Withdraw child from religious studies

[Parentofachild]

Hi!
I would like to find out about child withdrawal from religious studies in church school because I am not happy with the content they are teaching? Can you advice me if someone experienced it and are there any consequences? Thanks

It's not. She's misunderstood RE, which is about understanding various religions. There's no indoctrination and nothing like this at all.

You cannot really twist the scripture to accommodate your views. Or I should say of course you can and you do, but it has nothing to do with religious texts.

Religion is not about current affairs.

Yep agreed.

Why always this line when parents don’t actually have a choice.

Don't children feel like that for some bits, the Muslims will find Hinduism goes against their beliefs, The Hindus will Christainity goes against their beliefs. It everyone removed their children from the section that wasn't their own beliefs then it would be a bit pointless.

I think if your in the world of your school teaching that sex with an animal is only a small sin, you're in the world of needing to inform ofsted......

It's a true test of faith. If you're worthy enough, god will make sure you know the answers.

Because the OP has specifically said that she made a conscious choice to send them to that particular school.

This isn't a case of her not having a choice.

Quite....

Yes, but when you pay - you can say. DD attends a secular prep, that means they don’t teach subjects through the guise of any religion. Children who come from specific faith backgrounds can be removed from certain classes (RS and PSHE) according to parental desire. My suggestion is that OP funds a private school based on their beliefs. I don’t see how you can expect the state to pander to your whims, or attend a faith school purposefully and then strip the faith out. It’s self-defeating.

That is where we disagree. At theological college we were introduced to Bonhoffer who taught that we preach with the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Seems obvious to me but as I say, agree to disagree.

Bonhoffer taught (and demonstrated by his life) the opposite to what you said in your first post, he never suggested we should re-write or re-interpret the Bible to better fit our current whims, but rather we must resist the political and ideological agenda around us (including in the church itself) and adhere to our religious values.

You must have misunderstood his preaching.

Even if one did, it is hardly an appropriate topic for an RE lesson. Sodom and Gomorrah are generally skipped over in school too, for precisely that reason.

I would be amazed if a UK school included “a comparative analysis of the sinfulness of bestiality across the major world religions” in their curriculum.

So either OP has been badly misled/is making it up, or a teacher has gone badly off-piste.

Exactly. As much as I support same sex marriage, the point of RE lessons is to learn about what other religions believe. None of it is fact.

Teacher in a religious school here - don’t need to say which one - sex with a small animal is indeed a small sin. No getting around it

In which religion? As far as I’m aware in Islam it’s a grave sin and in Christianity it is most certainly a big sin. I have no clue about the other religions but no Hindu or Sikh friends have ever mentioned such a thing either when discussing religion.

I think it was meant to be a joke.

The fact is that sex with animals would be a crime in most countries, including in the UK. If the OP's child was actively taught about it, then a complaint can be made, but I suspect they weren't. The most likely scenario is that a cheeky teen put a teacher on the spot by asking about it and they fumbled the answer.

Hello! Could you please share if you managed to do it. Because I also want to withdraw my child from RE. We believe this time should be spent on something better. Like language math or art. I don't know where to start. Next year we go to class 7. Please help. Thank you🙏.

And possibly the RSPCA...

@JulietKa You are very naive if you think a child withdrawn from RE will be given classes in language, maths or art. Did you read the thread before you re-activated it? There is a lot of sensible advice in it which might address your misconceptions.

The Government's recent Curriculum review proposes making RE part of the National Curriculum, replacing the current patchwork of locally agreed provision. If this happens, then withdrawal will no longer be possible. See from page 107 in this report: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/690b96bbc22e4ed8b051854d/Curriculum_and_Assessment_Review_final_report_-_Building_a_world-class_curriculum_for_all.pdf

Timetables are fixed and it is very unlikely you will be offered an alternative subject in those missed lessons. Some RE is compulsory in secondaries but it is not necessarily a religious lesson, as in Bible Studies, but ethical discussions, comparative outlooks and celebrations. There is a difference between withdrawing from colllective worship and RS lessons Perhaps investigate the curriculum before asking. If your dc is already in a uk primary they will be partocipating in similar.

You have the legal right to with draw your child but they won’t be put into a different class. Time tables just don’t work that way.

Strange to choose a church school then not want them to do RE sounds like a high ranking school and you wanted to play the system.

Unfortunately you don’t get to decide the curriculum your child follows! By class 7, do you mean year 7? That and ‘math’ leads me to think you are not British? Secondary RE is very different to primary and any misconceptions you have about it should be researched. Previous posters have said it all well.

Oh thank you for your explanation. Yes my friend told me but on the internet i still found the message that a parent has a right... 😢 on gov.uk 🤦‍♀️. Very disappointed. So there is no other options?