Active discussions

Help end medical misogyny. Sign our petition.

Help end medical misogyny.
Sign our petition.

Sign the petition

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Thoughts on withdrawing from RE lessons?

151 replies

MidgetJones1 · 28/06/2026 08:09

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

OP posts:
Mischance · 01/07/2026 18:09

JFDIYOLO · 01/07/2026 15:47

You chose a Catholic school = he gets a Catholic education.

He will encounter beliefs, cultures, attitudes and opinions that are not your own throughout his life, and encouraging him to do just that instead of exclaiming in horror and drawing him away will be far better for him.

Support him to ask questions, probe and discuss what he's told especially if it's presented as the only truth (and be prepared to stand up for him if he gets in trouble for it).

Provide him with books and other resources that will expand his education and understanding if he's not getting it at school.

Be active in pressing for a more rounded approach to what the children are told - join the pta, become a school governor or whatever option there is to have an opinion and make change.

But talking about withdrawing him will 'other' him in his friends eyes and inbibit his critical faculties too. Don't turn him later on into one of those students who throw a wobbly whenever someone at their university has a different opinion.

But this misses the point that the school is a state schools where no religion should take precedence. Schools funded by the public purse should be non-aligned.
Supposing your nearest state school was a seventh day adventist school, or a jehovahs witness school or an obscure tribal cult school and this was plugged as the truth ... would that be OK? Should parents just suck it up?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page