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Question about religious activities in UK schools

Jerf

New Blood
J
Joined
May 16, 2004
Messages
18
My daughter, who is four years old and in reception class at school, was sent home early from school the other day because the school had arranged a trip to attend a Christmas service at a local church. I agreed to collect her early, but I have made an appointment to speak to the headteacher about the matter next week.

My daughter is excused from all other religious activities at school, but surely sending her home like that constitutes unlawful exclusion from school. Surely the school should provide alternative activities for non-religious children. What do other readers think? (Her school is not a church school).
 
I have no idea about the legal side of things but I think they should have provided some alternative activity for her. Looking back into the mists of time and when I was at school if children couldn't attend an out of school organised event, such as a field trip etc., alternative activities were put on for them. Although at the time if I'd been given an option of doing the alternative activity or going home I would have chosen the later :)

I suppose on the schools behalf if the school is particularly small and doesn't have many teachers to spare there could be some resource allocation problems (although this is probably not the case in your case.)
 
Mid said:
I have no idea about the legal side of things but I think they should have provided some alternative activity for her. Looking back into the mists of time and when I was at school if children couldn't attend an out of school organised event, such as a field trip etc., alternative activities were put on for them. Although at the time if I'd been given an option of doing the alternative activity or going home I would have chosen the later :)

I suppose on the schools behalf if the school is particularly small and doesn't have many teachers to spare there could be some resource allocation problems (although this is probably not the case in your case.)
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I'm a UK teacher myself.

Yes, the school is obliged to provide an alternative and can't just send her home like that, so they broke the rules.

Was she the only holdout from the trip? In general, you will always have a certain percentage of kids who can't or won't go on trips and the school will usually arrange supervision for these - I always volunteer to stay behind on such events as I have something of an aversion to going on school trips.

If she was the only one who didn't go, or even if she was one of a small handful, it might have been a practical consideration, that they didn't think it was worthwhile keeping a single kid in school - with a teacher sitting there to supervise her - all day.
 
Yes, apparently she is the only child in the school who is excused from religious activity. I think this is partially because in the small-print of the school starter-pack it states that parents who don't want their children to take part in prayer, etc., must so inform the school in writing. I think if they flipped it over and required parents who DO want their children involved in prayer etc to write in, that would provoke few responses too.

And yes, it is a small school, so there are staffing issues.
 
Jerf said:
Yes, apparently she is the only child in the school who is excused from religious activity. I think this is partially because in the small-print of the school starter-pack it states that parents who don't want their children to take part in prayer, etc., must so inform the school in writing. I think if they flipped it over and required parents who DO want their children involved in prayer etc to write in, that would provoke few responses too.

And yes, it is a small school, so there are staffing issues.
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That's likely it then. Having a teacher sitting in a room all day with a single child is a bit over the top - and in fact you'd really need two teachers ideally, as it's a bit of a no-no for a teacher ever to be alone with a child, let alone for a whole day.
 
Could she just go to the service and not pray? I do that a weddings and christenings all the time. I had to pray in school assemblies but just did the actions. No big deal.
 
Yeah, they could have just found something appropriate for her to do. Of course, depending on their level of understanding of the issue at hand, that may range from drawing pentagrams to mocking the lord in song ;)

--- G.
 
Seismosaurus said:
Was she the only holdout from the trip? In general, you will always have a certain percentage of kids who can't or won't go on trips and the school will usually arrange supervision for these - I always volunteer to stay behind on such events as I have something of an aversion to going on school trips.
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I recall my school's entire 6th grade going on the annual "6th grade camping trip", 3 classes, about 90 students in all. This usually happened at the 2nd or 3rd week in fall after classes start.

There were about 3 students whose parents wouldn't let them go (including one in my class, who was a new student, and her parents wouldn't let her go because the school was too new.) These poor students had the honor of sitting in 5th grade for the entire week :( :o :o :o
 
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