To become Catholic in order to ensure decent schooling?

[catholicschool]

dcs both attend Catholic schools and we are a christian family and attend a CofE church.

youngest son is in year 1 and we want him to go to Catholic secondary but that is only guaranteed if he is Catholic

I now have a dilemma. I am baptised Catholic and am strongly tempted to take youngest son over to the Catholic faith and part of that would be to ensure he gets into the school that his brother currently attends.

I was thinking of returning to the Catholic faith last year after the Pope visited the UK and it inspired me to consider it.

I know I will probably be flamed for this but the only decent schools in our area are Catholic and it's not as though we're atheists who are just planning to pretend to be something we're not iyswim.

I love the fact that our children are receiving a christian based education and that can only be found in Catholic schools as the state secondary schools are secular.

My DD1 went to a CofE primary school and now attends a catholic all girls secondary school. I made the decision to apply for the catholic secondary school based on the fact that we are practicing christians and my DD1 plays an active role in the church. The catholic school is the only one in the area that actively encourages christianity whilst allowing each child to learn about their own faith and what it means to them individually. I researched the catholic ethos of the school and agreed with it. We didn't have to change our daughters religion for her to go there. The vicar at the C of E church we attend wrote a letter in support of our application stating that we are active members of the church and I had to also write a letter stating why I wished for DD to attend the school, why I agreed with the catholic ethos of the school and how I thought it would benefit my DD. My DD was accepted with no problems. I think catholic schools have to by law accept a certain percentage of children from other faiths? I know there are muslim and jewish children in my dd's school.

I dont really see the issue. I mean how many parents of children in catholic schools believe in the virgin birth, transubstatiation etc etc etc.
I say this as a 'catholic' who had my DD baptised, go to mass etc

However i wouldnt go to mass every week unless I had to so that my DD could gain access to the school

OP is doing something similar, no big deal to me. Can see how it might piss off committed catholics though

Guildenstern

I cannot understand how people think it's a good idea to teach their children that lying their way into a good school is the way to go. Surely you are just teaching the kids that the end justifies the means - that any amount of deception and hypocrisy is ok providing it leads to something you really want?

I'd actually argue that you are teaching children a valuable lesson - life is unfair and opportunities are unfortunately not equal so you take your opportunities where you can - as long as you are not hurting anyone else, and in this case I dont think the OP would be.
I truly wish we had a system that offered all children equal opporunities but we just dont

if you are a regular and active member of a CofE congregation, and your vicar would be happy to write a letter confirming your degree of involvment in the church, then you will hopefully be a shoe in to the catholic school.

OP YANBU, because the whole system is flawed. Why should you take it seriously?

I find it absolutely abhorrent that a state school can discriminate on religious grounds, particularly when that religion holds what a lot of people would consider to be unacceptable and unsavoury views (women, homosexuals...) these would not be tolerated by any other publicly funded body, so it completely infuriates me that they are allowed to permeate a school, and we, the tax payer, have the pleasure of funding this indoctrination.

So, OP, if you are happy for your children to be exposed to this I don't see why you shouldn't proceed as it seems to me that Catholicism is full of moral compromises.

What is totally unreasonable is that this situation exists.

Admission to a state school based on what a parent believes or pretends to believe is a bizarre anachronism.

You can't be 'rebaptised'. If you are baptised CofE then you can still send your child for RC instruction/first confession etc. There are quite a few parents doing this in our parish at the moment.
So if you attend mass which is normally one of the criterion then it shouldn't be an issue getting your son into school, especially because of having siblings there.

I think the system would be improved if faith schools were abolished and all schools were secular state schools, with parents and the churches together then taking responsibility to teach children their faith. But I also want private schools abolished too so all schools are state schools, if we're talking about unfairness in the education system.

However, there's no way it's going to happen. The state can't afford to take over faith schools- the various churches all have to contribute to the education system for their schools. It isn't the case that they just cost the tax payer- they pay INTO the system too.

Rufos

my daughters primary CofE tried that here the fact that theres only 8 dc live in the village where the school is apparentley did not matter when i first applied and i wa sthen meant to take her to a school 3 miles away when i did not even drive

Common sense won in the end

Totally second Grimma and Fayrazzled. The whole faith school system does not stand up to any sort of examiniation its utterly ridiculous that admission to state school depends on parents beliefs. Did anyone see Richard Dawkins programme on this a few months ago?

RufousBartleby (taken from another site to save my poor typing skills but true never the less)
All taxpayers contribute to the cost of the nation's schools; Catholic taxpayers no less than any other taxpayer. The suggestion, therefore, that Catholic schools are being unfairly funded by taxpayers is entirely fallacious. The Catholic community actually pays more for its schools as 10% of the capital expenditure has to be provided from the Catholic community, whereas it is provided by the Government for other maintained schools i.e. they receive 100% funding. In addition to their taxes, the Catholic community provides in excess of a further £20 million per annum to its schools for capital expenditure. It should be remembered that 30% of pupils in Catholic schools are not Catholic and this is therefore a contribution that could be viewed as to the good of society. It also saves Government and arguably other taxpayers money, which they would have to find, were pupils in Catholic voluntary-aided schools to be educated in community schools.

Butterly, it will be me. Not only and I not catholic, I actually have the audacity to move country to enable my DD to get the best education we can.

Yes cantspel but their motivation for all this is this is not for the good of the nation is it ? Its to ensure the continuation of Catholic belief by inculcating children into the faith - "give me a child until he is 7 he is mine for life" as the saying goes. The whole think stinks IMO.

This isn't something that anyone else can look at and say whether or not YABU.

Only you know what is behind your wish to convert. If I am honest, the title of your thread, the wording of your OP and the fact that you are asking this at all makes me a bit dubious about your claim that you were thinking of doing this anyway. My gut feeling is that there is nothing more to this than the school issue and that if that were sorted out then you would not still be wanting to convert.

We could have done this. We were both christened in the Catholic church. We could easily have had a burst of religiousness and had our son christened in our local Catholic church and stuck his name down for the local primary school which, where we were living at the time, was the top primary school in the country. We could not justify doing so - it didn't fit with our morals and our outlook. You might have different priorities - again, only you know what they are.

Bearing mind what you are talking about is a change to something that should be an enormous part of your own morals, beliefs and personality, you are the one who is going to have to live with it. If you feel you are doing this for the right reason, then YANBU. If you are posting this to try to get people to tell you that it is OK to do it even if you are not doing it for the right reasons, then YABU.

Also agree with those who say it might not work out. My friend is Catholic and her son was baptised at 6 months and may not get into the school as that is consdiered too late.

No flaming from me RufousBartleby, I'm with you.

I find it astonishing that education and religion are linked in the 21st century, and that my child is effectively discriminated against in schooling because we choose not to follow a particular religion.

It surprises me that schools based on a religion of hypocrisy, homophobia and misogyny are considered to be so appealing. I would actively avoid a faith school but still find it astounding that such admission discrimination is permitted.

But hey, if you can tweak your religious beliefs to satisfy a school admissions panel then you go for it; they can't be that deeply held if you're so willing to modify them to secure a school place.

Forgot to say - those who say that faith isn't a big part of a faith school, that very much depends on the school.

I was a non-practicing Catholic in a Catholic junior school, and didn't I just know it!

Hmmm yes it does depend on the school though. My friends son at the local Catholic primary came out of school wearing a home made pope's hat at the time of the visit and often talks about the more ghoulish side of religion (swords and crucifictions etc). He is 4