Aibu going to church so my child goes to a Catholic school

Should tax payers be paying for children to be told that homesexuality is wrong? I'm not sure we should.

Our kids went to a wonderful Catholic primary - rated outstanding.

I’d say 9/10 of the parents we met were like us - one of the parents a lapsed Catholic, got kids baptised, started to go to mass at school admission time to get them in. Did the whole Catholic thing including sacraments throughout the primary years and haven’t been back once since.

Many Catholic schools are local authority maintained schools, so funded by every one through their hard earned money, through their taxes. Ultimately, the schools should be open to everyone, religious or not, until they stop being funded by all of us, and get the church to fully for this kind of education.

Me neither. The poster was writing about faith schools in general. Not catholic schools. Bizarre

It used to be called FIFO decades ago in business and it's still a very useful motto-FIFO (fit in or fuck off)

You know, in the same way that if you sent them to an Islamic school or a school like the one in Bradford in which a teacher had to flee for his life and is still in hiding for showing a cartoon of Mohammed.

If you send your child to that school, then accept that he can't bring in an image of Mohammad or say anything that questions that faith.

Simply, will you fit in? If not, fuck off.

100% agree. Tax payers pay for these religious schools and it’s not on. If a person wants a religious education for their children then do so privately or send them to Sunday school.

As long as you then don't start moaning that they're taught the Catholic faith or participate in Catholic ceremonies.
So, if they say that gay marriage or abortion is wrong, don't complain.
If you can't do that, then don't send your child there.

No, do it.

I don't think religious people should have better school options than non religious people (unless they are paying for it.) So on that basis I wouldn't be bothered if people tried to cheat the system to get a better school. They shouldn't have to though.

There is a huge problem with falling pupil numbers in London so schools are merging and closing. C of E schools seem to be really suffering. The C of E school I worked at last year closed and the majority of the pupils went to the nearby Catholic school. They were absorbed in mid year with no issues at all regarding faith.

Sorry, can you point to me to the part of the post where that OP said “faith schools, except Muslim ones which I think are absolutely fine”? I’m not seeing it.

At the one near me you can just give a donation in lieu of attendance; if it's big enough the priest will sign the form quite happily

The hatred of Catholicism on Mumsnet breeds intolerance and division. This level of hatred towards Islam wouldn't be tolerated, yet Catholics are fair game for some reason.

DH was brought up Catholic and went to RC schools, though not religious as an adult. I am nominally C of E but not at all religious.

Before we had children, DH actually used to say that he would never send any children of his to a Catholic school. No, nothing to do with any of the abuse scandals, just it seems his primary was really crap and taught mainly by superstitious old ladies who liked to pile on the guilt. I think his secondary school was largely OK.

Anyway when DD was born we did decide to have her baptised RC. Not at all for school reasons, just we knew that his family would love it if we did and mine don't feel strongly enough about religion to mind which flavour of church!

We rarely went to church after that, just when PILs visited, but we were obviously on their list because just before DD was 3 we were invited to an Open Evening at the local primary. As it happened this was the nearest school to where we lived so DH went along. He was very impressed and, long story short, she ended up going there and subsequently to Catholic secondary. Did all the rituals - First Communion, Confirmation although it wasn't obligatory. No more religious now than us but she got a decent education

I haven’t read all the replies so I apologise if this has been mentioned ect.

My DC 8 goes to a catholic school, he isn’t baptised & nor have I ever attended church with him. My eldest also goes to a CofE secondary school & again never been baptised nor attended church. As far as I’m aware all schools that practise religion have to take in a certain amount of children who are not catholic ect.

Lots of non-religious people (or people of the 'wrong' religion) send their children to a religious school because it is the only local school. If I wanted to send my child to a non-CofE school I would be looking at a 20 mile round trip every day. Would you really expect parents to do that to a 4 year-old?

It’s fine. The school and community are part of their evangelising.
You may find after a few years you are fully sucked back in and carry on attending, which is the whole idea of it all.

I think yabu, but no more hypocritical than many others who do the same
And indeed, anyone who professes to be a Christian

Likewise in my state school. Many non religious teachers also charged.

I do think there is enormous hypocrisy from those who want the benefits of institutions built on Catholic thought and teaching and feel its ok to go in, and dilute the culture by not adhering to the faith. I think it's wrong and unfair to those who put in the effort. If you want something because you perceive it as better, it's surely worth investigating why that is rather than just taking what it has built and has to offer. Catholicism is a beautiful religion and provides an anchor that has created schools that exceed the secularists state offering, why is that? To think you can just take the positive without taking seriously what created it looks to me like sawing at the branch you're standing on.

Yes it's fine. We did it to guarantee a place in our village school (CofE) rather than get allocated a school miles away where DS wouldn't know anyone and transport would be a nightmare - everyone in the village does it. The school is not oversubscribed anymore (quite the opposite, I think they have 11 children in reception this year) but it was when DS was little.

It's insane that we have state schools in this country which are legally permitted to discriminate on the grounds of religion, and it's particularly egregious in rural areas where literally the only primary for miles is likely to be CofE. It's basically telling jewish/catholic/muslim children that they are less worthy of a school place.

I did this. Baptised Catholic, non-believer but wanted DC to go,to the excellent Catholic schools near us. I also wanted them to belong to a community.

DC are in their thirties now. Neither of them are believers but are still very much of the school/church communities.

`i'm still vague about what I believe but still attend mass and take communion regularly. Belonging to the parish has given me a wonderful set of friends and support network. It's like having a big extended family all around me.

This

I did this.

Raised Catholic but didn't practice, all schools worth going to in area are Catholic. The non denominational schools were all ofsted rated as poor or needs improving.

I wanted them to go to the school I attended which was 'outstanding'

Got DS1 baptised and into the school and all his siblings were not baptised but got in on sibling placements.

I don't see why children should have to have a subpar education over a lack of baptism.