Sharing/conflict resolution at nursery school?

Nicki

Mojisola wrote: »

Why should someone who believes in just one of the faiths from around the world dictate that prayers from that faith are part of the curriculum?

Ummm? The Headteacher and teachers of ALL schools decide how the curriculum will be taught. Why is this any different? The Head of English decides which books will be bought and read in the school, so if they decide no JK Rowling and lots of Jacqueline Wilson that's what happens. Given that Christianity is still supposed to be the national religion of the country and is the majority religion, its not even that odd that in a school which is required by law to have a religious element, that Christianity is the one selected!

But as others have said, the options are:

send your child to the school and remove her from her peers 3 times a day
send your child to a different (probably fee paying school)
home school
send your child to the school and trust your home influence will save her from "indoctrination"

Forcing the school to change how they do things (and to refuse to meet what are apparently statutory obligations in Wales) doesn't seem to me to be on the list of available options, without actually putting your money where your mouth is and taking this to a formal judicial review.

Nicki

Mojisola wrote: »

"Christianity" hasn't ever been just one faith and there's now a wide spectrum of beliefs and sects who all claim to have the one true message about Jesus so the school is choosing to only honour one Christian sect's prayers.

Where does this appear in this thread? Where was it suggested that the assembley and the grace would be anything other than mainstream vanilla Christianity?

The anology about sex ed was an attempt to find a situation which OP might identify with where a parent with extreme opinions wanted to influence the way the whole school was taught to conform with their opinions.

Mojisola

Nicki wrote: »

Ummm? The Headteacher and teachers of ALL schools decide how the curriculum will be taught. Why is this any different? The Head of English decides which books will be bought and read in the school, so if they decide no JK Rowling and lots of Jacqueline Wilson that's what happens.

Given that Christianity is still supposed to be the national religion of the country and is the majority religion, its not even that odd that in a school which is required by law to have a religious element, that Christianity is the one selected!

Where does it say in the National Curriculum that daily prayers should be part of a state school's day?

As I said, of those who claim to be Christians, they will be part of many different versions of Christianity, all of which have their own prayers.

moomoomama27

The OP has the choice, don;t send her there if she doesn't like the way things are done!

Probably for the best as the poor child will always be labelled with the one with the awkward and pushy mother!

Nicki

Mojisola wrote: »

Where does it say in the National Curriculum that daily prayers should be part of a state school's day?

As I said, of those who claim to be Christians, they will be part of many different versions of Christianity, all of which have their own prayers.

Politely, in the context of the kind of prayers which are commonly used with children at primary school, nonsense! In fact paranoid nonsense!

In my opinion, just to keep Brighton Belle happy, but based on having 3 school aged children all attending different schools and being part of a large family myself who all attended different schools where there was a daily religious assembly and no one was indoctrinated!

Nicki

Mojisola wrote: »

Where does it say in the National Curriculum that daily prayers should be part of a state school's day?

I'm not welsh but I am relying on what OP has said herself is the legal situation on this thread:

notanewuser wrote: »

There is no other school. All state schools have to [STRIKE]try to indoctrinate children thanks to some hideous tradition[/STRIKE] hold a "daily act of worship". There is no secular state school option. Its the system that's at fault, not the school itself (apart from their insistence that extra prayers be said and that nursery children are included.)

There is no fuss or worry around DD.

thorsoak

notanewuser wrote: »

DD starts nursery (unit within a primary school) in September. She'll be 4 in October. We haven't decided whether she'll be going full or part time yet.

She's been brought up "gently" with a close group of friends her age, all with similar parenting. They've never been forced to share - we've encouraged them to take turns and they're fantastic at it. They've all been allowed to choose which of their toys others can play with and which are "special" to them. They're a very harmonious bunch and we rarely have disagreements. She attends a playgroup 4 mornings a week that has a very similar approach - no naughty steps etc, all conflict is dealt with calmly (not that there is much).

I'm wondering how nursery schools handle these issues? The school is very good, but we've found elsewhere that other children have been brought up to expect toys to be taken from others when they want them, have naughty steps etc and I'm wondering if there's a "standard" way of dealing with this in mainstream schools/nurseries? We're in South Wales if that makes a difference.

Nanu's first post : this post is a defensive/negative post about the school to which her 3-year old is due to attend. Now it is about the religious attitude of the school.

Nanu : it is obvious that you do not agree with the ethos of the school which has a good reputation otherwise. You have the option of requesting your child be withdrawn from anything which could smack of religion, or you could make alternative arrangments for your child's education which would isolate her from the group of friends that she has at present. You cannot reasonably expect the whole school to change because you disagree. This is bigotism as bad as any shown by fundamentalists of all religions.

Mojisola

Nicki wrote: »

I'm not welsh but I am relying on what OP has said herself is the legal situation on this thread:

The daily act of worship is the assembly.

notanewuser

Nicki wrote: »

Where does this appear in this thread? Where was it suggested that the assembley and the grace would be anything other than mainstream vanilla Christianity?

The anology about sex ed was an attempt to find a situation which OP might identify with where a parent with extreme opinions wanted to influence the way the whole school was taught to conform with their opinions.

Are my views extreme?! :rotfl::rotfl:

Mojisola

Nicki wrote: »

Politely, in the context of the kind of prayers which are commonly used with children at primary school, nonsense! In fact paranoid nonsense!

It's paranoid not to want a child to take part in one religion's prayers and practices?

I have no problems with people choosing to follow whatever faith they like. I don't see why children from no faith or other faith families should be expected to join in with prayers during their day at a state school.

Fortunately, few of those children will be brain-washed because their parents will present a different viewpoint at home but there's no good reason why they should have the prayers at all in school.