"Admissions take faith into consideration"

[willisurvive3under2]

AIBU to ask you what exactly does this mean? I grew up abroad and the English school system baffles me.

I'm about to move and Rightmove tells me this about the local school. It's a CoE school. DH and I got married in a CoE church. Is this what they're looking for? Do the kids need to be baptised? I was brought up Catholic so this complicates things in my head. Thank you.

You’d have to look at the school website. If it’s C of E, then it usually means priority will be given to regular church attenders. Sometimes that’s a specific church, sometimes it’s any CofE church. How they define regular can vary from school to school too.

The school will have an oversubscription criteria. They're allowed to use faith as one of those categories. That normally means active church attendance over a period of time (think a year or more).

You can look up the exact criteria on the local education authority website, or the school one if they have a site.

I went to a Catholic school (not in the UK, but I'd assume similar enough) and the priority for admission went like this:

1. Children baptised Catholic
2. Children baptised into other Christian denominations
3. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds
4. Other children

If you go to the local council website they will have admissions booklets for primary and secondary schools. It will all be set out in there. Look carefully at the criteria and also how many people got in under the different criteria to see how much of an issue it is.

Generally though religious criteria in my experience required verifiable attendance at church for a certain period eg twice a month for two years.

As an example:

1). Looked After Children or children who were previously looked after.

2.  Children who reside within the Ecclesiastical Parish of... and whose parents/guardians are regular worshippers and involved in the life and work of the church 
   

3.  Children who reside outside the Ecclesiastical Parish and whose parents/guardians are regular worshippers and involved in the life and work of the church 
   

4.  Children who reside at the same address, at the closing date of application, as a child who will be attending the School at the time of admission;
   

5.  	Children who reside within the Ecclesiastical Parish of... and whose parents/guardians are regular worshippers and involved in the life and work of any Church which is a member Church of Churches Together in England/Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland,
   

6.  Children who reside within the civil parish of... 
   

7.  Children whose parents/guardians have attended worship at... at least six times throughout the previous year.
   

8.  Children who reside closest to the School as the crow flies. (This distance will be measured	 from the childs home address to the School pedestrian gate using the County Councils distance measuring software).
   

At the two local primaries that are selective on faith grounds the categories are: -

Children whose home address is in the school’s priority admission area whose parents are members of the Church of England (or other Christian denominations) for whom the preferred school is the nearest Church of England school to the home address (see Note 3).

Children whose home address is outside the school’s priority admission area whose parents are members of the Church of England (or other Christian denominations) for whom the preferred school is the nearest Church of England school to the home address (see Note 3).

*Other children whose home address is in the school’s priority admission area.

Ridiculous system when children out of catchment take priority over those in catchment!

Thanks all. The school isn't oversubscribed so I'm guessing none of this makes a big difference! I'll have a better look on their website.

Is it a Voluntary Controlled or Voluntary Aided school ( vc or va in name usually)? If VC, there will be no religious criteria as admissions will be the same as any other county school, if VA, it could be anything but will be listed on the LA website. Ignore Rightmove, it sees Church of England and thinks they are all the same.

Thanks Pot, I'm not sure - will check!