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?

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay yes exactly that.

I’ve got to laugh at all the people saying if you’re not religious it would be disrespectful to send your kid to a religious school and you should just choose another school, as if that is a choice! Where we live of the 11 nearest primary schools 9 are either C of E or Catholic, of the 2 that aren’t they both have the lowest ofsted ratings and are miles away from where we live (possibly an hour if there’s traffic).

It would be much better if all schools were secular then parents could have a good chouce of appropriate schools and religious parents could send their kids to Sunday school and teach about their religion at home, the same way non believers have to.

@Guineapiglet345 I also struggle to understand in what way it’s disrespectful to send your child to a school where they will learn about the religion and be a part of many of its customs?! Just because they don’t fully subscribe to the doctrine doesn’t mean they won’t be respectful of other people’s beliefs, and it’s also not like they’re taking a place from a Catholic child!

I don't think that it is moral to send your child to a Catholic school if you are not even Christian.

Surely that is for families who apply and schools which admit to decide?

@tessieandoz please do elaborate on why it’s not ‘moral’? We wouldn’t be there under false pretences, we’re not pretending to be Catholic or lying to get admitted! We won’t be disparaging of the religion, we would make every effort to be a part of the school community. Not sure I see the morality issue?

My school wouldn’t let you in unless you were catholic - it was a very very religious school though.

@NCjustforthisthread I don’t think they’re not allowed to do that any more - I’m pretty sure they have to allow children from other faiths and none to apply.

@MrsMuffins exactly, from what I understand church attendance is declining rapidly so there probably aren’t enough children of Catholic parents to fill up these schools. Especially if you discount the people who pretend to be Catholic to get into a good school and the people who call themselves Catholic because their families are, but never go to church or follow the religion in any meaningful way.

My school wasn't In this country - I wasn’t simply offering a view that in my own opinion some catholic schools wouldn’t take you unless you were. Perhaps it’s different here.

VaselineDion I’d put good money on very few of your friends being SLT.

I take it you’ve no direct experience as Governor or HT of a faith school being essentially told by the Diocese what to do with regard to staff, ethos, events and other such matters? Take a look at the schools judged Inadequate by OFSTED and forced to join a church academy because the Church demands they can only join a church academy, when the church academy they are being forced to join has crap results and is unable of delivering school improvement. That’s all about the churches retaining control over their schools, and damn the children who would be better served by a non-faith academy.

Guineapiglet maybe true in some areas but certainly not all. My church is standing room only every Sunday (a big church) and the school is massively oversubscribed.

Our Catholic school doesnt take non Catholics. The criteria is baptised children who regularly attend mass first, followed by baptised children, then everyone else. Its always full of baptised children so non Catholics don't get in. And yes it's Ofsted outstanding.
Interesting how many of them are isn't it.

Notanother I’m actually a lesbian deputy head on the governors of a Catholic school. The school down the road has a lesbian teacher whose partner supports in her area of expertise in the arts. In the same family of schools is a gay musk teacher, a gay teacher who has adopted with his partner and several other homosexual staff and governors.

*music

The criteria is baptised children who regularly attend mass first, followed by baptised children

My local school is the same.

@shecamefromgreece I think the figure I saw was something like 5% of the population regularly attend Church but I can’t find it now.

I don’t doubt that in some areas there will be very religious communities where churches are very popular, especially in Northern Ireland or rural parts of Scotland but I don’t think that is the norm, at least not in England.

Amongst my friends I see a lot of people who are happy to use the church to get married and have nice photos or get their kids baptised because it’s traditional but then they never set foot in the church until the next time someone gets married, I find that disrespectful. I don’t find someone saying I’m not religious but I will send my child to the local faith school because that’s the best/most practical option to be disrespectful.

Can anyone explain why the catholic schools seem to get much better results (sats) than other schools?

@BigSandyBalls2015 because they can be selective about which children they take, middle class parents are more likely to play the game to get their children in there, I thought that was well known.

We were given a Catholic school when our eldest started school despite not putting it on our list and not being religious. Unfortunately we live in a black spot where we’re not close enough to any of the schools nearby. Anyway, we tried to be very open minded but our experience was that religion dominated the school in a way that was quite uncomfortable for us eventually. Although we were told that in the early years it was about morals and being a nice to each other it was always framed around Jesus / Mary etc. The assemblies they did for parents were very religious and even though ‘harmless’ I didn’t really love the fact that they were being taught religious beliefs as facts. All the other kids were Catholic and if I had tried to opt her out of the religious bits it would have singled her out as being different, which she would have hated. The seriousness of the religious elements increased as they got older and I think if she was still there when everyone did their first holy communion it would have been awful for her. They all went to mass at school from juniors upwards. They did learn about other religions but in a very cursory way for the bare minimum. The other thing was that all the other families were very religious and their church was their community so there wasn’t a lot of school community not involved with the church which made it incredibly hard for her to make friends. I think this was a particularly religious school and I’m sure some catholic schools are less religious but it’s really not easy to opt out of the religious bits without singling your child out. We moved our daughter into another local school after 3 years when a place opened up and I could not be happier with my decision. The education she received at the school was good but the religious elements overshadowed that. And I’m not even an atheist, more agnostic. All catholic schools are also inspected by some catholic organisation and they should have the reports on their website. If you read those you should get a sense of how catholic the school is. But I’d think if a school is outstanding but still under subscribed it’s probably quite religious! The one benefit of it all is she does know everything about Jesus which I could never have taught her

@Guineapiglet345
I think that's a generalisation that they get better SATs results. In the better RC schools my observation is that discipline is better.

Both my girls went to catholic primary and my eldest is now in catholic high school.
It was an excellent school , yes they do pray several times per day and go to mass often.
Not all the children who attend are catholic but are included in the visits to mass.
The prayers are for all children but children of other faiths have the choice to not say them if they wish however are their with class mates when they are happening.
The school of very inclusive and teach juts like any other school with the same curriculum but with a lot of teachings about morals and forgiveness.
My eldest DD12 has done her confirmation and holy communion and my eldest is doing hers at the moment. The teaching of this is to be loved and that you will be forgiven for any wrongs you may do.
When the children are doing their work for this sacrament they are down in a small group of children who are doing it with the others doing other work.
And contrary to what several other posters have said Sex education is very much taught in catholic schools with very open minds. They are taught about puberty and what is happening to their bodies and how babies are made. They are also taught about taking care of themselves and ensuring they are happy and to love themselves.
I know this as parents were invited to school to see what they would be taught before and to look at course material so we could talk to our children about it. All children are invited to learn and be part of these classes but there was parents who decided not to allow their child to take part, and these were mostly children of other faiths.

I would say that if you choose to send your child their I'm sure they would receive a very good education but to be opened minded, you certainly will not be left out with other parents because you are not catholic as many of the children will not be catholic also. Your children will not be brain washed as others have also suggested - this is certainly not how things are taught in our school.
My daughter enjoyed her time there and was taught all about the religion but when it came to her choosing a person to write about for her homework task; chose Charles Darwin of all people to write about. She was not told this was wrong and was embraced to chat about different views. She is certainly not brained washed and questions a lot about what she is taught and forms her own opinions.

I would not do as a previous poster has said and send your children and then tell them that what they are being taught is bullshit. This is very disrespectful not that I am saying you would for a second.
People have the right to their own opinions but sometimes do not take the time to know facts before casting nasty horrible assumptions about things they do not know about.

Ivartheboneless I’m glad your child had such a positive experience and evolution is part of the science curriculum which is taught in Catholic primaries.

@mmmm25 I think they way I saw it reported was that the proportion of children receiving free school meals is a lot lower at the higher performing schools, make of that what you will.

Vaselinedion both my girls have had a great experience and for that I am very lucky.
My point about Charles Darwin was that some people think that these types of subjects would not be taught in catholic schools and they pick and choose what is taught which is just not the case.
Our school is amazing and very very inclusive.

I went to catholic schools. We were taught exclusively by nuns in primary school, and partly by nuns in secondary school.

Our equivalent of Year 3 was spent almost exclusively in preparing us for our first confession and first holy communion. Trivial matters such as teaching us to read, write and do arithmetic were almost entirely ignored. School trips meant religious pilgrimage to places such as Walsingham, Knock and Lourdes.

In secondary school we were taught that ‘selfish sexual orgasm’, ie masturbation, was a sin, as was having sex before marriage, obviously. We were also told that abortion was a sin and we were encouraged to join catholic anti-abortion campaign groups. This was the sum-total of sex education apart from in science classes when we were taught the biological stuff. Creationism was taught as fact in RE lessons and in assemblies. We were taught nothing whatsoever about any other religion. The school governers were priests. The brainwashing was utterly relentless for 13 years.

This was the 1980s, not the 1950s. Perhaps things have changed now - I don’t know.

I am no longer religious.