To think a school can't legally suddenly ban the headscarf for muslin girls!

[Headscarfs123]

So our local catholic school has banned the headscarf this week...disastrous for some of the girls but also against church advice that headscarfs are fine, against DFES advice about consultation and sensitivity to religious groups, against best practice as this type of change should involve the governing body? discriminatory on religious and sexist grounds...Sikh boys can keep their turbans.

Aibu to think that the school is legally in the wrong?

The message was that governors had changed the uniform policy. The new policy simply says no headscarfs. Have seen it in print

oh yes - they prioritise those baptised catholic, of course, but some schools are more desireable than others- the high performing good ones are the ones that are filled with professed catholics before they take people of other faiths (who are also higher up the pecking order of admissions than people of no faith).

My DC couldn't go to the C of E school because we didn't go to church.

Being an Atheist made this difficult but i know that Church schools do get better results.

This happened at the back end of last week and you're asking a bunch of random internet strangers before simply clarifying things with the Head and finding out the facts?

Head Teacher
Chair of Govs
Education Authority

Once you've contacted them and heard what they have to say on the matter, come back and ask MN again.

Otherwise it's a bit of a waste of everyone's time I'm afraid.

Sorry, got side tracked by other poster. It's a catholic school, the headscarf is not catholic wear...sorry but go to another school if you want to wear it!

madhattershouse Years ago Catholic Schools were funded purely by the Catholic Church so they could insist on Catholics only.

Nowdays if they wish to be partially funded by the Government (as many have to due to dwindling church goers) they have to take a certain amount of non Catholics.

Although it happened last week I have only just found out... My children don't wear headscarfs and are past the book bag checking age. I rather presume the head will confirm what the policy says ... No head scarfs. I was hoping someone knew how I could best challenge this on my first approach.

madhattershouse

I'm an Atheist and i agree with you.

Madhattershouse. Your opinion but not law surely!

No child is 'past the book bag checking stage' if they're not handing letters straight to their parents.

That aside, there's no need to really know how to 'challenge' the Head until you've heard the facts from the Head.

This is all far too premature and smacks of sensationalism really.

reeling- I didn't actually say catholic, I said Christian- they are CE schools.
It is very common here to have fewer than 10% of pupils that are Christian in a faith school- urban authority.

madhatter, the school where my mother taught has masses of capacity (so they officially give priority to baptised Catholics, but that means nothing) and is somewhere fairly stick-like. in contrast I live in a city and my local Catholic school only ever takes children from families with several years of attending Mass at least three times a month (they keep records); even then, this year there were fewer than ten places available to any of those (by definition heavily practising) children who weren't younger siblings. Hard to generalise.

worral they still give priority to catholics..in my area that means if you are not catholic you don't get in! Told you I was in the sticks!

and reeling some faith schools get good results, some do not.

Feels fairly sensational to the girls too I would imagine.

We are looking at this differently, the fact is uniform policy states no headscarfs.

To be fair I would like to say that I went to a Catholic school, I am an athiest! Spaces at this school are at a premium as it is one of the best schools in the area, barring those demanding an 11+.

YY but i would like to bet that on average faith schools do better than secular ones.

We are looking at this differently, the fact is uniform policy states no headscarfs

Then speak to the Governors who set and agreed that policy....

madhatters If they're taking money from the state to run the school, legally they have to save a certain amount of places for non Catholics. I'm not sure what the percentage is. Perhaps no non Catholics have applied to the school you're talking about?

Yes I will speak to governors but I think I am right that they don't have the power to make this decision ...it would b helpful to know if I am right before approaching them.

Well- there aren't actually any secular schools in the UK, so not sure about that

I presume you mean non-affiliated schools, and yes 15 years ago faith schools overall performed slightly better than non-faith schools, however things have changed a lot in education, and in our authority that is no longer the case.

OP are you in the UK?

worra- I don't think there is a quota systme at all actually. All schools are required to publish their admissions criteria, and faith schools do have atheists on the criteria, but they are placed lower than children of faith, but as others have said in a small school (perhaps 1 form intake) it is easy to fill 30 places with siblings and baptised church attenders.

worral there is a 100% take up of Catholic members of the school leaving no spaces for non-catholics. I guess the area you live i makes a lot of difference.

headscarfs- you need to clarify what the school's position is before you can make any complaint. governors are your first port of call.

Yes I suppose it's definitely area related. I know here in London, they do have to accept a certain percentage of non Catholics that's directly related to the amount of Government funding they receive.