Advice for non-believing parents in Derby/Derbyshire

We get lots of emails from parents concerning the role of religion in schools and we hope that this page will set minds at rest.

Please contact us if you wish to discuss any issues relating to religion in schools - or if you find things happening in your local schools that you do not approve of.

Background

A few facts to set the scene:

• Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council are two separate bodies - each responsible for state education in is own area.
• Voluntary aided religious schools (almost all Church of England and Catholic in our case), academies and private schools are not supervised by the City or County in relation to religion in schools.
• The law requires all pupils to take part in a daily act of corporate religious worship (bowing one's head and thinking good thoughts is not sufficient) and weekly religious education. The City and County councils cannot opt out of this nationally imposed legal requirement.
• The legal duty to provide worship and RE is placed on the head teacher of each school. The head teacher cannot opt out of this responsibility.
• Individual teachers have the legal right to opt out of taking part in worship in schools and/or providing religious education.
• Parents have the legal right to withdraw their children from worship and/or RE.
• Each local authority must by law have a Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) which draws up the Agreed Syllabus for RE to be used within the local authority. The SACRE consists of representatives from the Church of England, other denominations, teachers and councillors. Non-believers have no legal right to be represented on SACREs. Both the City and County SACREs have co-opted humanist representatives. SACREs are responsible for all aspects of religious activity in schools: worship and RE - they cannot opt out of this legal responsibility

General remarks

We consider both the City and County Councils, SACREs and RE Advisors to have a fairly enlightened attitude towards the role of religion in schools - though they cannot do anything about the disgraceful position in relation to worship in schools. We feel this attitude is also that of most schools and most teachers. There are, of course, exceptions to this general enlightened picture - and we would certainly like to know about them

Religious Education

We recommend that non-believing parent do not withdraw their children from RE.

We want all children to grew into adults who can make informed choices about what to believe - they cannot do this out of ignorance or by being exposed to only one set of ideas - religious or non-religious.

We would qualify our recommendation by saying that withdrawal should be considered where it is obvious that the school, or individual teachers, are pushing one point of view - this would almost certainly be the case in Catholic schools for example. Please contact us if you consider any school or teacher to be doing this - we will take it up with the SACRE and the local authority

If you do choose to withdraw your child from RE you must accept that this will create problems for the child. Withdrawal will make the child the odd-one-out (and kids don't like that) and could result in that child making future decisions about belief or non-belief out of total ignorance - which is exactly what we accuse religious people of doing. You have a right to ask what goes on in RE (though your child will tell you) and you can always push for non-belief to be represented more - we speak in many schools as a result of parent requests.

The County RE syllabus was revised in 2008 and the City syllabus was revised in 2009. A humanist representative was actively involved in the City revision - this was less the case in the county. Both syllabuses now contain references to teaching about non-theist views of the world.

The syllabuses covers learning about religion and belief (including non-belief) - they are not about instruction in any religion. Should you ever find that any school/teacher is pushing a religious point of view then you should report it to the SACRE (contact us first if you wish) which will take action - instruction or prosletysing on behalf of any set of beliefs is not permitted.

Schools may invite speakers into schools to talk about their beliefs. Humanists do this regularly to represent those without religious beliefs. It is up to teachers to set the information provided by outside speakers into the context of the RE syllabus.

Worship in schools

We recommend that non-believing parents should withdraw their children from all acts of worship in schools.

Religious worship is a legal imposition on all pupils and it totally unacceptable. Worship, by definition, implies the existence of the supernatural (gods) and has no place in taxpayer-funded schools. If parents want their pupils to worship they can do so in their own homes or in their places of worship.

Many primary schools in the City and County do have daily acts of worship, most secondary schools break the law and do not have daily acts of corporate worship.

Note: this is withdrawal from worship not withdrawal from assemblies which are a key feature in many schools for creating school spirit and delivering information for all pupils. "Assemblies" are not "worship" - you need to be clear about that and sometimes you need to make it clear to schools.

It is a very simple procedure to tell the school (short letter) that you do not want your child to take part in that part of the assembly that constitutes the legal requirement for "worship". You do want them to take part in the rest of the assembly. So, if there is any hymn singing or praying they leave - but they come back for the football results. The letter need be no more than the sample below.

By law the school cannot question your decision - please contact us immediately if you encounter any problems - we will take it up with the local authority.

Operation Christmas Child and Samaritan's Purse

We strongly recommend that you opt your child out of taking any part on the Operation Christmas Child shoe box collections organised by Samaritan's Purse.

Samaritan's Purse is an ultra right-wing, fundamentalist, prosletysing, evangelical, Christian organisation derived from the very right-wing, misogynistic, and frequently racist, Southern Baptist church in the USA.

There are plenty of non-religious organisations arranging good works at around Christmas time - so schools have ample opportunity not to take part in Operation Christmas Child.

Please click here for more details.

Christian Alpha Course in schools

Some parts of the country have reported schools running Christian Alpha indoctrination courses in schools over a number of weeks and to large numbers of pupils.

We are not aware of any such activity in the City or County.

Please contact us if you become aware of any such activity - we will take it up with the SACRE and the local authority