Has anyone withdrawn their child from collective worship?

[panthro]

I went to a Catholic school, I quite enjoyed the assemblies and singing, plus I absolutely bossed the overhead projector monitors job during assembly. Never got brainwashed by anyone and enjoyed my time there. It's the best school in the area still and my kids will be going there. I never attending any JAM club though

 

[CaptainComedy]

daaaaaamn dowie... back at it again with the stars

 

[RDM]

"A school continues to be responsible for the supervision of any child
withdrawn by its parent from collective worship."

I have therefore written back to the school over the weekend enclosing the relevant parts of the act and copying both the head of governors and the head of education at the local council.

This has been sent via recorded delivery.

If I don't receive a positive response in the next letter I may well consider a well worded letter from a solicitor.

Just so that you are aware, whilst the school is responsible for supervising your child during any Collective Worship you have withdrawn them from you, as a parent, are responsible for any materials you want the school to cover during that period.

I also personally feel that if I have got to the point of needing a solicitors letter I would no longer wish for my child to go to that school. The relationship between parents and school is too important.

 

[chris.tarry85]

Understanding religion is important to be able to relate to other cultures.

I did RE at school and learnt a lot about what I know about Judaism, Sikhism, Christianity etc.

I don't believe in any God nor subscribe to any religion , but I'd still say it's an important lesson.

Removal is from collective worship only - teacher led RE stays.

Just so that you are aware, whilst the school is responsible for supervising your child during any Collective Worship you have withdrawn them from you, as a parent, are responsible for any materials you want the school to cover during that period.

I also personally feel that if I have got to the point of needing a solicitors letter I would no longer wish for my child to go to that school. The relationship between parents and school is too important.

Yep, more than happy to provide work (revision books, worksheets etc.)

I'm also interested to see what they say about supervision, especially given that they have to be supervised by teaching staff (rather than office staff for example)

 

[Nutella33]

I have therefore written back to the school over the weekend enclosing the relevant parts of the act and copying both the head of governors and the head of education at the local council.

This has been sent via recorded delivery.

If I don't receive a positive response in the next letter I may well consider a well worded letter from a solicitor.

You've gone about this the right way and it's a shame you've had to do this as the school should be standing in your corner with this.

Take advantage and get her doing her other homework or give her some extra resources in the extra time.

Good to see plenty of high horses in this thread though.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

I wont be having my child (when i have one) taught anything about religion. I will educate them on it.
TBH i would try to force my future childs school to remove my child from RE or RS entirely. There IS NO POINT in learning about some made up crap. Would much rather they be spending their time studying Maths or Science.

Understanding religion is important to be able to relate to other cultures.

I did RE at school and learnt a lot about what I know about Judaism, Sikhism, Christianity etc.

I don't believe in any God nor subscribe to any religion , but I'd still say it's an important lesson.

Yeah as much as I also don't believe in God or have a religion, religion is very much intertwined with culture, and to just dismiss it as irrelevant is very short sighted. I wouldn't want my children to attend anything where they were given the idea that one religion is correct and another isn't etc, but it would very much be part of their cultural development to learn about different religions and how they have shaped the earth, historically and now.

 

[CREATIVE!11]

Pull her out now before the damage gets worse... oh jeeze, the church are just professional shamers. Just get her away from it.

I can't stand people who are extreme with religion in any form.

 

[Burnsy2023]

My daughter recently had a religious studies test. When she told me she came bottom of the class I was so proud of her

I would self define as agnostic. I don't think whether god exists is an important or answerable question.

I do think religious studies is an important subject though as you can't understand huge swathes of history and indeed current affairs without understanding the roots and differences not only between religions but also denominations within each religion.

Religion explains why the puritans colonised the US, why the middle east has the issues it has, why so much of Africa has conflict and even why Ireland has some of the domestic laws it has - i.e. abortion.

To be ignorant of so much of why the world is as it is currently is hugely damaging to someone. These things influence our lives today just as much as anything else and is important context to making personal moral and ethical decisions.

Whilst I don't subscribe to any religions, I am interested in understanding other's perspectives and points of view. Being well educated on a variety of subjects such as this is important to being an engaged citizen as much as anything else.

 

[asim18]

I would self define as agnostic. I don't think whether god exists is an important or answerable question.

I do think religious studies is an important subject though as you can't understand huge swathes of history and indeed current affairs without understanding the roots and differences not only between religions but also denominations within each religion.

Religion explains why the puritans colonised the US, why the middle east has the issues it has, why so much of Africa has conflict and even why Ireland has some of the domestic laws it has - i.e. abortion.

To be ignorant of so much of why the world is as it is currently is hugely damaging to someone. These things influence our lives today just as much as anything else and is important context to making personal moral and ethical decisions.

Whilst I don't subscribe to any religions, I am interested in understanding other's perspectives and points of view. Being well educated on a variety of subjects such as this is important to being an engaged citizen as much as anything else.

I agree with this. Our RE hour at school used to be spent watching halves of DVDs. I'm just glad we got to finish the second half of The Mask before school finished. Even though I'm against religion, I still enjoy understanding religion so watching the films during RE hasn't been a waste of time for me, but there are many people who are just plain ignorant so I don't think it matters for them either.

 

[VincentHanna]

The fact you had DVDs at school tells me you are quite young.

The rest...makes no sense.

 

[asim18]

The fact you had DVDs at school tells me you are quite young.

The rest...makes no sense.

Yeah massive projector too.

Since you asked nicely, what I'm saying is that nothing is lost if we abandon teaching RE at school. Kids who are religious are going to want to be ignorant to all others. Ignorants won't even care. And anyone who really wants to learn about all the different fairy tales can do so in their own time as rational adults.

 

[chris.tarry85]

I'm afraid to say that given the way this is continuing to progress with the school - I feel it wise to request that this thread is locked until things are concluded.

 

[cheesyboy]

Like that is it?

Would be interested in hearing the conclusion - good luck with getting it sorted.

(consider getting your MP involved)

 

[FrenchTart]

Locked at OP's request.

 

[Schizo]

Reopened at users request.

 

[Raz]

Yeah massive projector too.

Since you asked nicely, what I'm saying is that nothing is lost if we abandon teaching RE at school. Kids who are religious are going to want to be ignorant to all others. Ignorants won't even care. And anyone who really wants to learn about all the different fairy tales can do so in their own time as rational adults.

Strongly disagree. Religion is often closely linked to culture, traditions and behaviour, and can give insight into building relationships with people from different religious backgrounds. It's not just about 'fairy tales'. Perhaps how the lessons are taught could do with some fine tuning but it's still an important area I feel for children to learn given that they belong in a diverse society.

 

[Efour]

Reopened at users request.

How exciting.

What's happening!

Jam !

 

[Akagi]

Oh my.

 

[wolfie138]

My daughter recently had a religious studies test. When she told me she came bottom of the class I was so proud of her

some religions are very interesting though. the problem only comes when you use them as a template for your life.

 

[MikeTheNative]

Seems a number of people are getting a bit confused as to what collective worship and RE actually is. One is where you pray/sing songs as a class the latter is learning about religions which is different from worshipping them.