Would you start attending church to get your child into a C of E secondary?

100% yes

I was strategic, my Daughter did commute by train, but had a good education for two years, them transferred in time for Year 9.

Strategic is setting a good example to your children and teaching them to be honest and to stand by their principles!

Making them suffer church and asking them to go along with religious doctrine that no one in our house believes in would be ridiculous!

As I stated… if it was such a huge issue we could have sold our house and moved! We played the long game, with honesty! It worked out!

As for other parents… it’s their decision to teach their children to either be dishonest or deceitful if they choose… but no doubt if they complain about their children doing the same when they are older… the kids will have every right to call them out about their own dishonesty!

As a Parent you reap what you sow…. As the saying goes!

Oh and my youngest Daughter is guaranteed a place at the more local school now… as they have a sibling priority rule, which takes precedence over distance!

No because I know of church going families who didn't get places despite always attendingtheir local church....while those who pretended to become Christian and went to the local cathedral for 2 years did get a place.

You also need to model not cutting off your nose to spite your face, and being strategic to make your way forward in life.

You may very well decide it's not a good example to set your child, but plenty of other parents will do the opposite, and their child will then have an advantage over yours.

What's more important - your principles or your child's life chances?

It's not always as clear cut as you say and of course depends what you value most highly, but in a shit system not of the parents making, it's fair game IMO for the parent to do what's best for their child. If that involves pretence, that's on those who set up the system to encourage that, rather than the parents caught up in said system without other options. If there are no other good options, then expect parents to get involved in the pretence.

If you are honest enough to tell your children that you don’t believe in the mumbo jumbo of god, and that it’s just to secure a better school place, and that they need to go along with it… that’s not really acting with honesty or integrity!

@envbeckyc going to church does not require you to fake a religion. You can go regularly to services as a proud atheist so long as you're respectful. Many people go because of tradition, community, or to enjoy the music. It is a good learning experience for a child so long as you're honest about your reasons for going.

It's a complete myth that you need to pretend to be religious to get a foundation place.

If you don’t believe in the religion but fake it to get what you want, you are setting a terrible example to your child!

I live in a school catchment black hole… so no chance of sending my daughter to the nearest school, which is Ofsted good!

We instead sent her to a specialist school in inner city Birmingham because at the time that was best option- with a long train journey!

Last year we put her on an inter year transfer list for a place we were out of catchment for when we made our original application and she was offered a place to start within a week. When we applied for Year 7 we were 18 places back on the waiting list from being offered a place.

I was raised as a Catholic and could have faked still being a Catholic to get them into a school in the local area, but I would have been teaching my children that it’s ok to lie to manipulate people to get what you want, which in my option is terrible parenting!

Many of our friends moved or rented houses to be next to our nearest school in year 5 to bag a place at the nearest school, but it would have disadvantaged our youngest daughter who would need to walk for 40 minutes to school, or it would be a 45 minute drive because of traffic.

As a Parent you need to show integrity and honesty!

It's insane to suggest moving away from where you live just because the school has a daft admissions policy. My family have lived in our village for at least 300 years - should we really move away because the village school started with this church attendance nonsense in the 2000s? The school that my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents attended (none of them remotely religious)? And where would we move to - literally every school in this part of the country is CofE. Sod that.

Yes. And I say that as a practising Jew. I’d attend but I wouldn’t pray. I don’t know what the requirement would be. 2 years is a lot though might be too much. My DS’s Jewish school only required him to go 8 times.

No!

Firstly it’s cheating someone who is religious out of a school place.

Secondly as a Humanist I do not agree with religious schools

Finally you could always move house, or as a parent become a governor or join a PTA to improve the school your child goes to!

100%

I presume the rationale is that all schools should be providing a good standard of education, and all that is different about this school is the distinctive Catholic part of it, and being able to have that is something that matters more for Catholics than non-Catholics. The intention wasn't to sentence the non-Catholic LAC children to a rubbish school, just to another equally-good-but-not-Catholic school.

Of course, the reality doesn't work like that!

The reason for the system we have is historical. The churches set up schools, and it was only later that the government set up "board schools" to fill the gaps and to provide education for all. Changing the system entirely would be a major upheaval, not least because it would involve buying the buildings/land from the churches.

There's been at least one case where the vicar's child did not get into the church school attached to his dad's church, because the vicarage wasn't near enough the school!

Then yes. My DC's education is very important to me and I have no qualms about using a state-funded resource which I am supporting with my taxes. I'd try to stay on top of what they're being taught in RE or assemblies and discuss where I disagreed, but I'd do that in a secular and/or independent school as well.

There are plenty of non faith schools that do exactly the same.

the discrimination is against anyone not of that faith and not targeted against other faiths particularly.

we lived in an area with something like 50% places at faith schools.not brilliant when you’re from a multicultural family with 3 faiths. You meant to pick one just for education?

however, you may as play the system.

Faith schools can prioritise children of their faith over LAC not of their faith, but this does not apply to EHCPs. Children whose EHCPs name the school must be admitted regardless of if they are of faith. EHCP admissions are outside of the normal admission process.

@crymyeyesviolete check the school admissions policy, but for CE school admissions you may not need to tick a box to say you have a faith, but only to say you have attended church for the required period and frequency. It is perfectly ok to go to church as an atheist - many people do for weddings and funerals. Whether you enjoy it or not is another matter, but you can treat it as a cultural experience.

OP, do what's best for your children.

OP, my only advice is that if there’s any money available for private tutoring, use it. Even good state schools often need complementary and supplementary tutoring outside of them.

I think people are being intentionally ignorant when they overlook the fact that Church of England primary schools are often the only primary schools in large areas, disregarding the small Church of England primary schools in rural regions that serve four or more villages at once. I know that my village's primary school, a Church of England school where I attended, had pupils coming from three other villages. It doesn't matter whether the parents are religious or not, and attending church is never necessary.

I don't like religion being funded by public money, but there are far too many things I disagree with public money going toward, so it's not worth discussing here.

Yes but you are probably a little late if it’s for this years application. You want to be attending every 2-3 weeks for a year.

I’d much prefer to move house, but if that really wasn’t possible then yes.

Yeah, I didn't think it was really up there with thousands of Christian schools.

6 primaries and 8 secondaries.

Being around a different demographic completely changes experience and outcomes. Especially as a teenager when they are easily influenced by peers.

It it's anything like our village school, they will only use church attendance as a criteria if oversubscribed. It also depends on whether they are voluntary aided or voluntary controlled. Our infants school is voluntary controlled (no religious discrimination) but the junior it feeds is voluntary aided (can discriminate on religious grounds). It's no longer oversubscribed but back when it was it was pretty much compulsory to get a signature off the vicar that you were a regular attendee to guarantee a place.

Is this a regional thing? My DC attends a C of E village school. We chose it because there are so few children in the catchment it meant that nearly all the parents who use the school have made an active choice to do so instead of using catchment schools. This means you end with an extremely invested group of parents which helps enormously.

As you might guess the school is not at all diverse although the local area is 98% white according to official stats so you could argue the school reflects that.

When we applied we didn’t have to make any comment about religion. Once our place was confirmed we were then asked. We replied we had no religious links at all and nothing further has ever been said.

DH and I have never been christened, nor has DC. None of us has even been to a church service.

The school is fantastic.