Question about CoE Schools

[KaylaB]

Hi, I'm new to Mumsnet. A quick question regarding CoE schools: I know you need to be attanding church, but does it have to be CoE? We are Christians and have always been active in our church, but we're not CoE. How do they apply this admissions criteria or does it depend on the individual school?

[roadkillbunny]

Each CofE school will have it's own admissions criteria so it is hard to say, you will have to look at the individual school. Most often attending a CofE church will be a higher priority to attending other denominations. It will depend on the individual school and if they are over subscribed as to the likelihood of getting a place.
Also, depending on where you are not all CofE school prioritise church goers, ours is a village school and really the only option for the villages (over 2 miles to any other school on non walkable routes) so their administrations criteria put catchment ahead of church. Church only comes into it if they get past the catchment categorises... which they never do!

[Lonnie]

Mine are in a Coe but we are not Coe at the time the now very oversubscribed school had the space (we moved)so they had to take us. The school gas sibling priority over church attendance so our youngest got in over children whom were church goers.

[munstersmum]

DS goes to a CoE village school. He joined at yr2 as there was a space & we have no links with any church.

[exexpat]

There are two kinds of CoE state primary schools - voluntary controlled, and voluntary aided.

Voluntary controlled ones have links to the local church etc but are basically run as local authority schools and admissions are run by the local authority, with no requirement to be religious or priority given to anyone linked to the church.

Voluntary aided ones are much more churchy, and can set religious entry requirements, but these can vary from place to place - you will need to check with the school itself, or the local authority may have details on its school applications website.

[GrimmaTheNome]

As people have said, you need to check criteria for each school. Our village school gives priority first to people attending the village church, then other CofE, then a group of other christian denominations - not sure which but basically the main protestant ones.

I had a friend who managed to keep attending her own Free church twice every sunday by turning up to the CofE midweek prayer meeting every week. Usually just her and the vicar!

[clarinsgirl]

Check admission criteria. Only one school in our village, its C of E and all surrounding village schools C of E also. I'm not a Christian and my DS attends the school. There was some bobbins on the admissions policy about 'letter from the vicar' in the event of over subscription, frankly I'd have played merry hell if they'd tried it.

[DownyEmerald]

Ours is C of E, but the admissions criteria went 1) siblings 2) cared for children 3) children of the parish whose parents are regular attenders with letter from vicar 4) children of the parish, nearest first 5) children from outside the parish whose parents regularly attend the village church.

Something like that anyway. So we got in on 4. But this is a school specific admissions policy.

[DilysPrice]

Some of ours go:
Attendees of "attached" C of E church, then attendees of any other C of E church, then other Christians, then worshippers of other faiths (any other faith, Satanists included) then godless unbelievers.

The local catholic school splits worshippers into 4 separate bands, depending on how frequently they attend (weekly, fortnightly or monthly).

So yes, just go on the website and check.

[KaylaB]

Wow, thanks ladies for all your help. I'm busy ploughing through the minefield of school admission policies. We are expats in South Africa, hoping to return to the South-East sometime next year, hopefully in the first half of the year but all depending on when our business sell. At the moment getting my 6 year old daughter into a school seems like the biggest mountain of all. We haven't even decided where we're going to move to. We're originally from Canterbury, but we want to move closer to London this time, for better job prospects.

[GrimmaTheNome]

If she's already 6, I think your application will be handled on a rather different basis. I've not been through the process myself but essentially it'll be more matter of finding a school that has a space. This can work either way, e.g. our village school is oversubscribed so the reception intake is virtually all kids whose parents have been dutifully warming the pews since they were 2 - but DDs friend who is from a totally non-religious (ethnically Chinese) family was admitted in year 3 simply because one other child had moved out of the area so there was a space.

[exexpat]

I agree with the last two posters - I moved back to the UK mid-year, and basically had to find somewhere to live based on which school had a yr4 place for DS. Religion becomes much less relevant, and it's all about where has a place and how you can get to the top of the waiting list.

It was a bit of a nightmare of a juggling act when I was doing it because they won't give you a school place until you have a confirmed UK address (and also won't confirm a place more than six weeks before the actual date the child will start at the school), but I didn't want to sign the rental contract on a house until I was sure I could get a place at a local school. Eventually I managed to find house and school place close together, pleaded for special treatment on the six-week rule (it was about eight school weeks ahead and I was back in the UK for one week for my husband's funeral before going back overseas to pack up), and it all worked out OK in the end.

I'd suggest you do a lot of research and try to find somewhere to live where there are several local schools you would find acceptable, and hope that there is a bit of turnover. If she's nearly seven, you might strike lucky with a year 3 place as that's the age some state schools lose children to the independent sector.