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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

Would you send your DC to a catholic school if you werent religious?

52 replies

allaboutme · 09/11/2009 22:57

If the best school near you is Catholic would you apply to it?
Its 'sometimes' over subscribed, so slim chance DS would get a place, but still a chance!
We are not religious at all, but would be fine with DS having hymns in assembly and the nativity at christmas etc.

Are there negatives to this if by some chance he does get a place there?

What do you all think?

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IdrisTheDragon · 09/11/2009 23:22

I wouldn't although I suppose it depends what your "not religious" means to you.

I think in catholic schools there is rather more religion than hymns and nativity plays. It would depend on whether that bothered you or not. There also might be elements of "peer pressure" when other children had their First Communion etc.

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SlartyBartFast · 09/11/2009 23:25

i dont spose you would be allowed?
wouldnt the priest have to establish you had been going to mass for a year?

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Alibabaandthe40nappies · 09/11/2009 23:26

If you aren't Catholic then I doubt they will get in....

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GrimmaTheNome · 09/11/2009 23:29

This thread title gives me deja vue - I'm sure someone else asked exactly the same thing very recently.

Personally I'd say no, unless the other choices were significantly worse.

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ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 09/11/2009 23:31

The nearest school to us is Catholic, but no one stands the smallest chance of getting in if they haven't been to Mass three Sundays out of four for the last three years. So no .

Have thought about it in principle, if school not so oversubscribed, and still no.

There is generally a lot more religion in Catholic schools than hymns at assembly and the nativity at Christmas. You may want to think about that...

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GrimmaTheNome · 09/11/2009 23:31

Whether you get in depends on exactly what criteria are laid down, and then how many others apply who fulfil the higher criteria. Some its 1)church attendance 2) being baptised .... 34454) living next door... slight exaggeration!

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Claire2009 · 09/11/2009 23:32

Similar situation here, catholic school v good, other school not so..

Catholic school, takes applications of rc's first, fills spaces - if any left they go to none rc.

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Doodlez · 09/11/2009 23:36

LOLOLOLOLOLOL - you think a Catholic school is gonna make do with a few hymns and a nativity?

As a (lapsed) Catholic, believe me.....it's waaaaaaay more than that Duckie!

And if you do send him there, remember, Baby Jesus will KNOW you blagged him in there

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Linnet · 09/11/2009 23:40

Both my dd's go to a Catholic school and we are not religious. The school accepts both Catholic and non Catholic children, obviously practising Catholics get first priority.

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LeninGrotto · 09/11/2009 23:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SlartyBartFast · 09/11/2009 23:51

actually no - in answer to the question - i wouldnt send my dc to a catholic school. it would feel wrong, plus they would come home and want to be religious when i am not at all that way inclined.

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Clary · 10/11/2009 00:44

I think that you'll find catholic school is a bit more than hymns in assembly and the nativity.

TBH you'll get that at just about any school (certainly at our community infants school which is not CE as such).

Catholic schools do the whole mass/ashes on Ash Wednesday/first communion etc. I would find it odd to send a child there if I were not Catholic (which I'm not actually) but obv not everyone agrees with me.

Who says it's the "best school" anyway? Best for whom? Your child? Because in the end that's what matters.

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MumNWLondon · 10/11/2009 00:51

It depends.... if you are happy for your child to have a full catholic eduction and as children very open to what they learn in school probably want to be religious eg do holy communion say prayers want to talk about jesus etc and go to church then fine.

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neverjamtoday · 10/11/2009 01:12

My DSs have notched up three Catholic schools between them. Primary school was quite 'religious' i.e. celebrating significant days, priest being involved with school life but no activities or promotion of values to take offence at, middle school much less 'religious' - the odd prayer at the end of the newsletter, collections for CAFOD etc, high school you wouldn't even know apart from promoting some basic all round 'be nice to everyone' type values. My children were baptised Catholics and we do go to church a bit (their father is a Catholic - I am not) so I feel like I have never really played the system (oh so virtuous!!)

However, I have had to laugh at some of the comments here. DCs both did their first holy communion which was significant for their father, quite sweet for me and utter nonsense for their agnostic grandfather (my Dad) who didn't hold back his ridicule - my children survived this and love us all the same! My children certainly haven't come home and wanted to be religious! Too busy doing other things!

All these schools had non-Catholic children on the roll but it was hard to get in if you are not Catholic. I am not, as I said a Catholic, but I do think it is slightly hypocritical to reject the values but still want your child to go to a school I am not saying you have to embrace the whole religion however but I don't think people need to be afraid of Catholics - and it does feel a bit like that's what some people are suggesting!

Oh and, for what it's worth, my DD (still at a Catholic school) wants, quite seriously, to be a Buddhist - so not major influence from school there and actually her RE teacher has been quite interested about her visits to the Buddhist monastery etc.!

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marialuisa · 10/11/2009 08:24

Actually a lot of the stuff about 1st communion etc. may not be true, there is huge variation in what schools do. We are RC but DD doesn't go to the local RC primary. I have spent a lot of time there though and the school really isn't that religious. 1st communion prep is done entirely in the parish and out of a year group of 68 only 14 made their first communion. They have a small cross in the main corridor but no religious imagery in the classrooms, they have a school mass once a term. There are a significant number of children of other faiths (predominantly non-Christian) and the kids do all the usual stuff about Diwali. They are super-sensitive to children coming from families where only one parent or neither parent is catholic and work very hard to be inclusive.

We are not in London though and the school is not significantly better than others around it. The senior school it feeds into is again, ok but not great, so the pr4ssure for places doesn't exist.

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allaboutme · 10/11/2009 09:31

Well, this school was over subscribed last year, but wasnt the year before, so it depends entirely how many people apply this year!
We would obviously be bottom of the pile, but from reading their admissions criteria carefully, if there is a space left after the catholic children have all been offered a place then they MUST offer it to us despite our non caholic status.
The school is quite a bit higher in league tables and has an oftsed outstanding com[pared to a satisfactory in other local schools.
I am going to go and look round first and get the feel for the place, but if I like it and think it will suit DS then I think I will put it as first choice and my more realistic choice as 2nd choice.
It will not affect our seconbdary school choice and thats not a reliugious school.

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allaboutme · 10/11/2009 09:33

Also to clarify - I would NEVER blag him in. I wouldnt pretend to be religious or get baptised or anything! I'd only send him if we got lucky and there were more spaces than applicants this year so he gets accepted as his non catholic self as a last choice!

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MumNWLondon · 10/11/2009 18:48

well then i guess as long as you are happy to support the ethos of the school then you may as well apply?

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ihatemyjob · 10/11/2009 18:48

I would never do it as am very much against religious schools.

Don't you have to have a reference from your priest?

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HeadFairy · 10/11/2009 18:53

I would if they accepted ds... he's christened Catholic, both dh and I went to Catholic schools, and we do occasionally go, mostly at Christmas and Easter admittedly. However I'd have no problem with him having a Catholic education, though I'm sure it would be more than hymns and nativity plays. At my school we had to go to Benediction every Friday from the age of 7.

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Wandaaa · 10/11/2009 20:18

Yes, I seriously considered this for the area we lived when DD was a baby, not sure of the chances of getting in but there were quite a few in the LEA and any would have been better than the school at the bottom of our street. We moved to a differemt LEA area and she attends the nearest school to where we live which is oversubscribed and the catholic school which is 50 yards further down the road is undersubscribed.

I don't think there would be much I would object to religion wise, although I did laugh when my catholic friend told me that her DS had to confess his sins to the priest prior to his first holy communion.

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Hando · 10/11/2009 20:29

I agree with what the others have said. Perhaps I'd send dd to a CofE school if it was close and very good, even though we are not religious as, as you rightly said, a few hymms and nativity isn't going to scar anyone for life. However there is a HUGE differnce when considering a catholic school. All your DS friends are likely to be religious, attend church regularly, have parents who attend church and do churchy things. The church and the school may well have a close link, fundraising etc. Also, as others said they'll mainly all be amking their communion /confimation together.

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InterruptingKid · 10/11/2009 20:31

NO FUCKING WAY in a milion years.

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TeamAlesha · 10/11/2009 20:34

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Kitchens · 10/11/2009 21:11

My DS goes to a Catholic school, as did I. DH is agnostic but was happy for DS to attend a catholic school. Very happy with it. Yes they pray every morning, before lunch and before they come home and yes they have school masses probably one per term and yes they can do their fist holy communion. The classrooms are named after saints and the houses are named after saints too.

However, no one I know who attends the school seems ultra religious. It all seems very balanced and 21st Century to me.

Just because a child attends a religious school it doesn't mean they become ultra religious themselves, like someone said before me kids have too many other things to distract them especially once they get to senior school and it's mixed!!!