Priests just handing out School Admissions letters

[Marypoppins19]

I’m prickly about this, but friends who live closer to a school of our choice, but only go to church at Christmas, have still managed to get a church support form. We go weekly, always have. AIBU to think this is unfair and breaking the rules?
AIBU to consider saying this in an appeal?

Oh as usual its turned into the bashing of "disgusting church schools"

Do you lot voice the same about Jewish schools, Muslim Schools ??!!

I am really pleased at the approach our local faith schools took- if you support the ethos then you are welcome to apply. They decided it wasn’t for a school to judge and weigh how ‘Christian’ a family were. They understood the advantage your two parent healthy families have over those with chronic illness, disabilities or other difficulties in getting to church weekly. Why for example should a Christian mum with chronic fatigue or a woman working nights be penalised in school attendance?

Anyway, if you are Christian you should be particularly pleased with this approach. What better way to spread god’s message and evangelise than open up a Christian school for all those who wish to go, regardless of their previous life experiences. Jesus himself I’m sure would have agreed with this this message, not closing the gates to children (and using state funding to do so ).

Any Christian school turning families away on the basis of how holy they are deemed to be has lost their way. Christianity isn’t about rung fencing resources for a chosen few children, turning away the children of those who don’t reach a certain bar.

Maybe people would be far less cynical about faith schools if they were open, and the issue of church’s being full of under 5s May resolve if the only focus became retaining a congregation through good quality services, a welcome to all and trust...

Honestly I think it's fair enough if the child is baptised RC and the parents want an RC education then they should be entitled to it

How is a Roman Catholic education different to a state education? Should all believing parents be entitled to a faith based education for their children?

We go weekly, always have. AIBU to think this is unfair and breaking the rules?

So you think it's fair that because you go to a certain building every week your child should be further up the list for a school funded by my taxes?

Not everyone who attends church regularly behaves like a Christian.

Yes I would say the same about Muslim or Jewish schools.

Religion of any sort had no place in a school, except learning about it in the broader cultural sense.

If you want your child to believe something teach it at home.

Religion of any sort had no place in a school, except learning about it in the broader cultural sense.

Whilst I agree, in reality, as parents we have to look at what is best for our own children. That's dealing with what we have today, not what a perfect system would look like. I wasn't going to jeopardise my own child's education by making some kind of personal protest and sending him to the local crap failing comp instead. But I have and will continue to vote for candidates and political parties who stand for scrapping ALL selection in schools - trouble is, the main parties won't commit to that as they still want selection to suit their own needs!

Not everyone who attends church regularly behaves like a Christian. And when it comes to schooling does anyone behave like a Christian?

They sound idiotic to have told you! I have no problem with them 'breaking the rules ' as the rules are ridiculous imo

How anyone can actively want a RC education with all the horrific stuff that's gone on in that religion is beyond me.

I thought letters of support were no longer allowed too subjective- it had to be an objective system - hence signature books - attendance at one church only counts at our Catholic school the priests will only use the signature books for fear of appeal - as someone said previously these are available only at the end of services and you must only sign your own name. Its a horrible system as there are lots of reason children cant attend. Some want to attend othef parishes / local language services and are excluded. Tbh I know the local priests would love not to have this responsibility it causes endless issues e.g. grandparents take children etc and I think it would be better for all if it were banned.

Aside from all the moral implications and rules, which I won't get into...

Have you asked actually for one? Maybe your friend has just asked...

@WhentheRabbitsWentWild - of course .... what people object to is the nonsense that religion teaches as fact - it shouldn't be in school AT ALL as fact, theory only. Ban all religious schools. Religion in churches and such only - the rest is the God squad trying to indoctrinate people and get kids young and impressionable age so they can spout their fairytales and make it sound true - all of it needs to be banned

Our local vicar only signs church supplementary forms for the local school on one day a year and you have to book an interview with him to get a time slot. This is only advertised in the pewsheet for a month or so before the day in question. I’ve often wondered whether this would withstand legal challenge since it seems to directly breach the ‘no interview’ rule. But no one seems to have done so yet.

Going to church does not make your child any more worthy of a good local education than any other child.

You child is no more or less important than another regardless of faith or level of church attendance.

Religion has no place in state education.

If anyone wants their child schooled in their choice of religion they are free to pay to do so.

We are lucky that we have a good school that we are in catchment with, because our next three closest schools are church schools and our children would not qualify as a result. That is bullshit.

Going to church does not make your child any more worthy of a good local education than any other child.

Then the authorities should ensure the non-faith schools are as good as, or better, than the faith schools. When a parent is faced with a choice of a couple of crap failing comps or a good faith school, it's no surprise they choose the faith one! Rather than concentrating on attacking faith schools, the efforts should be challenging the failing schools, asking why they're failing, changing the staff/heads etc to improve it.

Do you lot voice the same about Jewish schools, Muslim Schools ??!!

I absolutely would, assuming they were state funded. It is wrong to discriminate on the basis of religion no matter what that religion is.

Then the authorities should ensure the non-faith schools are as good as, or better, than the faith schools

And put church goers further down the admissions criteria to non-church goers. That would make it fair.

I have no problem with church schools existing (partly because of the difficulties getting rid of them, as a PP has said).

I have huge problems with them being so exclusive - it's discriminatory against those of other and no religion, and against those whose lives are not organised enough to get the relevant paperwork and those who have to work on a Sunday morning due to working in the service sector, and indeed those like us whose child has SEN and has had to leave two churches (one at a crucial preschool age which would have meant no letter for primary had we been going down that route). It is also discriminatory against LAC who have no church-going record when they were with birth family, even if they were baptised (but many chaotic families won't have organised that either).

In my area, all the religious primary schools and the Catholic secondary are good but not over-subscribed. This means they have a good mix of families who are either local or specifically want that school for religious or non-religious reasons (one of the schools has a really good reputation for SEN, for example). Only one primary school asks for letters from the church and that's only for 25% of places.

Secondary is another matter - families start coming to church when their children are about 7 and leave as soon as the youngest is in secondary. Most children get into the secondary school either as churchgoers or siblings and most of those are middle class lowering the diversity of the school even further.

My ideal solution would be to keep the religious nature (but with limits on what can be taught - even some ministers of mainstream churches can be loopy on some topics) but allow only a maximum of 25% faith places, preferably fewer.

Do you lot voice the same about Jewish schools, Muslim Schools

I was actually just thinking about Jewish schools in my post.
There are apparently 42 Jewish state funded faith schools in England (and smaller numbers of other faiths):
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_school#England

I would imagine that, currently, they are all in areas with larger Jewish populations because if it's a good school for your child you want to live near it.
If there was no longer priority, the schools would retain their character and have larger numbers of non-Jewish children.
As the other religious groups have a much shorter history in the UK, then the schools are probably still in those groups' "first destination" areas (Jewish families having dispersed further so far).

As these groups move out to suburbs as the generations move on, the schools may lose their population, rather as many CofE schools are now in majority Muslim areas. It would remain to be seen whether non-Muslim parents wanted to send their child to a Muslim faith school near them, or whether Muslim children would commute.

Do you lot voice the same about Jewish schools, Muslim Schools ??!!
Fairly certain people have spoken against “faith” schools.

But it this instance, the post is about a Christian school so it makes sense people are talking about those schools.

How is a Roman Catholic education different to a state education? Should all believing parents be entitled to a faith based education for their children?

The amount of time they spend on assemblies, masses, RE is far far more. To the expense of Geography, history, science imo.

I remember tears ago we wanted our kid to get into a church school so we went in church front door then nipped out the back to pub for an hour then came back to get priest to do form lol

TeddTess, so you’d assume that faith schools are showing weaker results in Geography, History and science then.

Except they’re not. So an atheist choosing a faith school for their academic results is still making a good choice for their child regardless of assemblies etc.