Jehovah's Witness question

[kimmy]

I thought i would ask this question here and see what you all do at your settings.
I have in the past had one or two jehovah children in my group and we have worked with parents asking what they would prefer us to do in relation to the child being involved in celebrations etc, we have had answers ranging from would rather them not be involved in any celebration , to yes ok to singing xmas songs but not the religious part - this is all ok and workable.we make sure that the child is taken out of the room if we are talking about divali etc although inpromptu chats are not as easy to deal with :-)
I know have a situation where the parents do not want the child to be involved in any way in anything, no xmas songs, no xmas stories, nothing at all. As we remove the child from the classroom this also takes up 2 staff members most times, but this also means that as xmas is coming up its all going to be about xmas !! and it looks like i'm going to have one little soul sitting elsewhere doing other things :-(

Please help .... how do you deal with this situation or have you dealt with it - as i'm worried that our lovely xmas singing during play - as and when the children want to is going to be threatened this year !!

kim

[tutu]

this is where your admission policy has let you down and whoever is doing the admissions needs to deal with it for the future. when speaking to newbies the first thing youd tell them is about inclusion and tell them that all children are allowed to take part in everything, if they aren't comfortable with this then the manager needs to practice this wonderful phrase, "i dont think we are the right nursery for you" and off they toddle.
for now you get the parents in you re-cover the policy you tell the parents that all being an inclusive non religious all welcoming setting you cannot exclude children from activities they choose to take part in but if they would like to come in and occupy the elsewhere or keep them at home that day then that is their choice.

deal with it and tighten your procedures!

[kimmy]

The school has a policy that deals with the school children and parents are asked to remove them for christmas rehearsals etc, and this is what i have said to my parents as well, its not that part that worries me tutu, i know all that and have covered it with the parents, and we are happy to let him do other activities with him instead of a xmas card etc, but it seems that they have changed their own rules all of a sudden about what he can do and cant - i have discussed this with the main school and they said that i have to try and keep to what they have asked and if this is not possible then they will have to come and read him a story, or take him home as i do not have spare staff to look after him everyday.
On day one I discussed with both parents that we celebrated many different things and they understood that and realised that he would have to be involved in certain things and we said that we would keep communicating each time something came up but it seems to me that they are becoming more and more strict on what they will allow him to take part in - I have another meeting with them again tomorrow and i have asked the head to join me as i'm fed up with repeating myself....:-)

[tutu]

oh they re the ones who say yes yes then when the kids are in they say no no, good job we have policies and they sign their agreement to them!

[Heidi]

I agree with Tutu - remind them of your equality, diversity and inclusion policies.

For many years we had a local Jehovah Witness comunity with children attending out setting for many years - on the whole everything went well.

Only on one occassion did a parent tell me they did not want their child anywhere near Christmas. I asked how they were going to do this in a Christian culture with Christmas trimmings in shops etc. She informed me she had told her child that Christmas was 'naughty'.

I explained at our setting Christmas would (as all celebrations/festivals) be incorporated in crafts, singing, games etc and it would be better if she explained to her child that everyone has their own culture and beliefs.

She chose to allow her child to continue as usual, but made such a fuss about it to her son, he was obsessed with Father Christmas. Other parents of the same faith who had not brought up any concerns or conditions about their child or Christmas had no problem with the festivities.

Remind them of your policies and how about mentioning the other children's right to have their culture and/or festivals celebrated?

[ray]

I am actually quiet shocked to read the comments on these issues. As child care workers do we not pride ourselves on RESPECT and celebrating culture and religious beliefs of others. e.g providing kosher foods or vegetarian options because of others beliefs. As a nursery we teach and INFORM about many different religious celebrations. There is a big difference between this and allowing Christmas celebrations to cause such an issue. Are we not taught to celebrate diversity??? Why would you need TWO members of staff to be with one child???? Are there not other art activities the child could be asked to do?? Winter pictures? An "I Love You Card". Winter animal crafts? Do you have the same issues with religious Hindu,s , Muslims or Jewish children who observe their faith??? Education about religious beliefs is meant to be about teaching all children in our care that it is ok to be different.

[Ruthierhyme]

Ray this is more to do with a parent's individual views than any of a setting's provision.

2 staff would equal the capacity to support & witness.

Kimmy, does your setting have a festival planner that could be used to specifically focus on how balanced your approach to mixed faith celebration is?

Jehovah on BBC

I agree with tutu's advice to ask the parent to keep the littlie home when celebrations become too uncomfortable for them - may mean a meeting in school to check policy for absence with school's permission - & how that information is tracked. It's one solution that prevent's the child from feeling discriminated against by exclusion & segregation from the activity, environment & their peers.

Jehovah witnesses and the school - pdf from Learning with South Glos.org

Let us know how it goes xx

[Heidi]

Ray,
I know where you are coming from as statutory requirements of the EYFS is that inclusion is not optional and all children must be provided with experiences to help them develop a positive sense of themselves and others: that is the theory but in practice if we were to be too rigid with parents of this particlar faith, they would remove them from settings completely.

Whilst I (and others on this thread) have pointed out we have inclusion, diversity and equal opportunity policies and adhere by them - we can not enforce our views on others, but explain that certain things cannot and will not be tolerated such as discrimination or lack or understanding of others' faith or beliefs. It is the parent's choice to decide whether they wish their child to attend when Christmas festivites are underway at our setting. Children of this faith very often attended for the whole session, some were collected 30 minutes before the end (circle and storytime) when we read Christmas stories, opened the advent calendar, sang Christmas songs etc.

It is not statutory that children of pre-school age attend a setting and I would rather welcome all families and hope through our understanding of everyone's cultural/religious backgrounds it will help them gain more tolerance towards others.

[ray]

Thanks Heidi , thats what i meant . . . . some things in the Jehovahs Witness faith are matters of conscience and that's where the differing views come in. e.g i worked in a school and there all the Jehovah s Witnesses ( 7 families) came to a meeting where an agreement was made among all of them and us what they would and would not participate in and what we would do if and when they couldn't participate. On some occasions this meant parents coming in and doing a different activity with those children and some others ( religious Muslims and Jewish children). On the whole it worked really well but that was because we all knew exactly what was and what was not ok. We at no time wanted the parents to feel that we did not respect their religious beliefs and differences. Plus we always made sure that we were educating children about ALL religious festivals but not expecting them to participate in the celebrations. Educating and expecting participation are very different arent they

[ray]

In the Education Act of 1996 RE remained part of the Basic Curriculum for all children in
school. The aim being to inform not indoctrinate children about different viewpoints.
Mary K Stone in her paper Quality RE (1998) advocates a reflective approach to teaching.
• Take what they say seriously. Value it.
• Wherever possible provide a choice of activity.
• Good practice in this, as in any other area relevant to children, is that you are
prepared to stand back from your preferred outlook.
• It is your role to help the children to develop respect for other people, but within an atmosphere where children feel confident that
they too deserve respect.