to expect a catholic primary school for my catholic children?

[Mixedupmind]

No idea where to put this so I've put it here
We are moving to west sussex in a few months time, just in time for reception applications
Now there is only one catholic primary in the borough where we are moving to, compared to 3 where we currently are ( London )
Am I being unrealistic to think we will get the school place?
My sister in law today has made it very clear she thinks we are!
There are 2 intakes for each year so 60 children, we will live 0.4 miles away from it and are practising Catholics.
We want this primary as much as we want the catholic secondary college so it's important we get the primary as its a feeder school.
If for some reason it becomes over subscribed could we appeal for religious reasons?
And would this mean we may get offered a catholic school in a different borough miles away?

I wanted a catholic primary school for my boys I actively took ds two miles everyday on the bus to attend his catholic school even though the local one was excellent my reasons were I had been brought up as a Catholic!ic I attended a Covent primary and catholic secondary and Catholic!of sixth form it was an excellent education both boys were baptised as catholic ,D's 1 got in as did ds2 the difference was even though they had to accept ds2 due to their own admission criteria is he was a baptised catholic by that time lived in the parish and had a sibling attending the school they didn't want him and actively encouraged us to apply for special school because he is Autistic and has learning difficulties they made this abundantly obvious from his first day at nursery .

Not sure where in W Sussex you are going but Crawley has good Catholic primary and secondary schools and Catholicism is definitely a criterion for admission to primary. 3 of my dgc went there very happily.

Chanie44
That's awful, we actually got a place at the local catholic school nursery for him to start this year however down ro the move he obviously won't be, but it stated all over the acceptance forms that in no way shape or form would that have any bearing on reception places.
They went on to state that not only would it be unfair on working parents who use nurseries who provide longer hours but also on parents who decide to keep their children at home until statutory school age so that's outrageous that the school you applied for have those rules

Will be burgess hill - one catholic primary st Wilfred's

You have to look at the admission criteria for the school and ask what category they usually go up to and if it's on distance, what the cut off distance has been the last few years.
I could tell you that my dcs Catholic school is 60% Catholic and non Catholic dcs with no siblings who live a couple of miles away still get places and someone else could tell you that at their school you have to live within 10 feet and be on the flower rota to stand a chance. It won't make any difference to your individual chances. There is a pervading myth that all Catholic schools only take Catholic pupils who attend mass at least once a week and were baptised at birth but non Catholics make up about 30% of pupils at Catholic schools. Some Catholic schools are over 80% non Catholic.

You can't appeal for religious reasons but you could put other Catholic schools as your 2nd/3rd choices and travel to them. Who does your SIL think will get the places if not Catholic children within 400 yards?

In rare cases attendance at a school nursery is an admissions criteria.

We also left London mostly because two out of our three nearest schools were faith schools which prioritised church attendance - schools which also happened to perform very well in local league tables, funnily enough. No 'community' places and next to no chance of getting in if you were not a sibling or a committed churchgoer. We moved there before ever intending to have children.

I was brought up in CoE, yet my husband is a entirely different faith altogether, so that left us with the 'choice' of precisely one community school, albeit an improving one, due to shrinking catchments. However, the churchgoer living two doors away (child the same age) from me would have easily had a place at the community school on distance criteria and did actually get a place at the top-of-the-league tables faith school - so they, due to their faith, had a choice of two schools. Is that fair?

Faith schools which prioritise religious attendance are fair enough if there are plenty of community school places available - otherwise I believe it is high time that all faith schools should be obliged to admit a significant proportion of children on community places.

The cage
She just thinks lots of people will pretend to be catholic to get in as all the other schools in the area are mediocre

Op you need to read up on how schools admissions work - nationally and in that area otherwise you will just get more and more confused. All admissions are on an equal preference system. You can state your preferences but have to be realistic about your chances - but studying past data. It is likely that you will get a place as you are practising RC in the correct parish, close to school etc but if 60 people are the same as you but live closer then you won't. You need to look at exact school admissions policy. I would also repost in primary education. The experts are over there

YABU. If there isn't a place then it might just be down to distance, somebody who meets the criteria lives nearer. You can't appeal then can you? You can go on the waiting list then.

Where we are you have to be kissing the Pope's a* to get a place in the catholic school, being catholic isn't enough these days. Coming from a catholic here.

I don't agree with faith schools and not sure how you can appeal on faith grounds when the school already take faith into account.

It does sound as if you have a high likelihood of getting your children in anyway.

Op you can't pretend to be catholic - you will have to produce baptism certificates and possibly proof of church attendance !! Ours gives priority to parish children and a tiny number of RC kids from neighbouring parish sometimes get in .

She just thinks lots of people will pretend to be catholic to get in as all the other schools in the area are mediocre

Whilst I never had such a dilemma and would have been unlikely to comprise my principles to pretend to have a faith, it's an entirely understandable position to take. Far more understandable than thinking your faith entitles you to special treatment over others not in your faith at the tax-payer's expense.

A quick google and you can obtain the criteria and also the info that states and I quote for Sept 2013 admissions "All applicants who requested this school were offered a place including 1 child whose preference for another school couldn’t be offered and this was the nearest school with a place available"
All info here
www.westsussex.gov.uk/learning/schools_ages_4-16/applying_for_a_school_place/apply_for_a_school_place/information_for_parents_bookle1.aspx

Mixed up - it does say on the literature for the nursery applications that it won't guarantee you a place, but on the schools admissions criteria, it states that if the practicising catholic category is oversubscribed, which it is, nursery attendance gets taken into account before distance. So it's pretty much mandatory, if you think about it.

On a more positive note, the catholic school was my second choice. We visited another school - not catholic, but still Christian based and I fell in love with it and we got a place.

Nice googling, SOG

OP - pretending to be catholic isn't enough for most faith schools, as well as the main admissions form for the council, the faith school will have an additional form to be completed, and signed by the Priest/Church office. You might have a bit of a problem here, because they normally ask for a set length of church attendance, not just rocking up a couple of months before, so if you are only moving just before the admissions date, you might have to get a letter from your current Church comfirming that you are a regular attender to give to the new church to get them to sign the form for you.

Be warned, they often will put "regular attender of St XXXX church" as above "regular attender of another church" so you might be further down people who have been living in the area for a number of years and attending the church linked with the school, even if those people live further away than you.

If you can't get hold of the school, you could try asking at the church.

But also, have a read of the Ofsteds of all the schools in the area, go round a few, you might find that the faith school isn't the best for your DC, if you are going to Church every Sunday, get involved in the Church community, your DC will have a great grounding in your faith, they might be better being exposed to DCs from other backgrounds.

(Declaring here, we were definately able to get in the "outstanding" CofE school in our town as we have been going to the linked church since DC1 was born, however we put a closer school as a higher choice as when we visited them, we agreed the closer school would be a better match for DC1 and it was walking distance)

If there are not enough places at the school and your child does not receive an offer, what good will appealing do? Do you think another Catholic child should be displaced in order for your child to attend?

There are a finite number of places. Winning an appeal would surely mean another child doesn't get to attend?

Nice googling, SOG

I'm a practising catholic, DS got into catholic school, DD didn't (LOTS of LAC and closer siblings that year, we are 2.9miles away from school) DD was instead offered a CofE school

It may be worth asking the priest or introducing yourself to one of the mum's at church, they'll be able to tell you how oversubscribed the school is.

Also ask your current priest to write you a note and make sure to introduce yourself to the new priest and tell him you are new to the area. When school choices are coming up new parents appear, they will be very vocal and make sure they're noticed right up to when their children start school when they disappear and I know a few priests who will be less than helpful if they think that's what you're doing.

you can't pretend to be catholic you can. Its actually not uncommon in my parish for parents to attend church for a year/2 years to get into school, I even know people who openly admit they had their children baptised purely to get into the school.

So you will live 0.4 miles from this school and are practising Catholics - I'm struggling to see the problem here? Unless there are 59 other children of that year group who live closer and are baptises and attending Mass every week (in which case the church must be incredibly busy!) then surely you are a shoo in?

I'm not sure why people keep saying at the tax payers expense?
Can you explain what wanting my child to attend a catholic school has to do with the tax payer?
Thanks so much to the poster who found that invaluable info from sep last year!!

Mixed up - don't worry you will get in to that school. Am aware of 3 who were offered places this year, 2 of which were CofE and the other atheist but with siblings already there. You would "trump" them.

Local knowledge - the other nearby primaries are not mediocre and places are not fought after in BH. Only BG on the other side of town, is the one I would say most people miss out on a first choice place.

I'm sure you're not really such a duh-brain Mixedup

Op

It does seem like you will be fine for this particular school.

Some posters are reacting badly because of your use of "expect" in the title. All the school application does is express a preference. Applicants are sorted by how well they meet the criteria and your preference only comes into play if you are within the top 30/60/90 or whatever the intake for more than one school.

No school can go over more than 30 in a class unless there are very exceptional reasons eg if twins are numbers 30 and 31. So if every catholic school in your vicinity has classes full with 30 pupils, no, an appeal on religious grounds wouldn't help you.

Some posters are commenting re taxpayers' money as non-churchgoers are often completely unable to access a subset of state schools whereas churchgoers have not got the same restriction, yet general taxation funds both types of school.