Thoughts on withdrawing from RE lessons?

[MidgetJones1]

We’ve had to send our son to a Catholic high school (Long story but no real choice and 70% of the kids there are not Catholic). I’ve looked at the RE curriculum and it’s almost entirely a study of Catholicism rather that a comparative study of a variety of faiths/beliefs, which I’m obviously not surprised about with it being a Catholic school. We are firmly atheist and would be very happy for him to study a regular inclusive RE curriculum but not comfortable with him being taught from the perspective of Catholicism being the truth.
We are considering withdrawing him and finding an online course for him to do instead so he doesn’t waste his time out of lessons.
Has anyone got any experience of withdrawing from RE from a parent or teacher POV and how has it worked out? Thank you

Less likely these days with the transition to MATs.

Everything the poster said was different to the PP's assertion that it would be indoctrination into one faith and one alone.

The idea that " their children finish up being indoctrinated in a faith they do not want or endorse!"

Ok, a MAT, not a voluntary aided. So the school/MAT can devise it's own curriculum and in this case has decided on 5/6 Catholic, 1/6 other religions.

That's very different to following the local SACRE curriculum, which has probably been devised to reflect the plurality of the local population.

My dc and I all went to catholic schools yet we are atheist. Just because you are immersed in Catholicism doesn't mean you have to follow it. We learnt about other religions and beliefs.

They're pretty much indistinguishable from the SACRE ones. The major difference is that the variety of Christianity includes Catholicism specifically (so will mention things at some point over the following five years such as First Holy Communion, the other books in the Bible, the meaning of genuflection, the existence of the Pope, that the Lord's Prayer varies, the Credo varies, that sort of thing).

Both generally start with Christianity in the Autumn term of Y7-8. Including such things as the Old Testament - Abraham and the Ten Commandments, Moses and the Plagues of Egypt, leading on to the story of the Nativity. It gets everybody up to speed to some extent.

It's really not that big a deal and very little different from the non Catholic ones I had as a kid in secondary school.

Parents can choose to send their kids to whatever school they want (within reason). Moving house is always an option.
We fortunately lived within the " catchment area" of what was deemed to be a "good" school.
Parents with young kids were moving there be be local to that school when they got older. Estate agents in the area had a waiting list for properties !

With respect this is infantile. They won’t be teaching ‘Catholicism is the truth’. But even if they do, so what? You’re choosing to send your child to a Catholic school. Clue was in the name.

This really isn’t how kids work. I went to a catholic convent. Mass every week etc. It didn’t ‘turn’ any of us into anything but atheists. Religious indoctrination comes from the home.

I wonder how it would be received if devout Catholics were forced to spend 10% of the school day learning about Atheism/Buddhism or another completely different belief with virtually nothing about other beliefs or faiths.

18-15676NAHT-RE-withdrawal-documentfinal.pdf https://share.google/z5nbNsBYUBulFizNz this is useful.

Thank you, that’s really helpful

The doc I linked to details what can and can't happen in the withdrawn time. I think they could study an alternative course in that time if you sent them in with materials.

What's your child like, OP? Will they mind being odd one out, like it or not care? Are they likely to read a book or study something you've given them without being a pain?

For my part as an atheist with a very lapsed Catholic husband, I would think studying lots of Catholicism would quite likely put your child right off it.

If you have truly brought him up to be tolerant and inclusive then he shouldn’t have much problem exercising his excellent understanding of tolerance and inclusivity by following a faith curriculum that he doesn’t personally subscribe to.

Because he will (I think and this is why I’m asking for advice) be expected to answer questions from the POV of a Catholic - as a previous poster said saying what they want to hear rather than what your own belief is. Not like regular RE exams

As an RE teacher I know says “Your child is also taught History at school, to date we’ve had no-one that’s decided to invade Poland based on being taught History”.

Is this what the school have told you? Is the curriculum content on their website?

That’s not very respectful, even if you do add on ‘with respect’!
And if you read my post, I am being forced to send him to a faith school. It is far from my choice.

What were your other options? Not being rude, genuine query

For the many of you who have missed the point, I have no issue with him being taught RE. I am concerned about him being taught almost exclusively Catholicism and taught it as truth. The introduction to the curriculum even states that its purpose is evangelism.
Also, for those who missed this point too, we did NOT want him to go to a faith school and have not chosen this school for any other benefits.
If you are struggling to understand why this might be troubling us, then maybe leave the comments to those who do and can provide some constructive advice. Thank you.

Hi OP, it’s wild that so many posters are not understanding that you had little choice but to send your DC to a Catholic school and I really sympathise. I moved house to ensure my kids could go to a non denominational school and it makes me so angry that I was forced into that situation. Obviously in an ideal world no state funded schools would be religious but sadly we’re some way from the utopia 😢

Others have said apparently you can’t withdraw your child which is outrageous in itself so it looks like you’re going to have to suck it up 🙁. Keep an open dialogue and keep challenging what he’s taught when these things are discussed at home. And keep praying one day things will change 😀

Thank you. We do have a legal right to withdraw him from RE (everyone does) and have found a good online course for him to do so he won’t miss out educationally. I’m wondering if anyone else has experience of withdrawing/not withdrawing in this situation, from either a teacher or parent POV

This is an incredibly naive position to take. Being able to move to get into a school catchment is a very privileged position.

If the council has finally housed you after 18 months in temporary accommodation, if you need to live near family because you need support to do shift work as a nurse/police officer, if you can't afford a house in that catchment, if you can't afford to put a deposit down on a new rental... the list of reasons why the vast majority of people can't just move to get into their preferred catchment is endless.

There are many reasons why the most desirable schools don't have a pupil body reflecting the socio-economic diversity of their general area.

We were lucky to be able to make life choices around education, but I am not blinkered enough to think that's the solution for most people.

I’m a qualified RE teacher but I don’t teach anymore. I’ve had a few children withdrawn from RE lessons in the past, most JWs, one JW child wanted to be withdrawn but his Dad didn’t - that was an interesting conversation and a child whose Dad didn’t want him to learn about Islam.

In our school the child just sat in the back of another classroom, usually Geography or History and completed homework or read a book. In theory parents were supposed to provide work.

You may also want to withdraw him from Collective Worship.

I withdrew my oldest from RE from the moment she started school (actually she was withdrawn in nursery too) because RE in my country is largely Lutheran indoctrination rather than comparative religion, so similar to your situation with Catholic education. She joins in with the comparative religion parts and some years there's very little of the Lutheran bit and instead it focuses on ethics and learning about world religions (I like how its not just the major ones either like I learnt in the UK but also covers more minor religions) but this year it was all Lutheranism in preparation for the teens getting confirmed this summer (she has joined confirmation school but won't get confirmed as if she does she'll have to do RE next year)

I withdrew my youngest too but I think I must have ticked the wrong box somewhere on the school paperwork because he's definitely been doing RE in 1st grade and he does not want me to withdraw him now.

It’s only a choice for those that can afford to live near oversubscribed schools or are savvy enough to play the church attendance game. My school is a CofE school which is 90% Muslim. Most pupils don’t choose us as 1st choice but end up getting allocated.