To ask if anyone else has converted faith to get into a school?

[JumpingJunipersBatman]

OK. So I know people have but what does it actually entail?

I was raised rc but am atheist. We are looking at getting our agnostic 8 year converted (is that the right word?) to open up school choices but I'm not sure what that would mean in practice.

I'll make an appointment with a preist to discuss but what should I expect and for those who have done exactly this, what did you tell the preist when he asked about your reasons?

I know this may be seen by some as disrespectful or playing the system and it possibly is.

I take it nakedavenger you also don't want your tax money spent on schools that discriminate by wealth because house prices in their catchment areas are out of the reach of ordinary parents.

Why should my great niece whose parents are tax payers be denied a place at a good school because her parents cant afford to live in certain areas, the school she wanted to go to is a state school and according to you has every damn right to go to it, only she can't

I couldn't do it, I am an atheist and its what my parents did to me. My parents were strongly against religion (my dad actually refused to go to any weddings that were in Churches...) yet they sent me to a Protestant (Presbyterian) Secondary School.

I still do not how they managed this (admittedly this was not in the UK) as I was not even christened, I had never been the church prior to going to school and my parents probably had not been to church since they were teens.

I hated it, it was a total farce me writing / listening to prayers and valedictions etc, singing hymns, reading the Bible in religious studies (and then getting tested on said verses), saying Grace / Amen, I would quite literally shut my eyes in the chapel services!

I could never do that to my children, in all honestly I would rather them go to a crap school (although I believe good or bad schools do not influence learning outcomes) than go to a school against their beliefs, values and morals.

@oldsu the school isn't discriminating by simply locating itself somewhere. Saying 'you can't come to this school because your parents don't believe in X' even if it's your closest school is clearly different and utterly objectionable

I agree with Naked.

OP just approach the priest and say you never baptised your 8 yr old, you want to be part of the RC community again etc.

If you want them to believe you are RC you really need to be able to spell priest 😀

Faith schools are ridiculous so I have some sympathy. I was brought up catholic and just applied to catholic school for dd - all the choices in my area that I have a chance of getting into by catchment are faith schools of some sort otherwise I would happily avoid. I just put N/A on all the forms the priest had to sign...

My local school is a CofE school and it's an excellent school.
A lot of my local friends send their kids there because it's an excellent school but then complain because the kids talk about Jesus at Christmas, that the end of year nativity is a) the nativity and b) performed in a church, that they sing hymns not "songs".
What did you expect at a CofE school!!!
If you are atheist why would you want your kids to be educated in that way.

OP you will get flamed by a lot of people on here who say it's disgusting to play the system but I guarantee that a large percentage of the school's familys will have done what you are doing.

In our case our nearest school is a sought-after RC school has catholic priority. We live a 2 minute walk away but wouldn't get in unless baptised. DH is catholic, so have baptised dc and attend mass.

I hate the system, its not fair that someone who lives 5 miles away can park outside my house to go to this school but my dc can't unless they're a certain religion.

I don't think it should be allowed. It's terrible for the environment if nothing else as the conjestion round the school is awful as so many families aren't local so can't walk.

But we're not in the catchment of another school so our alternative is private (which we'd really struggle to afford for all kids) or just getting a centrally allocated place in a much worse school that's miles away.

People who are angry with the OP shouldn't be angry with her but angry at the system which is ridiculous but it is what it is.

To answer your question, it sounds like you just need to get your child baptised. When you talk to the priest about it just say you realise you should have done it sooner but because of xyz (real things in your life) it never happened. I doubt he'll probe too much. I would go to Mass for a few weeks first with your dc just do he knows your face before you ask.

I'm really surprised that some atheists on this thread think that their children should be excluded from decent local schools. That they're ok with their taxes funding a discriminatory two tier education system, when their own children are in the bottom tier!

Not so surprised that 'the faithful' want to keep them for the exclusive benefit of themselves and their own, mind...

As for wondering why atheists would want their children educated in a faith school, well, isn't it obvious?
I don't find parents facilitating the best available education for their children to be 'strange' behaviour at all.

As for complaining about the religious education my DS is receiving at his faith school, why shouldn't I? I dont, as it happens, but I often attend assemblies and church/school events, so that I know what he's being taught and can discuss it with him.

Do people not realise that in some areas there simply isn't a choice of schools? you only need to look at the admissions board on here!
All our local schools are faith schools. Are we disgusting and deceitful for not Home Educating him, just because I'm an atheist?

I don't know if its changed or if it was just because of my location.
I grew up in a very small village with only one primary school within about 10 miles, it's was a CofE school, I've never been baptised, I'd never been to church and was never raised in any religion at all.
I went to that school for several years with my brother and sister. We prayed a few times a day, sang lots of hymns in assemblies and went to the local church for certain events like Easter and Christmas.
So I don't even know if you have to be baptised or regularly go to church because it never stopped me getting into that school. Have you checked the schools criteria for enrolment?

Also, going to a local religious school didn't really have much impact except I still know some hymns and the lords prayer, I'm still an atheist and I enjoyed the stories from the first testament as a child.

if it's a CofE school you may not need to bother with a formal conversion or baptism. Check the exact admission criteria for the schools you want, but all the ones I know of have zero actual faith requirement - there is no checking of what you or the kids actually believe nor what ceremonies you have been through. the sole measure is normally just how many times your body is physically in the church during a service. some people go along and sit at the back and daydream throughout the service.

I don't think its hypocritical. the church of england has all these schools because the church set up an attempt at universal free education long before the state got involved. the state absorbed these schools into the system when establishing general universal education but it would obviously be wrong for the state to just steal church property so the schools remain church property and the church gets a modest influence. the criteria giving priority to those who come to church is not a faith requirement. it is a measure solely of who can be arsed to dedicate 90 minutes a week to something they think is important.

Not converted, so to speak, but I got my children baptised Catholic to get them into the school where they attended preschool because we all just fell in love with it and it felt right.
I’m not Catholic and neither is my husband. No questions were asked and we didn’t have to attend church before hand.

We’ve embraced it, though. We will leave it up to the children in regards to confirmation. They fully believe in God, which I like. I believe in God, even though I haven’t even been Christened, let alone baptised Catholic.

The only time I will be disputing something is the Story of Creation vs evolution. I want them to learn about evolution, and will be teaching it myself. However, we aren’t at that stage yet.

What isn’t fair is those who get their children babtised but tell them God isn’t real and be an arse about it. If they attend a religious school, they should have the same beliefs as their peers, at least at a young age. Secondary age, I believe, is different. Challenging beliefs and exploring their own comes with intelligence and maturity, and it’s up to them if they want to continue with their faith.

If it means giving children better opportunities, God would 100% understand...and if there isn’t a God, then there isn’t a ‘higher power’ judging anyway, so rock on with it.

Nakedavenger74 you sound like one of the bunch of hypocrites in my road, when I moved there 30 years ago it was just a nice road with 2 nice schools one of which is a Catholic school, the other one the one my DS went to was just the local school.

Now my Ds school is a popular school and the houses have shot up in value, I have lost count of the times people have put notes through my door wanting first dibs if I ever decided to move, The last house like mine had an open day when it came up for sale, the queue went right down the road, BUT until last year the Catholic school was not on any bodies radar, then a gated estate was built and suddenly there are a lot less places in the popular school in fact many people are predicting there will be none in a few years time, now we have a council estate also within walking distance of that school (the same one I grew up in) and 5 years ago they changed the catchment area so it bypassed the council estate - now that's discrimination.

So now the Catholic school is a problem, well it wasn't last year, or the year before in fact it has never been a problem in the 30 years I have lived here, its a problem now because a lot of entitled people have cast their greedy eyes over it and have decided its unfair that they are going to have to compete with council house children for a place because a lot of them like my best friend whose Granddaughter goes there are Catholics so get priority, I have heard them say it, they have sent out flyers saying just that. now THATS utterly objectionable isn't it???????, if they get their way, and I am one of the ones fighting against it they wont give a flying fuck about my BFs grandchildren or the other children from the council estate because they will have got what they want the school they think they are entitled to because of their wealth.

If it's secondary school you're taking about, the requirement is often baptism and first communion. It can take a year to do the classes for the second, so you need to get organised now and ensure she's doing it by end year 4 anyhow.

Look up the criteria, OP. Some Catholic schools are now limiting magic ‘conversions’ by requiring a baptism cert from within the child’s first six months of life.

I’m a lapsed catholic...I attended catholic primary and secondary and there was hardly any religion at all. I remember prayers at the start of the day and before lunch when I was in p1-2 and we were prepped for communion/confession and confirmation but it kind of tailed off later into primary school.

By secondary, they held optional mass every lunch time but in my 6 years there, I never attended once and nobody bothered a jot. There were lots of non-catholics too. It was a nice environment to go to school in...low rates of bullying and good pastoral care. Not all rc schools are like that but that was my experience. I probably wouldn’t lie to get them in though...try applying for a place. You never know.

I am Christian but stopped going to church after a bereavement

For me to fake attend church is so against my personal values

We are missing out on a decent school
Because of it

I don’t respect people that do it And it’s a shitty system

Why should not religious tax payers miss out ?

BTW (whispers ) the catholic polish priest allegedly signs for everyone

I know people who have had their children christened, temporarily rented a house, used a parent's address. I also know people who have hothoused their children through tutors to pass entrance exams/11+.

I'll be unpopular but people shouldn't be allowed to do any of those things imo. There should be no selection, no grammars and no state funded faith schools.

We should get back to adequately funding all schools and kids can go back to just going to their local school and do away with all the other bollocks.

No-one should be able to buy/cheat/lie their way to educational advantage. I find it abhorrent.

@Oldsu how am I a hypocrite? The situation you speak of is highly unpleasant but it's not as if the school are openly saying 'no poor children allowed' or demanding some kind of income test. It's not the school's choice!!! They are open to the catchment area and any supposed favourable changes to the wealthy is the bloody governments fault.

Faith schools on the other hand will openly and with support reject children for what their parents believe!

It depends on the school. Our school is hugely oversubscribed for the faith places. You have to write a letter saying everything you have done at church eg, organsing groups, doing coffees, choir, reading prayers, Sunday school etc. the vicar then reviews this to make sure it is true. The vicar has a meeting with the school to approve applicants or not. There are about 6 applicants to every place so as you can imagine, people who randomly turn up 6 months before the school applications or something don't really get a look in! But it's different as it's a great school and they are very much on the look out for people who suddenly start coming to the church simply because they want a school place. But in a less well attended church they may not be so bothered. So you should check the church and check the school.

Here it is one parent and the child who has to go to church for CoE. For all of year five. If she wants to go to church take her. You do not have to believe. But take her at least partly as she wants to go, not just for school attendance.

When I changed church, I looked around at CoE churches first as that is a higher criteria for admission to the school, but still made sure that it was one I thought would suit us. As it happened it didn't after new vicar arrived and we have moved on to another CoE church.

Some RC schools, especially in London, now require baptism before 6 months to prevent people gaming the system. It's worth checking exactly what the requirements are. You don't need the priest (yet) you need the admission requirements for that school. Hop online and start there.

Lie if you want, especially if it puts your child at an advantage. I think the Roman Catholic Church has committed worse sins. He is without sin cast the first stone and all that...
Personally, I can think of nothing worse than sending my child to a faith school. I really object to my taxes paying for them as well. I would like to see them all abolished.
All children are born atheists. It is only later that they get labelled because of exposure to this mumbo jumbo.

1. People complaining that the church is involved in education should realise without the church we wouldn’t have had free schooling in the first place.

1. Many schools require a certificate from the priest, and this is given provided the child has attended mass regularly with his or her parents. And a baptism certificate.

If I were you I wouldn’t bother sending my child to a school where you don’t share the faith. People like you take a place away from people who genuinely do believe and want their child educated in accordance with their faith.