Faith schools - England - which denomination

[Verynice]

I'm quite fascinated by the British phenomenon that is faith schools over here.

I'm Irish, so 95% I'd say are Catholic in the main - i.e. run by nuns for girls schools, run by brothers for boys schools.
Primary schools are not usually run by nuns or brothers but are Catholic in the main. In the past 20 to 15 years, there has been a massive shift to have 'Educate Together schools' which are either non-denominational or multi-denominational. This was to accommodate the growing number of agnostic or atheists in Ireland and also an increasing acknowledgement of other religions. There have also always been small Protestant schools dotted about.

Dd went to a small rural primary with a Catholic ethos. She is now in a Protestant secondary (she is Catholic as am I - though I am a lapsed anti-Catholic really). She got in due to being related to an employee. I have no idea what sort of faith education is involved there - dd never mentions it.

There seems to be a notion here that faith schools perform better. It has been suggested on another thread that people ready to jump through hoops to get their kids into a faith school are likely to be involved parents, therefore those kids and hence the school overall will perform better. Makes sense I suppose.

Which leads to my question - if your children are in a faith school - which denomination is it? Are you devoutly devoted to that faith, or could you take it or leave it?

I've just seen another thread where you must be practising the particular religion. We don't really have to be practising, though I recall the priest requiring her baptismal cert when she was signing up for primary. In primary, preparation for First Confession, First Communion and Confirmation is done during school time and can take quite a lot of time I suppose during the relevant years.

The only time we had to be seen to be practising was once a month in the year we prepped for First Communion where the usual Sunday mass would be dedicated to the children preparing for First Communion. They would maybe be involved in bringing up the gifts, or reading the Prayers of the Faithful or similar. Not a massive inconvenience to me, but heathen that I am, they were the only times we went to Mass!

I'm just fascinated by the school system in the UK. Grammar schools, feeder schools, academies, free education etc. doesn't exist in Ireland.

Anyone care to share their experiences good or bad?

I have a family member who can't watch Father Ted because it is too close to reality. I'm like that with Phoenix Nights.
We should both probably get over ourselves

And are grammar schools denominational? Or is it only primary schools that are denominational?

DD goes to a CofE secondary academy. Hardly any kids are strongly faith orientated and whilst the school certainly uses religion day to day (prayers etc), it’s more a general philosophy of being good to each other and taking care of each other. It’s also a great school education wise. Strictly speak I’m CofE christened but I only go to church for weddings and funerals so definitely not practising.

Grammar schools are only in certain areas and you get in via the 11 plus. My DD's cousins all live in a grammar school area and went to one. We don't so it was not an option.

Also we picked the school purely coz it’s a good school, close by and she liked it.

Father Ted is hilarious as it is a caricature, but very much based on the reality.

Mrs. Brown's boys is similar. Everyone can identify their Irish Mammy in there. My mother loves it - thinks it justifies her being a lunatic all our lives.

My older siblings went to catholic grammar schools in Lancashire but that was before secondary education was reformed. I went to the schools they went to but they were rebranded as comprehensives and boys and girls were mixed. As was ability.

Grammar schools select by ability; faith schools select by religious affiliation.

If not many people want to go to them then they won't be very fussy about ability/religion (the majority of the children at my local Catholic school are Muslim), if they're oversubscribed then you'll need to meet the criteria very strictly (e.g. christened early enough, attend regularly enough, get a high enough mark in an exam).

I remember my sister telling me about going for a job interview as a Primary school teacher in Australia. It was a Catholic school. They asked her 'have you any family?' She replied with enthusiasm that she had just moved in with her boyfriend. They then sort of ahem, changed their stance, and she wasn't hired. In fact I think they actually told her that they prefer to have teachers who live in a traditional Catholic way. She was kicking herself. Catholics are weird. Well, all religions are weird in my view to be honest!

Bellinsurge - so the 11+ is like a state exam is it?

Grammar schools may or may not be faith, may or may not be academies. Our LA, all secondaries are now Academy, including 4 grammars.

I cant rememeber the primary choices but could look them up I suppose
56 primary schools - all co-ed
6 x Cof E
7 x Catholic

Secondaries are -
1 x co ed - CofE - Y7-14
1 x boys Catholic - Y7-11
1 x girls Ccatholic - Y7-11
1 x co ed catholic 6th form Y12-14

This is all in a 4 mile radius.

Its really not difficult to look up the education system inthe UK - but it does vary wildly from area to ares.

The South is primarily academies, and due to population density has a gazillion schools in walking distance

The South Coast operates a bizarre infant/junior-middle-upper school system

Grammars are only in some areas: Grammar schools are state secondary schools that select their pupils by means of an examination taken by children at age 11, known as the "11-plus". There are only about 163 grammar schools in England, out of some 3,000 state secondaries, and a further 69 grammar schools in Northern Ireland.

I live opposite a primary school. I wonder what faith it is if any.

The Eleven plus test is a test given to pupils in their last year of primary school (year 6 in England and year 7 in Northern Ireland) and is used as a means to determine whether that pupil is suited to the academic rigours of a grammar school education. ... The 11plus exam is used extensively in Bucks, Kent and Essex.

@verynoice - you could go outside and look - it will tell you on the school sign

Eg
St Thomas Moore RC or
St John the Evangelist CofE

What is an academy then?

Is your google broken?

Essentially, academies have more freedom than other state schools over their finances, the curriculum, and teachers' pay and conditions. A key difference is that they are funded directly by central government, instead of receiving their funds via a local authority.22 Jul 2010

Just had a gawp and it's literally called for e.g. 'Valley Road Primary School'.

Maybe it has no denomination.

Oops - we've also got a free school

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_school_(England)

and on that note I'm finished for the day and going home.

Literally!!

You see, I have googled but it doesn't make sense to me in terms I can understand.
In Ireland we have a state curriculum and that's it.

And I suppose AIBU to wonder why everyone wants to get into a Faith school?

That might be the case in some areas, but it’s not in mine. I live in a small town near a large city in the midlands, and our local CofE primary school has a poor reputation. I don’t know of anyone who wanted to send their children there, and I know quite a few who chose to send their children elsewhere, like I did, despite it being their catchment school. When my eldest daughter started reception (she is now in year 2) it was the only local school to be undersubscribed.
There are also a couple of catholic schools locally. While these are not undersubscribed, they don’t seem to have a better reputation than our other (excellent) local primary schools, and I don’t know of anyone who particularly wanted their children to attend them, unless for religious reasons.

You have to realise Plainspeaking, that the Irish system is so very different to the British one. So academies and grammar schools etc. are new to me. It just doesn't exist.
Similarly, entrance to university is based purely on your academic results. Nothing else is considered. You get points based on your grades from your best 6 subjects in Leaving Cert. They all get added up and give you your overall points.

To get entry to things like medicine, law, veterinary, psychology, actuarial studies, you would need pretty much straight A's (maybe one B or C if the other 5 were A1's) in those 6 subjects. The points for entry are extremely high as places are limited and in massively high demand.

In some ways I think it's fairer.

PlainSpeakingStraightTalking at "Is your google broken?"

Im not sure the UK school system is any more bizarre than anywhere elses or any of our other institutions e.g. our government, now that's bizarre!

Im Catholic and I find the idea of nuns and monks generally bizarre (never met any), let alone having them school your child.

Incidentally there are two unis in Ireland which would be considered to be the best reputation-wise. 1st would be Trinity College Dublin and 2nd would be University College Dublin. Trinity was incidentally a traditionally protestant uni as I believe.

I don't think either of them feature in the top 100 globally.
So maybe our education isn't as up there as British unis.

Am I correct in thinking that Oxford and Cambridge are like Harvard and Brown in the US?

My kids school is CofE. We’re not CofE. There isn’t a single Christian in the history of our family. The schools doesn’t care. They have the occasional service and teach a very toned down version of Christianity (e.g. nativity play, Easter story etc but not creationism etc). It was similar for DH and I when we were at school. Private sector seems to be pretty happy to accommodate anyone irrespective of religion.

There isn’t a single Christian in the history of our family.

Sorry, but this tickled me!