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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

choosing a school for your child

34 replies

riddleme · 31/07/2018 19:12

I’m struggling with this one.

What would you do if the two schools in your catchment area were quite different in their attainment and the better school was a catholic one?

Would you send your child there? My DH are disagreeing over this.

OP posts:

Kingkiller · 31/07/2018 19:17

No I would not send my child to a Catholic school!

BoxsetsAndPopcorn · 31/07/2018 19:23

Do you actually qualify for the catholic one?

A faith school wouldn't bother me either way. We looked at results, the demographic, the feeder schools and the ethos. The visits around along with Oftsed report are very telling.

VodkaRevelation · 31/07/2018 19:26

I’m pretty sure you are in the catchment area of a school rather than schools being in your catchment area. And usually you would just be in the catchment area of one school. Unless one of the schools being religious makes a difference, I’m not sure.

VodkaRevelation · 31/07/2018 19:27

And no, I wouldn’t want my child to be indoctrinated for the sake of (possibly) a slightly better education.

flumposie · 31/07/2018 19:29

I teach at a Catholic secondary school and my daughter attends a Catholic primary school. We had to provide evidence of her baptism at a Catholic church. For secondary school a child has to have made their first holy communion etc. It's not as simple as wanting your child to go a good school .

BitchQueen90 · 31/07/2018 19:29

I would never send my child to a faith school. But then I don't get this obsession with the "best" schools anyway to be honest. Different environments suit different children.

manicinsomniac · 31/07/2018 19:31

I would if I could get a place at it. But then I am a practising Christian, though not a Catholic, so it's a different situation I guess.

I don't know if you'd get a place though, would you? Do you live very close? I think Catholic schools are harder for non Catholics to get into that C of E schools are for non Protestants.

arethereanyleftatall · 31/07/2018 19:32

Are you eligible for catholic school?
Round my way, it isn't really a choice, you get the school you're given.

RebelRogue · 31/07/2018 19:33

I would and I did. Very happy with my decision and so is DD.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 31/07/2018 19:34

No. Is this secondary or primary? One of the top secondary schools in our area is CofE. DD's quite adamant that she doesn't "want to listen to that rubbish every day." I've respected her views. With primary, it depends on your beliefs.

PumpkinPie2016 · 31/07/2018 19:34

Are you Catholic? If not then you should send her to the other school. You likely wouldn't get into the Catholic school of you weren't baptised Catholic anyway.

I am not Catholic (I am C of E Anglican as is my son. Both of us were christened before 6 months) and as such there is no way I would choose a Catholic school.

What does your husband want to do?

Ohyesiam · 31/07/2018 19:36

Having been through the catholic education system, no I wouldn’t.
Sure it will have improved since I was a child, but Catholicism is founded on guilt and depends on feeling crap about yourself, the doctrine hadn’t changed.

BroomstickOfLove · 31/07/2018 19:36

I woould have applied to the local Catholic secondary for DD because it has fantastic pastoral care and an excellent reputation for the arts and for being good with quirky, less conventional children but there's no ways she'd get in, so she will be going to our catchment school instead which is also excellent but in a more academic and straight-laced way.

Tunnocks34 · 31/07/2018 19:39

My son goes to a Catholic school. Although I am technically Catholic, I don’t really believe the views in the bible or the stories and so wouldn’t describe myself as a practising Catholic.

I went to a Catholic primary and secondary school. I wasn’t force fed the bible, beat by nuns, forced to believe God crested the world in 7 days over evolution, refused sex education or forced to agree the bible was fact.

It was a very open minded curriculum which had an hour of mandatory RE per week, where we learnt about God, amongst other religions. Other than the fact we had to do a prayer in form time it was essentially the same education my cousins received in the worse, but non faith school.

I also teach in one, where I don’t have to brain wash children. I have to display a crucifix in my room but I can have open, frank discussion with pupils about what I believe, and as I teach math I actually do not ever discuss religion at all. Pythagoras maybe, but Jesus not so much.

Starlight345 · 31/07/2018 19:40

Out local catholic school I would never send my Ds. I know how many kids with Sen removed from class when Ofsted visit . I know how they get inflated sat figures . That doesn’t mean all catholic schools are the same but don’t use figures to decide what school

Original poster

riddleme · 31/07/2018 19:45

One of us is catholic and the other very staunchly atheist.

We’re also in Scotland so we’d get a place at the catholic school no problem as well as the non dom school

OP posts:

NotUmbongoUnchained · 31/07/2018 19:47

My DD is starting a CofE school in September as it’s the best school around. Tbh, they don’t do that much god stuff. They learn about a different religion every year for a few hours a week. Not a whole lot different to just doing RE at school.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 31/07/2018 19:49

People saying you're usually only in the catchment area of one school, we're in the catchment area of 2 primary schools and 3 secondary schools.

BroomstickOfLove · 31/07/2018 19:55

If you could get into either, I'd look around both, see which school is a better fit for your child and go with that one. It might be just right, or it might be horrible, but we can't tell.

AChickenCalledKorma · 31/07/2018 19:56

I live in an area which has precisely that choice of school and we choose the one with lower attainment and no faith connections. We preferred its ethos and were confident that our children would thrive there. That was five years ago and we have no regrets.

We are Christians but not Catholic. There are some aspects of Catholic practise that would have bothered us, but that wasn't a major factor in our decision.

Racecardriver · 31/07/2018 19:58

I went to a Catholic school (two actually) . My family is Muslim. I was never baptised. The state didn't fund religious schools where I grew up so Catholic schools were a good affordable private option. Religion was a big part of the school ethos but it was centred around the new testament and the more humanist principles of Christianity (love, peace, justice, faith), a strong focus on charity, a lot of about the forgiveness and grace of God etc. The Re classes covered a variety of religions (with a primary focus on Christianity) and involved critical anylsis of the Bible. The sex education was fabulous, everything was covered from the ons and put of the menstrual cycle to abortions and safe oral sex. I was never excluded for my not being Catholic. I really enjoyed it and found it was really useful in giving me an understanding of Christianity and helped me to understand western history and philosophy better too. Not all Catholic schools are the same. Sending my son to a CofE school myself despite not being Christians.

5000KallaxHoles · 31/07/2018 20:01

I personally had bad experiences with the Catholic education system so it's not a choice I would ever make for my kids. Round here though there aren't many RC schools near us (one CofE one) so it's not really a consideration.

I picked a crap school originally (just went for the local one) with DD1 - went to view another local school with spaces once it all went absolutely to shit there and I came out of viewing it and bawled my eyes out because I just saw both kids there and it being bloody perfect for them - it flipping well was - even when it's pissed me off at times, it's still been a bloody amazing school for them! You really do need to look around the schools and get a feel for the kind of place they are (there is NO way DD2 would have coped well at all in our most local school - she'd have drifted and been forgotten about - it's not good with SEN).

Seniorschoolmum · 31/07/2018 20:04

I’ve just chosen a school for ds. I ignored faith/council/academy and looked at quality of teaching.
Ds is very keen on and good at two specific subjects so I looked at provision of those, plus pastoral care, size and how ds felt about each.
Closer examination showed the school listed as “good”’was truly bad at both ds’s key subjects. And he had good sensible reasons for the school he preferred.
Different schools suit different kids.

VodkaRevelation · 31/07/2018 20:06

People saying you're usually only in the catchment area of one school, we're in the catchment area of 2 primary schools and 3 secondary schools.

Fair enough but that would be unusual, I think. Usually it is only one and people aren’t aware and assume that they are in catchment as they are round the corner from a school, so it’s often worth pointing out in case someone is mistaken.

Cherubfish · 31/07/2018 20:11

Depends on the school. My DC attend a faith primary school (our local school) and it's not a big deal - lots of children from other faiths / atheists attend.

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