choosing a school for your child

[riddleme]

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.

I would really look around and get a feel for the school. My primary was in a very multicultural area so it was not in-your-face religion. My secondary was a single sex school with a convent on the grounds, and the head and a lot of teaching staff were nuns. That was really strict and very heavy on religion.

DD2 actually has chosen and is going to a Catholic secondary despite not being baptised, but the whole inclusivity and ethos is very different.

Catholic schools take lots of non-Catholic children nowadays and don't swamp them with religion. If the Catholic school is the best and your child is accepted, go for it.

We have a very over-subscribed Catholic comprehensive nearby which is lovely and they take non-Catholics. I've heard no complaints about it, quite the contrary.

My son went to a catholic primary school and is going to a catholic high school in september he is a baptised catholic and has done his first communion etc but we dont attend church regularly. His primary school didnt massivly push religion on the children, its a good school, the other schools near me is a CofE which apparently is outstanding but hasent had an ofsted inspection since 2009.... parents get their children into the CofE by attending church regularly normally from around year four untill school places are announced.....The rest of the schools are crap

On looking it up, one of the secondary schools doesn't have a catchment area. That's our 1st choice. 😭

I wouldn't send my child to a catholic school in a million years! (Or unless the only alternative was really terrible!)

There's no way in hell I'd send my DC to a catholic school, or any other faith based school either, for that matter.

Personally if I had any option I wouldn’t send ds to a faith school, my view is that it is the job of the parents to guide children in that sense not of the School to force it upon the child.

However when you have two parents with differing views you need to both look at both schools and decide which is best for your child

My son goes to a very good catholic secondary; we aren’t catholic and there were other schools in the catchment area when we applied. He has an EHCP which put him at the top of the list or criteria when allocated a place.

I'm an atheist but have taught in a Catholic school (years ago) and there is no way I would send my child to one, however good it was academically.