Baptised to get in to a school?

[mummy21boy]

So there is a very good catholic school in our catchment area but to be in with a good chance of getting in you’d need to be a baptised catholic. Dh was brought up catholic but isn’t religious so we haven’t had ds baptised but dh thinks we should now to get him into this school.. aibu to think this is morally wrong?

It’s not morally wrong, what’s morally wrong is putting a bias on education based on religion. It’s an outdated system that should be abolished.

How old is ds? Some RC schools require baptism as a baby and regular attendance so be sure you can meet the requirements longer term. Also will you be happy to support attendance at school Mass, First Communion etc if the school follows a strict religious education. You probably can opt out but majority may not.

I think it is morally wrong. I don't think there's any good reason to have your child baptised into a religion which you don't practice and don't believe in.

There may be a bigger criteria than being baptised. The church we attend states regular attendance at services for 3 years before being used as a reference for infant school and 5 years regular service for secondary. By regular they mean twice a month.

Lots of schools require letters from a parish priest that you are genuine regular attenders at a church, so just getting the infant dunked may be insufficient! Are there really no other reasonable school choices?

Are you sure they need to be Catholic?

My DS goes to a catholic school but not a requirement to be catholic, quite a few other religions attend the school.

I’m in Scotland though and as long as in catchment area you are guaranteed a place. May be different elsewhere.

Missmummy I 100% agree with you.

DS is due to start school sept 2020, if we were to go ahead and baptise him to get him into the school then yes I would support the attendance to school mass etc. I’m not against him being catholic.. I wasn’t brought up with any religion personally so wouldn’t be going against my views as such

Some schools, especially the highly oversubscribed ones require baptism within a year of birth, unless there was a good reason for it. Be warned, Catholic school is hardcore. I found it difficult some of the stuff I had to listen to and I was a practicing Catholic at the time of school applications. 2 years of listening to stuff that I found difficult to listen to as a teenager and I am now agnostic and my children don't go to Catholic school any more.

No he doesn’t ‘have’ to be catholic to get in but if it is oversubscribed as it usually is the baptised catholic children get in first.

Are you sure that regular attendance isn't also needed? Priests are usually quite switched on to these matters. Check the admissions criteria carefully

I’ve checked the administration criteria and it says you need to produce a baptism certificate

That's unusual!

Do they specify by when baptism has to take place. Presumably ds is already 2/3 which is considered late in RC church.

I think if is morally wrong. You're either Catholic or not. I am not but DH is and has taken both children to mass from a couple of weeks old. I think Catholic schools are fine if you're religious but can't see the attraction if you're not. Both mine attend Catholic primary but only because it embeds their faith - not for any other reason.
I don't understand why people have an issue with faith schools. From my understanding the Catholic Church subsidises the schools. So why can't they have their own schools?

I don't think you are being unreasonable, because there are plenty of parents doing the same (including myself).

You should check the admissions criteria though, as in addition to being baptised, you may need a priests reference confirming regular attendance at Church.

Yes you need a baptism certificate to get in I would imagine.

The attraction is that it’s in the top 10% best preforming schools in the country.
I will look through again to see if it says about attending church but if we were to get him baptised I would expect dh to take him to church anyway.

We are Catholic and DCs attend a Catholic School. I have never come across a Catholic School that doesn't require regular mass attendance.
You now need a Certificate from your Parish priest. If it is in the top 10% in the country, I can pretty much guarantee, just having your DC baptised will cut it.
If you really want to go forward with a Catholic Education, I would get DC baptised and start attending regular mass, not only for your Certificate but to get your DC used to it all.

Will not cut it. Apologies.

Our eldest starts school sept 2020, we are getting her baptised in June, in time for school applications later in the year. I've no shame in admitting we are doing it for the sole purpose of getting her into the best school. This primary then feeds into the best high school. My husband and I were both raised as Catholics and attended the high school our children will (hopefully) eventually attend.

I'm fully accepting of all the religion (even if I don't believe it), it's worth it for a good state education. We aren't remotely religious though and have no intention of regularly attending church. It's a shame you have to do this to secure a good education but needs must. Religion should not dictate education at all, I hate that it still does.

If it's a good as you say, the school is likely to be over subscribed and they would want to see evidence of you being a practising catholic, which would mean regular attendance at Church in addition to baptism.

In our area, our priest had to sign a reference not only confirming that you regularly attend mass, but when you started attending. The Church is aware of a rise in baptisms/mass attendance towards the summer as people prepare for school admissions.

I'm not saying you shouldn't continue, but you may have left it too late.

...... for the purposes of demonstrating you are practising catholic's.

Here people start attending in year 3 if they're attending for school admission purposes.

None of the Catholics schools in my area require attendance at Mass/letter from Priest. Most are heavily oversubscribed but only 1 has not admitted on distance in the past 3 years and that was 2017/8. The Catholic school attended by my dgs has around 45% Baptised Catholic children and around 40% Muslim children the other 15% are Sikh, Hindu and C of E or non-religious. Every single last one of them attends weekly Mass in school and all Assemblys and Retreats.

A state-funded religiously biased education system is inherently immoral. I see nothing wrong with gaming a corrupt system to get your children an education they are entitled to, but being denied because of personal belief.