Parents, know your rights. You can withdraw your child from RE and collective worship without giving a reason, and you can also ask to see what's been written on their record. This letter from Bedfont Primary School in Hounslow last year is a clear example of why knowing this matters. The school defined a refusal as racial harassment using the Commission for Racial Equality's definition. That body was abolished in 2007, nearly twenty years ago. Yet this school still tried to use that outdated definition to brand a child's behaviour as racist and put it on their record. Islam is a religion, not a race. And whatever you think of the 'pointing and laughing' in the letter, it STILL isn't racism. Would a child refusing to sing a Christmas carol have been logged as racist? (I doubt it.) A letter like this doesn't disappear when the school year ends. School records can follow a young person to their next school and beyond, and can have serious consequences for their future. Always check and challenge anything on your child's record.