Non catholic child going to a catholic school?

[mumaw]

Does anyone know if this would be possible? We're moving to a new area and there is a school in particular rated Outstanding by Ofsted that I would want to add as one of DCs choices.

Does he have to be baptised for this?

Tia

Depending on the ethos of the school, it may be somewhat more than learning the teachings - time spent preparing for communion, the impact on the way sex and relationships education is taught, potentially large amounts of prayer (local Catholic school does Stop, Drop and Pray - the bell will randomly ring throughout the day and staff and children literally stop what they are doing, drop to their knees and pray).

Be absolutely sure you are comfortable with the ethos (which does vary school to school).

Wow! Stop, drop and pray sounds quite extreme! Even for me! Shall I put it to my head!

I’ve never heard of such a thing . It’s certainly not a feature of many Catholic schools.

The list means your child is at the bottom of the priority list. I'm not catholic but went to catholic school, there wasnt much choice as I failed my 11 plus and wndry mods were awful back then. Times have changed. but catholic schools ca

Posted too soon... we had very strict rules at my school and were expected to adhere to RC customs.

My sis is applying for my nephew this year for reception to rc schools. She is applying out of catchment. The criteria is the same as the one youve posted. Dn will be allocated a place above non-RC children in the catchment area, so it depends completely on the year group.

It's not Christian teaching, it's catholic practice - two very different things. For example, depending on your child's age, a good part of the year could be spent preparing for first communion or confirmation or reconciliation. Mass will be attended weekly as well as assemblies. Depending on how many catholics attend (I know some schools are Catholic in name only and have very few actual catholics, but with that admissions policy I don't think it's the case here) your non-Catholic child may feel very much out of place.

Also (on a roll here!) don’t forget the R.E taught takes up 10% of the timetable so that’s either half an hour a day or two and a half hours a week.

One final post! I didn’t necessarily want to send my child to the local Catholic school as when we moved to the area the school was required improvement so I didn’t want to send them just for the sake of sending them but then a new head took charge (before she was born) and it became outstanding but I still wasn’t going to send her there because it was outstanding as there was another primary down the road that was also outstanding but I went to visit and loved it! There have been recent changes that have worried me but I’m hoping the standard will be upheld.

Never heard of Stop, drop and pray. Sounds bonkers.

Also holy communion prep will not take up much time. Its mostly outside of school time (couple of meetings before or after church), ditto reconciliation which is done at same time as FHC.

If there is onsite church they will have mass but depends on the school how regularly.

Confirmation takes place at secondary school age.

They will pray sing hymn and do RE learning about Catholic and Christian teachings.

Sex ed is a minefield seeing as the school cant start teaching things are "wrong" / sins when so many dc have non nuclear family background. My school treads very lightly.

My school do lent mass (optional) and easter and nativity play/ Carol concert. They have a school prayer.

I’ve never heard of stop drop and pray! It’s not a part of the Catholic tradition I’ve ever come across!

I've never understood why you would send your child to a Catholic school, if you weren't a Catholic.

At school every pupil in my class was Catholic.

Don't do it. I made the mistake of sending ds to a catholic school, purely because it had an outstanding Ofsted report, both ds & myself had a terrible experience. Initially things were good, ds settled in reception well & his first year was good, as he went in to Y1 my marriage ended & from then on the attitude of the staff & parents totally changed, we were both ostracized, ds no longer got invited to playdates or birthday parties, any problem with ds at school, the teacher's answer was "you have taken him away from his dad & that is why he has got problems" Ds was bullied & I had started to wonder if he was autistic, I asked school for help in getting a diagnosis, it took over a year of me keeping going in & complaining for them to start off the process by allowing a speech & language therapist in to school to see him to do the basic assessment, they managed to "lose" letters asking for reports & when they did eventually complete the reports, refused to send me a copy even though the therapist had indicated I was entitled to have a copy. I finally got my copies from the therapist, the reports stated that in their eyes there was nothing wrong with ds except "he came from a broken home" Luckily the speech & language therapist supported my thoughts & we finally got a diagnosis of ASD (Aspergers) when ds was 9. When I took the letter of diagnosis to school, the teacher took it from me without looking & put it in the waste paper bin saying that they didn't need it. Over the last two years that ds was at the school he had an awful time, the amount of bullying was disgusting & the staff ignored it, even when I went in & complained, nothing was done. The religious side of the school was very hard, most of the parents had gone to that school themselves, they all knew each other from church, were familiar with the staff & treat anyone else as outsiders, it was like a closed shop.

Interesting that Stop, Drop and Pray isn’t a common feature, I had gently presumed it may be some kind of initiative! I was somewhat taken aback when I was told about it (neighbour is a TA) - it was presented as a lovely and exciting thing, but I thought it a little extreme, but then I’m not Catholic so thought maybe that was just me! We are in the sort of area where Catholic schools are oversubscribed with Catholic families.

My two DDs go to a catholic secondary school and we are a non religious family. To be honest I applied as it is a very good school and not sure how we managed to get in as the criteria was pretty strict. DDs absolutely love the school, DD1 now going into sixth form there. They are respectful of all religious aspects of the teaching, and the school make it very clear that that the catholic ethos runs through most of what is done there. In my experience I’ve found it less “follow the catholic rules” and much more teaching tolerance, respect, kindness, etc. The school does a lot for charity and the community and I think the whole atmosphere at the school is great. Yes there is mass and assembly and church services but DDs have a respect for it all. DD1 loves RE and is actually moving on to do it st A level
Just thought I’d share our mostly positive experience. But all schools are different of course.

stop, drop and pray doesn't sound at all Catholic.

Id be telling them to
Bin stop, drop
And pray and introduce the Angelus instead.

Depending on how over subscribed the school is unless you are baptised Catholic you may not even stand a chance getting in.

I live in zone 2 London. My DS goes to the local outstanding catholic school. They pray 3x per day in the class and go to church which is attached to the school regularly. At this school unless you are baptised Catholic and live within 200m there is no hope of getting in as it's hugely over subscribed.

Did you check the stats on the local council website to see what criteria the admitted children met in previous years? This should give you guidance of your chances of getting in.

@Nat6999 I believe this story. I have also heard that catholic schools are less likely to make social services referrals. Although even though I'm a single mum my son is very happy at a catholic school, but we are catholic.

We are practicing RC, kids go to catholic school. It's massively over subscribed and there are lots of practicing catholics who don't get in but it's only single form entry.

LAC or previously LAC of any denomination are first, then practicing catholics with a supplementary form signed by the parish priest.

Holy communion prep is weekends so takes nothing out of school time but RE does. They do a lot of RE but on all faiths not just Catholicism. Their first term in reception was all on Sikhism.

I went to a convent ( Catholic ) primary school in the 70,s,s and 80_s we had several nuns teaching is and we never did stop,drop and pray my dad was taught by the Catholic brother ,s in Ireland in the 40,s and they didn't either and there certainly wasent anything like that at my sons Catholic primary school so I would say it was ,nt the norm ,in !y sons primary school , they did prioritise baptised Catholic children for admission and they obviously taught Catholic teachings in 'RE but other than that it was a normal primary school.

That certainly wasent the case in my sons school.Lonny my son did do his first communion, but the classes were outside of school time about twice a month and at least half the class didn't do it .

If it's outstanding, I imagine it will be over-subscribed and you will have very little chance of a place.

That's so horrible nat
Locally the 2 best schools for SEN or EAL are a CofE school and a Catholic school.

Where I live the Catholic secondary school is so oversubscribed that even baptised Catholic kids aren't getting in.

As an atheist, I couldn;t think of anything worse than a Catholic school - religious indoctrination of any kind has no place in schooling. I went to Catholic school myself. It was very peculiar.

Mine went to a Catholic school for a bit. I am Cofe and found the Catholicism totally overwhelming and it's a religion i didn't want to be part of, so we moved to a cofe school and now much happier!