you can’t withdraw them from this.

And teaching your child to mock or ridicule ( calling it nonsense ) or to be hostile to others people’s beliefs is not going to help them in school or life in Scotland.

If that’s not acceptable to you then you may be more comfortable with home education , where you can prevent your child learning about any beliefs apart from your own .

I went to a catholic primary and secondary and there was nothing like this much praying! I guess there is a lot of variation. I remember saying a prayer first thing in the morning in p1-3 and that was it. We all went through prep for the sacraments and occasionally a priest would come chat to us. At secondary you could go to mass at lunch once a week if you felt so inclined (of a school of 800 probably 2 or 3 pupils turned up for it…it was not well attended). It didn’t really influence my religiousness…I am religiousless now. My kids are at a non-dom private school and imagine my surprise when 7 year old came home telling me about God and how wonderful He is….DH and I were a bit 😐bit not enough to be bothered to actually do anything about it.

So we are not Christian. Our school is non denominational and we are having regular issues with religion. My daughter has developed anxiety due to it. There are two classes a week at her school. It’s frustrating as ever. We have opted out, but the damage is done. Just make clear right away you don’t want your child to attend these sessions or assemblies.