Withdrawal from Church Services in a CoE school.

[JamiLdn]

Hello
My son is in year 7 at a CoE school, we are Jewish. We are very happy learning RE and appreciate the importance of learning other and all faiths (we are not particularly observant) but the school has a twice yearly church service which we would like to withdraw from.
Has anyone done this and can share any insight on our rights to withdraw from the services only, and can share anything about the process / steps taken?
Much appreciated

Why don’t you want him participating?

I think if you send your child to a church school, you should be prepared to attend all aspects of it, religious and all. Why did you send him to a faith school that is different to your own?

If my children went to a Jewish school I wouldn’t prevent them attending Jewish festivals in synagogues

why send them to a CHURCH of England school if you weren’t prepared to embrace/ involve them in religious activities

also it just singles your child out as different/other - I’m not sure in the world we live in these days that encouraging division and separating of religions should be encouraged

Just tell the school you don’t wan’t your child to participate they will be fine with it, I’m sure your child won’t be the only one.

The school will be used to this and can arrange for your child to do something else likely.

Twice yearly? Surely that's not a problem. They must do weekly assemblies which will be loosely CofE in nature, hymns etc.

We are atheists, but DC's happily attended Catholic services at our DC's school, as did we.

Children generally stick to the faith of their home rather than anything encountered at school.

Just email the school explaining that you wish for your ds to sit out of the service for religious reasons.

They may have no-one to supervise him separately, and ask for you to drop him at school when the service ends.

Alternatively just let him sit in. I went to a CofE school with similar provision. It had no impact on my lack of faith whatsoever. I know the words to a couple of Christmas carols as a result but only because they are beautiful musically.

Do you fight to get him in a school because it's the best one, now you shun the thing that makes it good. Don't single them out, kids remember the weird ones that don't have to go to the assemblies

Lots of non Christian children go to church affiliated schools. .and withdraw from church services just withdraw your child from it i am sure they won't be the only one not going to church.

I think this is fairly common OP. When I was at junior school many years ago there were Muslim children that sat out of assembly. I certainly didn’t think they were weird (as suggested by a previous poster.) just email his form tutor x

Yeah all of you saying ‘just let them go, it’s only twice a year - it’s really not the same thing as being atheist and tagging along. It’s about participating in an act of worship for a religion you aren’t practicing. It’s like asking an atheist to pray to God, or a Muslim to take part in the Eucharist. It’s not an appropriate expectation that ‘what the heck, just go along with it’.

I went to a CofE school and I’ve taught in one too. We had Muslim, Jewish and Sikh children at the school. Although not Christian all these religions share common ethos and so it’s understandable why they would attend a CofE school. While they may not agree about whether Christ is the son of God - kind of the foundation for Christian worship and so understandable why non-Christians wouldn’t want to take part- Christianity, Judaism and Islam are all Abrahamic religions, all share the core moral principles of the 10 commandments (and Sikhs view all religions as the path to the same one God) - their parents withdrew them from worship and it wasn’t a big deal. Think they did extra maths.

I am Jewish and when I was at secondary school my parents arranged that I sat out the Christian morning assemblies. I remember clearly sitting outside the closed assembly doors. I see no reason why any school wouldn't agree to doing the same for your DC,

We dont have any local CofE secondary schools, but from the Collective Worship policy of a local-ish CofE Voluntary Aided primary school:

We expect all children to attend worship. However, any parent can request permission for their child to be excused from attending religious worship and the school will make alternative arrangements for the supervision of the child during the period concerned. Parents do not have to explain or give reasons for this. This complies with the 1944 Education Act and was restated in the 1988 Education Reform Act.

I'm quoting this school's policy because it details the underlying legislation. Basically, anyone has the right to withdraw their DC from their school's acts of collective worship.

However, another, more local school (same diocese) words their policy along the lines of, Well, you've got the right to withdraw your DC, but we hope you won't, given that you decided to send them here in the first place. And yet another school, again same diocese (in fact, the MAT it belongs to is the 'diocese MAT'), doesn't appear to mention the subject at all.

So yes, you have the legal right to withdraw your DC; in the absence of details in the school's policies re whom to contact (or a published policy at all), I would either drop in at the office, or use the 'contact us' email in the first instance to check how to withdraw officially. Although at the end of the day, if you are fine with however much the school adheres (or doesn't) to the requirement for a 'broadly Christian in nature' daily act of worship and it's only the 2 church services that are the issue, you could just report your DC's absence for the relevant sessions at the time, citing withdrawal from attending the service as the reason?

Not if it is a decent school where children are taught basic good manners.

What a very odd comment.

I don't see why you are getting so much pushback OP.
There are lots of reasons this school might be best for your DC, and he clearly met the entry criteria.
So write to the school asking how you withdraw him from religious worship and whether anything other than these 2 church services would be impacted if you did. There will be a form.

(OTOH it may help if he then chooses to do RE GCSE as he will know all the Judasim part and will have more of an awareness of the Christianity.)

Here is the legislation https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/31/part/II/chapter/VI/crossheading/exceptions-and-special-arrangements-etc

The withdrawal can be partial, my DC attends church services but do not receive the Eucharist as we belong to a different denomination. Another child in DC's class (also Christian) was withdrawn from all collective worship.

This. Ignore all the posters trying to start an argument, it’s definitely common and I’m sure the school will be understanding.

OP may not have had a choice where to send their child. We live rurally and our only secondary school is C of E. Luckily no church services yet (Year 8) but I would hope there is an option to withdraw if necessary.

I am not sure why there is a assumption that op chose a c of e school. Our local c of e school is under subscribed so has lots of pupils that are of different faiths or none (whether they chose to go there or not). There is no issue with pupils being withdrawn from religious assemblies. I can't imagine it would be a problem for op to withdraw her child from assemblies or that they would be singled out by other pupils. If they are perhaps the school needs to work harder on teaching Christian values such as tolerance...

What does your son actually want to do?

I’m Jewish, I went to a C of E primary school because it was a lovely school and better than other local options. I wanted to join in with things like the harvest festival in church because I didn’t want to be different and other. I asked my parents to stop withdrawing me from things and was much happier. I understood perfectly that it wasn’t our religion.

but some of us hated this and would rather have just joined in!

You are right thought they were weird, I don't know why a pp thought not going to a church service to worship is for "weirdos"

If you feel very strongly, but I remember going to Catholic school as a baptised protestant, although I'm not religious and at church services, we didn't get Communion and we got a blessing instead. It was just part and parcel of that childhood learning where you learn about different religions. Nuances within the religion , some people do one thing , some people do another , and yet we're all good friends etc etc .

Thank you for the feedback everyone.
For clarity, it is my son who has explicitly stated he isn't comfortable attending the services. I was not sure what the protocol is and how common a request it is, but as it seems fairly common I will be in touch with the school to request the withdrawal.
Much appreciated.

I think this is quite common at CofE schools. Since it's seen more as part of the state than other religions, it tends to be more inclusive of kids who follow other religions (or none). Just talk to them - I doubt your kid will be the first.

Edited - my last comment is irrelevant given the last update.

I totally understand this and would not want to withdraw him if it wasn't what he wanted.