Abby:
It shows the essential problem with having an Established religion as in all of the UK. It's law.

While it's true that many of the UK's schools and the older universities are historically religious foundations, and that there's no explicit law or constitutional clause fordidding state support of any religion, and of course the monarch is the head of the C of E... nevertheless the Christian religion is not particularly forced down people's throats at schools nowadays. Britain is very cosmopolitan (especially the big cities) and there is far more emphasis on, for example, comparative religion. In fact one reason why this story is news is because it's so unusual.

on entering our child in primary school in Scotland in 1975, we found she would... not be excused for Jewish High Holy Days

Scotland is more extreme about these things. In the 1960's I went to an old fashioned English public school (that's what the Americans would call a private school) that certainly taught us Christianity and had prayers in the morning and even its own chapel, but any pupils of other religions were excused from all of that, and certainly some of my friends vanished on Jewish holidays. We even had a Jewish head boy in my year.

Of coure you could argue that as the parents were paying the fees the school should provide whatever concessions were asked for, but even where state shools are called "C of E" I don't think anybody feels that they are "supporting the church" by paying taxes for education.

Anahata