Sharing/conflict resolution at nursery school?

Janepig

OP you may find that as you've chosen Welsh medium education, that (in my experience) seems to bring with it a bit more in the way of religion/religious education than an English medium school might. There's still alot of "Welsh Chapel" influence (again, in my experience).

I sent DD and DS to a Welsh Medium school because DH is a welsh speaker, he'd gone there, it's an excellent school and the nearest school to us is a Church in Wales school so that was a definite "no way". However, in terms of the amount of religion on offer, I would hazard a guess that my two get a whole heap more than those in the CiW school around the corner.

I have no faith in particular, I certainly wouldn't describe myself as "Christian" but nor am I as evangelically atheist as you appear to be NANU. When I was in primary school (late 70's/early 80's) we had an assembly every day with religious content, said prayers at lunchtime and at the end of the day. Christmas concerts always had at least one class doing a nativity. Did it have any effect on my beliefs? Not at all. So that might give rise to the question of what was the point, especially as it wasn't a "faith school". But looking back I didn't mind it and perhaps I actually quite liked the routine of it all. DD/DS have a very similar routine in their day with assembly and prayers, etc... have done since they were 3 in the nursery class there. It seems to have had the same effect on their belief system as it did on mine. ie, none.

There are visitors to their assemblies of a Christian nature, probably on the more evangelical side, which doesn't particularly sit comfortably with me, but I have alot of time for the school in general and the headmaster is fantastic, so I admit to turning a blind eye. I'm not about to enter into debate with him as to how he runs the school, I know that with around 450 children there then they are going to do some things that are more to my taste, and other things that are not, why should they change things to suit one parent? I clearly don't feel strongly enough about it perhaps!!! Or actually on balance, I'd rather my children joined in, knowing that if they had any questions (which they never have, I honestly think most of it has just passed them by, for good or bad!) then I would be able to give them a more balanced view. I would prefer that than for them to be singled out to leave the classroom or assembly or whatever which they may find embarrassing.

DD is in year six now and to the best of my knowledge they've never had anyone from any other religion visit the school, and to be honest I couldn't see that happening under the current leadership in any case.

Ultimately I would prefer that there were no faith schools and that education was secular, but as that's not likely to happen any time soon I'm not going to rock the boat with DD/DS's school and I'm prepared to let them go along with it. That may make me look bad but I'm prepared to live with that!

Jx

Brighton_belle

Nicki wrote: »

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!

Thanks very much I haven't actually suggested anyone would be indoctrinated though. And I have positive memories of my primary school assemblies and singing 'lord of the dance'

Janepig

notanewuser wrote: »

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

Honestly? I think they are a bit. Which is fine, you're entitled to your opinion and I like people with a bit of fire in their belly! I think perhaps that most people who share similar views to you don't necessarily feel the need to change the world to fit in with them!! In the nicest possible way

Jx

notanewuser

thorsoak wrote: »

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.

:huh:

My first post was requesting info on how primary schools and nurseries normally handle sharing and disputes. It wasn't negative in the slightest! Until this week I was unaware of how this particular school handled them, and then the religious thing came up too.

thorsoak wrote: »

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.

:huh:

There are 3 children she's currently at playgroup with that are going to be going to the school. There's no guarantee they'll be in the same class, (and she's not particularly friendly with 2 of them anyway) so I'm expecting a new set of friends to be made. (The friends I referred to in the first post are from our antenatal group and will continue to be friends outside school.) Knowing the dynamics of groups, excluding DD several times a day is potentially going to damage her relationship with the school friends she's yet to make long term. Yet in order to allow her freedom to "storm, norm and form" with them we have to accept something off-curriculum that we don't agree with.

There are no fee-paying welsh medium schools in Wales that I'm aware of, and I wouldn't be looking for a private primary school anyway.

Just seems we're being asked to compromise a bit too much at the moment.

thorsoak

notanewuser wrote: »

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

In words of one syllable? Yes!

notanewuser

Janepig wrote: »

OP you may find that as you've chosen Welsh medium education, that (in my experience) seems to bring with it a bit more in the way of religion/religious education than an English medium school might. There's still alot of "Welsh Chapel" influence (again, in my experience).

I sent DD and DS to a Welsh Medium school because DH is a welsh speaker, he'd gone there, it's an excellent school and the nearest school to us is a Church in Wales school so that was a definite "no way". However, in terms of the amount of religion on offer, I would hazard a guess that my two get a whole heap more than those in the CiW school around the corner.

I have no faith in particular, I certainly wouldn't describe myself as "Christian" but nor am I as evangelically atheist as you appear to be NANU. When I was in primary school (late 70's/early 80's) we had an assembly every day with religious content, said prayers at lunchtime and at the end of the day. Christmas concerts always had at least one class doing a nativity. Did it have any effect on my beliefs? Not at all. So that might give rise to the question of what was the point, especially as it wasn't a "faith school". But looking back I didn't mind it and perhaps I actually quite liked the routine of it all. DD/DS have a very similar routine in their day with assembly and prayers, etc... have done since they were 3 in the nursery class there. It seems to have had the same effect on their belief system as it did on mine. ie, none.

There are visitors to their assemblies of a Christian nature, probably on the more evangelical side, which doesn't particularly sit comfortably with me, but I have alot of time for the school in general and the headmaster is fantastic, so I admit to turning a blind eye. I'm not about to enter into debate with him as to how he runs the school, I know that with around 450 children there then they are going to do some things that are more to my taste, and other things that are not, why should they change things to suit one parent? I clearly don't feel strongly enough about it perhaps!!! Or actually on balance, I'd rather my children joined in, knowing that if they had any questions (which they never have, I honestly think most of it has just passed them by, for good or bad!) then I would be able to give them a more balanced view. I would prefer that than for them to be singled out to leave the classroom or assembly or whatever which they may find embarrassing.

DD is in year six now and to the best of my knowledge they've never had anyone from any other religion visit the school, and to be honest I couldn't see that happening under the current leadership in any case.

Ultimately I would prefer that there were no faith schools and that education was secular, but as that's not likely to happen any time soon I'm not going to rock the boat with DD/DS's school and I'm prepared to let them go along with it. That may make me look bad but I'm prepared to live with that!

Jx

Thanks for this. It's REALLY helpful.

notanewuser

Janepig wrote: »

Honestly? I think they are a bit. Which is fine, you're entitled to your opinion and I like people with a bit of fire in their belly! I think perhaps that most people who share similar views to you don't necessarily feel the need to change the world to fit in with them!! In the nicest possible way

Jx

It wouldn't just be me I'd be changing the world for though, would it?

I do wonder how many other parents would be bothered about it if they knew (we were only told because we asked) or either haven't thought about it or aren't bothered by it.

notanewuser

thorsoak wrote: »

In words of one syllable? Yes!

Go on, push the boat out and tell me how. You can even use multisyllabic words if you like.

balletshoes

notanewuser wrote: »

It wouldn't just be me I'd be changing the world for though, would it?

I do wonder how many other parents would be bothered about it if they knew (we were only told because we asked) or either haven't thought about it or aren't bothered by it.

i'll be honest - i think most parents would be in the "aren't bothered by it" category. I'm one of those - we live in a multi-cultural area, our household is mixed culture and mixed religion (nominally on both mine and my OH's parts, he's a fairweather muslim and I'm in the "pretty sure theres no God" camp). I assumed my DD's primary school had no assigned specific religious assemblies/prayers, but I didn't actually ask her until a previous thread came up on MSE a few years ago .

Brighton_belle

thorsoak wrote: »

In words of one syllable? Yes!

They thought that about Emmeline Pankhurst too. Anyone who challenges the status quo tends to be thought extreme. So having extreme views isn't always a bad thing is it?
When I was at secondary school, I was forced to do needlework while only boys were allowed to do technical drawing and I froze every winter but girls weren't allowed to wear trousers. To oppose either status quo was seem as extreme.
But some people persisted and kept questioning why these things were set in stone. So now girls don't have to endure this nonsense.