My girls go to a private Christian college. Its ethos is that all teachers and staff of any kind must be practising Christians, but that it is not a requirement that all families with children attending are practising Christians, which is why we got in.

TBH I was naive in underestimating the level of religion that goes on. The kids' day starts with Good Morning Mrs X and may God bless you and it just continues from there. They pray before recess and lunch - nothing full on, just thanks for the food kind of stuff. They do worship one week and assembly the next at which there are a number of songs sung, all of which are religious. My eldest daughter's teacher seems to be particularly spiritual, and has in the past crossed the line in what I think is appropriate teaching on her part but when that has happened I have discussed it in what I hope is an age appropriate way with Miss I. DH and I had to sign an agreement that we would support the teachings of the school and so we knew what we were getting into, just wasn't quite expecting so much at such an early age ITMS.

So, yes the religion troubles me because I don't want my children confused by contradictory behaviour - for instance, the teacher told my daughter that she MUST pray before she gets into bed each night. Ah no. Not in this house. Darling, you can pray before bed or any other time you like if you want but you don't have to. I think as the girls get older and are more capable of us having a discussion on what our beliefs are, then this will be easier.

The flip side is that I absolutely believe my kids are getting a far better education there than at the local primary school (had we stayed in our old house in our old suburb I would have very happily sent them to the local public primary school). The school also has a fantastic approach to community services, great morals, discipline, bullying, sport, the arts etc. Basically, from my experience so far its an exceptionally well rounded approach to educating a child in every sense of that term and so we deal with the religion side of things.

ETA: Just wanted to add that while we're not practising Christians, we believe in basic Christian values so its not a huge stretch for us with the teachings, just more that we don't believe God put the rainbows in the sky to apologise for 40 days and nights of rain ITMS