What does a Catholic education give a Catholic child?

All I know about Catholic schools where I live is they are easier to get into for Catholics (even non-practising one) than the CofE ones. The difference appears to be that the school decides on admissions for the Catholic schools but the LEA decides for the CofE schools. Not sure I understand why.

I came from an Anglo Catholic family, went to an evangelical happy clappy state primary and then to an independent Rc convent day/boarding school. Unsurprisingly I have turned out to be an agnostic; but with a belief that there are values in religion which secularism is at risk of losing.

I loved my catholic school.

1. It was so much less materialistic: no one sneered at second hand bicycles or clothes

1. When the head girl got pregnant,the school did not expel her: the parents withdrew her and the school sent staff to her house so that she could keep up and take her A levels
2. It taught me that being a bit different is fine and that it's fine for other people to be different as well.
3. I'm 43 and still friends with some of the epople who taught me in the sixth form

Whilst I think that some Catholic schools in the past were terrible, sadistic places, I think that they are now some of the most genuinely humane around

Oh frogs this is so long ago. In my day it was scary Sr MR, and a whole host of veiled underlings.

They were ALL scary and some of them were racist - in the sense of their attitudes had been formed in the 1950s and stuck there.

It is very unfair of me, so many years have passed and so much must have changed, but I would never dream of sending the DD there.

Not that there would be any chance - what with her never having been baptised, and having been born four years before her parents got married...in a registry office!

Did they have scary Sr T in those days, Moomin? She scared the bejasus out of me at the open day, v. relieved my dd's didn't end up going there.

Eeek, frogs, I went there. Before the kilts and white socks though. In my day it was bottle green tunics (skirts for older girls) and beige socks.

Just clicking on that link makes me shudder.

I went to RC schools and the differences to me are:-

1. Its not so weird to go to church on Sunday as it would be at a non-denominational school
2. i know more about the catechism than I would otherwise
3. I am sure I would find being priests and nuns weirder life choices if i had not been in an environment where i at least interacted with them
4. I had friends from school at church things at weekends so i was (marginally) more likely to join in - still didn't like it though
5. I had almost no understanding of other religions as a young adult and what I did learn at a school was taught as the differences. I did have a better understanding of Catholicism than I would have otherwise
6. A Rc education normalised, first communion, confirmation etc and made it a big deal rather than something that i am sure i'd have hidden whilst trying to fit in with the other teenagers at a non-denom school.

There were disadvantages though and for these reasons alone I would not allow my children to go to a segregated school:-

1. No friends around in the summer holiday
2. I didn't know the local children to play with in the evenings.

Kilts is standard for catholic schools, not sure why.

Check out this fine outfit from our local Catholic girls' school. Check particularly the white socks.

This is the alternative school -- minus the white socks, mercifully.

Or you can go right to the smartest end of the spectrum. Yup, it's our old friend naff mid-calf length kilts again. There is no escape.

Wassername I think that faith is better explored at home. You never quite now what sort of characters your children may come across at school, and I guess if you send them to a Catholic school then you give the school license to be involved in their spiritual lives. Which is OK so long as you are really sure that the school's views are in synch with yours. Otherwise (and this is a general observation, not limited to faith schools) I think the differences between home and school can cause real problems.

I thought it must be houses to be honest - did that mean you had to buy new shirts every year? Some of the combinations were quite gruesome. I don't know why girls schools so often pick such unpleasant looking uniforms (is it to try and make the girls so unattractive they don't get approached by any lurking boys I wonder?). The Catholic schools I could have gone to were either kilts or the gruesome brown. Still my sister went to City of London which had a very bright pink look. Lovely

Sexual guilt, lack of any self esteem, stifling of debate and a kick-start on the road to atheism.

I also squeak and cross the road when I see a nun. But that's not very often these days.

Did you have pale coloured shirts in a variety of shades?

What does a Catholic education give a child?

Where we live better gcse results

For any child, it gives them exposure to Christian values (eg love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control). They get exposure to the rhythm of life via the church year, and have regular opportunities for prayer and praise.

For a Catholic child, they get to celebrate Mass.

I don't think that anyone did. We all had to go in one at a time in Sister Genevieve's (the headmistress) office and say if we had done it or not. Then it was announced that anyone could go and see her and confess (that's when the Mary being disappointed bit came in). Next week I am fairly sure it happened again, and then I think we stopped swimming. It's all slightly hazy though, it's about thirty () years ago now.

nooka, PMSL at the floater in the pool incident (which is not good for my pelvic floor) Did no one ever confess?

I suspect, as with all things school related, that it is really down to the school in question, whether you feel in tune with their values and whether you think your child would flourish there.

I went to a Catholic primary, and have lasting memories of being told that Mary was upset when no one confessed to pooing during a school swimming lesson, drawing pictures of various martyrs (lots of arrows, head chopped off, that sort of thing), which I enjoyed at the time, and fighting with another girl on the walk to church one morning (apparently particularly terrible to fight on the way to church). I don't think the Catholicism affected me either way, because at that age you think it is just totally normal. Being excluded for not fitting in on the other hand damaged my ability to make friends for years.

I was very glad not to go to Catholic secondary school, and in fact my parents didn't try for any Catholic (or Christian) secondary school for any of us, although my db later went to a Quaker school. Going to a non religious school at secondary (there are no secular school btw) didn't make me feel different for going to church, I think plenty of my peers did, or if not it certainly wasn't a big deal. Most of the time I thought going to church was a drag anyway (I imagine few teenagers welcome getting up early on Sundays).

In fact the only time I ever voluntarily went to church was when I moved to a CofE boarding school for sixth form, when I really enjoyed going on my own to the Catholic church in town. The boys had plenty of complaints about the behaviour of the school chaplains though - they were well known for breaking confidences, so not good for encouraging faith there. My dh went to a non-conformist school and hated being preached to by the religious teachers there, he felt that they were abusing their positions and were hypocrites too. We are both aetheists now!

sorrento, with respect, I don't think anyone was slagging off catholics.
I'm currently living in what is probably the most extreme muslim country, my children who are catholic attend the British School and catholicism/christianity is banned, therefore no christmas, easter etc.
Can you imagine the outcry if that happened in the UK? Live and let live I say, each to their own etc

wassername

You mention that you feel non-catholics are seen as outsiders.

My wife is a Catholic and she says that people who convert to catholicism are also never properly accepted either.

Are you sending your child to a catholic school in the hope of becoming more accepted? My wife went to convent and loved every bit of it but she would never send our kids to a catholic school because of the attitude you yourself have identified.

where did you go caprika?