To consider a Catholic primary school?

[MrsMuffins]

DH and I are not religious, however our nearest primary is Catholic and Outstanding. It also has space, so we would probably get in regardless of the fact that we don’t attend church. However, we would have some concerns - things like the amount of religion in the curriculum, how they teach sex ed and relationships, attitudes (amongst staff and parents) towards LGBTQ issues, etc. Would this be an issue? Would we feel part of the school community as non-churchgoers?

Also - are catholic priests allowed to be married?

No😂😂😂

Our priest was married with children
He wasn't a Catholic priest then, or in fact any sort of priest, they take a vow of celibacy. Was it a vicar?

I'm in Glasgow, went to both a catholic primary and secondary school.

As I recall, there were 3 children who weren't Catholic at primary, and at least 5 in Secondary. Only knew this as they did not take part in communions / confirmations and then wouldn't receive communion if we went to mass (though one girl still always came and got a blessing instead).

At primary level, we prayed twice a day (our father in the morning, hail Mary after lunch), went to chapel once or twice a term as a school, and RE was taught pretty much based on the foundations of the new testament- lots about love, understanding and the basics of the faith (the nativity, holy trinity etc). Much of that was to prepare for sacraments. We also did light courses on other religions- for example learning about hanukkah, songs about a dradle etc. Core classes such as English, French and maths were taught according to the national syllabus and did not feature religion at all.

At secondary level we did learn more about other religions, and religion was pretty restricted to just RE classes. Contraception etc wasnt really taught, and where it was mentioned the strong message was "we don't believe in it ". Sex ed was factual and taught in biology. Mass reduced to once a term and there was absolutely no prayers during any class.

I'd visit and see if you like the feel, the approach and how the other children seem to be. Discuss your concern about being left out with the head and see how they're received before making a decision.

Priests don't marry but a permanent deacon can. They can perform many of the rituals you might expect a priest to, so could be confused for one if you don't know much about the catholic parish structure.

@deadliftgirl I knew that Catholic priests aren’t allowed to be married, I was querying another poster’s statement. I would be extremely concerned if I was sending my child to a school where the majority of parents held similar views to you, but thankfully I think you’re in the minority nowadays.

They can be if they converted from CofE and were already married. Otherwise it’s definitely not allowed.

As well as going to visit you could have a bit of a root around on their website to see if you can find the SRE policy and which RE scheme of work they use. That might give you a clue whether or not there’s anything that would be a massive issue for you.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay yep we’ve had a look at this and it looks really inclusive, no red flags that I can see!

Personally I've never heard of any child who wasn't Catholic attending a Catholic school.

Lots of Muslim girls go to Notre Dame

There are married Catholic priests in the UK. They tend to be fairly conservative, though, because they are former CofE priests who switched to the RC Church when the CofE started ordaining women as priests.

From the Scottish Government education website

Religious education and religious observance
Every state school is open to pupils of all denominations. As a parent, you can withdraw your children from instruction in religious education and from religious observance.

I second @deadliftgirl actually as a fellow catholic. OP just make sure you are on board with how the school operates with regards to religion. I often read threads where non church goers who send their children to catholic school complain about how much they are made to pray or told in regards to things like sex Ed and same sex marriage

My DS went to a Catholic primary school, we aren't religious in any way. He was very badly treated at the school, they refused to accept his diagnosis of ASD, the SENCO put his letter of diagnosis in the bin & he never got any of the extra help he needed. I left my husband whilst my DS was a pupil there, from that day we were ostracized by the other parents, DS wasn't included in birthday parties & play dates, I was ignored by parents in the playground. When it was time to move to secondary school, we chose a non religion based school, I would never consider a faith school again & wish that we hadn't chosen one in the first place.

YouBumder
When I attended school I can't recall any pupil who wasn't Catholic. For me personally my Dd's attended the Catholic school. I would never have thought about any other school's for them.

I would go and visit if I were you, OP, and ask them about things like mass and prayers. There won't necessarily be a whole lot more 'Christianity' than in a CofE primary - it very much depends on the school. I would also be surprised if an outstanding Catholic primary didn't have quite a few non-Catholics, especially if it's not full, but again, they will be able to tell you this. Catholic schools can't just teach 'abortion is wrong, contraception is wrong' anymore, but by year 6 this isn't likely to be a huge issue anyway. I think people's historical experiences are also largely irrelevant. One poster cited the lack of sex ed in her Catholic girls' school in the 90s but I went to a secular girls' school in the 90s and we didn't get anything beyond a bit of information about periods either!
And yes, there are more married priests than celibate priests in our parish at the moment...

OP, IME sex education LGBT are just not discussed at primary level in RC schools. I am RC and all of my education was in RC schools. Same with DH, and exactly the same with both of my DC; youngest in Year 6.
I don't hold that view that being gay is a sin ditto same sex marriage, but a lot of very staunch older Catholics do.
At secondary level I would consider another faith or no faith school for my child but not at Primary level. I wouldn't want them to be the odd one out, especially if you are going to question everything and have your child be sent out for every religious worship.

When I was growing up it was the same parkhead but for high school there wasn’t a local RC high school so a few RC kids did come to our school rather than be bussed to the (back then, not very good) RC catchment one. Generally though it was Catholics to the RC school and proddys to the non denom

But I do actually know of quite a few non RC kids at RC schools and RC kids at non denom schools from primary upwards now.

Don’t do it! I went to Catholic primary and secondary and truly BELIEVED in it all, and STILL found the religion bit hard to take! Particularly when it came to the acceptance of other faiths, sex Ed, religion as truth over science, LGBT anything. The whole year is structure around the church year with Xmas, holy days, Saints days and Easter being of particular importance. We sang hymns in music, drew religious themes in art, prayed numerator times a day ( in various languages). It’s brainwashing of the worst kind.

@NottonightJosepheen nope not at all - it’s evident from this thread that there is often diversity in Catholic schools which may well mean that parents hold a variety of views that don’t adhere to the teachings of the church. And once again, not expecting anybody to change to accomodate me

YouBumder

Generally though it was Catholics to the RC school and proddys to the non denom
You said what I was thinking.
😂😂😂

You’re spot on there OP, but that means that the attitude of the school could change with a change of head teacher.

At our local Catholic school's, less than half the class are Catholic, and in that only a handful of families are actually practising Catholic's.

I don't find the school overly religious compared to what people assume it's like tbh. The main difference is sex ed, but it is being taught a bit more from primary 6 here. LGBTQ isn't taught, that doesn't mean the teachers or priests are telling the children it is wrong, it just isn't really mentioned 🤷🏼‍♀️
The Catholic children are taught their sacraments separately from the children who aren't too.

Despite what some posters are saying the Catholic schools in my area are very welcoming places for all religions - I accompanied DD to several, when she was going through the application process. All of the schools were ethnicly and religiously diverse with only one school having over 50% Baptised Catholic children, all were heavily oversubscribed, all were were rated Good or Outstanding as were the non-denominational/C of E schools DD visited.
DD ranked dgs's school as her first prefernce because she thought it was the best fit for him, the headteacher is lovely, knows all the dc by name and regularly pops into the classrooms, academically the school is excellent (for our area) and generally the feel of the school is lovely. The parents at the school support it well and all children take part in everything (except preparation for Communion and Confirmation).
I sent my DD to the best school for her I could get her into regardless of Faith and she has done the same, As long as parents do not work against the school, demanding that their child is taught differently to the schools published Faith, I can't see any problem whatsoever. The OP is doing her research and it is up to her to decide whether a school is right for her child and whether she can support the school and support her child to understand that his/her family and the school don't agree about religion and the dc can chose what to believe for him/herself. From her posts she is perfectly capable of that.
From what I can see dgs's school is like all others I have been to at pick up/drop off, some parents chat, some don't, there are moaners and cliques and one's who are always first there and others who rush in at the last minute and none of them have Catholic/Protestent/ Sikh/ Muslim tattooed on their foreheads!