To not want to move and attend church?

[UsernameABC]

I live on the outskirts of the city. The two best primary schools (assuming that goes on ofsted outstanding rating? ) are a Catholic and Church of England school and they are in the centre of town. I live outside the catchment area of these two schools. All the rest of the schools in my city are rated good or need improvement by ofsted. I don't want to convert to Catholicism (was christened church of England but I'm an atheist), so that only leaves the Church of England school in my city thats an outstanding school. But I would have to move (which is expensive) and attend church which I don't want to do as I'm an atheist. Also 160 people applied for 30 places last year so the chances are slim even if we move and attend church right? AIBU to not want to move and attend church every Sunday? How important is an ofsted rated outstanding primary school? Does it make me a bad mother to just try for one of the good ofsted rated schools?

When we were looking for DDs primary 2 teachers (and parents of DDs friends) told me the oftsed doesn't mean much as there's such a gap between inspections. There is a school near us, that one of these parents works at and sends their kids to, that had a really bad ofsted rating and report. It's now about due the next inspection and is expected to get outstanding but is undersubscribed because of that bad rating. It will almost certainly be over subscribed after the new rating.

I put a CofE school as first choice and DD got in without having to attend church or pretend to be religious. It's a lovely school and apparently the birth rate was low for her year (at least in our area).

I sent my son to a school which I knew was a “requires improvements” school cos I felt t was right for him. He’s doing brilliantly 🤷🏼‍♀️

Are you religious? My daughter went to a CofE school but I pulled her out after a month. The indoctrination was extreme.

“As a church goer it is incredibly frustrating when people do attend church just to get their child into school.”
Not as frustrating as it is for non church goers to know that church goers have a choice of 30% more
Tax payer funded schools than they do.....

Littlepond same here! My DS is in reception and he loves it!

The school my son just left is rated outstanding. It has changed so much in the last 10 years since it was last inspected, feels very different to the way it was when DD1 started there 14 years ago.
Look at the schools yourself and do t take too much notice of Ofsted particularly as outstanding schools don’t get inspected very often.

Oh good lord no....the piety would drive you crazy....there is more to a school than ofsted. Dd went to a requires improvement school...loved it and got good sats results.

I’m a primary school teacher and I took my dd out of her OFSTED outstanding school after three weeks as it was terrible. Apart from the many issues with OFSTED, the schools that are outstanding aren’t inspected again for years and many changes can happen.

At primary 'outstanding' is a bit irrelevant. You want a safe happy school imho. Anything else is window dressing. Why introduce all that upheaval for such a slim chance? Visit the local "good" primaries and get a feel of the school and their ethos for yourself.

Agreed too that outstanding can mean was outstanding and now not inspected or hasn't been for years. You may be better off with a "good"!

My dd is in an outstanding school now but before that she was in a school rated “good” (we moved counties for cheaper house prices ) and tbf there is not much between them so I wouldn’t mind a “good” school if it meant being local and no way I would be forcing myself to go to church .. fuck that

The catholic school in our area that is outstanding. It is the one school I wouldn’t let my Ds attend . I know a few who left due to bullying it is never addressed, they try to believe Sen’s don’t exist and don’t support referrals . About 5 children were taught separately on the day of inspection. Hadn’t ever before or after. Lots of other stuff hidden on Ofsted day.

My owns son’s school got required improvement. There was a lot of money and training went into the school .

If churches stopped insisting that parents attending church was high on the admission criteria for church aided schools, then they wouldn’t have to worry about ‘hypocrites’ attending church to get their children into often their local school.

If churches want to use school admission procedures to encourage and promote church attendance, then they can’t be surprised when parents then attend church, surely?

Most of the church schools near us no longer take church attendance into account because so many people attend church just for a school place. I am a practising Anglican and it's pretty distressing that my children may not get a place at a church school because of people desperate to get their kids into a good or outstanding at OFSTED school. No one seems to consider the SIAMS rating that reflects how good the spirituality it.

But I definitely support you doing what's best for your children!

If you look at how long ago the outstanding schools were inspected you might find the rating is quite out of date.

You are not religious, and so I think you would be reasonable not to fake your faith to get your child into the local faith school. It makes you an honest mother not a bad one.

How long ago was the Ofsted inspection? If they're outstanding, they might not have been inspected for over ten years - and a hell of a lot can change in that time.

In any case, no, just turning up and discovering Jesus just before the applications go in (and then promptly losing him once you have an offer, only to find him again down the back of the sofa just before the Secondary applications go in) isn't going to get you ahead of people who baptised their children within six months of birth and have attended every Sunday since before then - even if the CofE vicar is prepared to write something in your favour, the Priest certainly isn't.

I know an rC school near me which was on my list but not my first choice. I was rather put off when someone I know with sen children said the school didn't want to knoe.I rather go to a chool that was supportive. So it's not all about ofsted.

I agree Ofsted ratings are not necessarily worth the paper they're written on. Use your judgement after seeing the schools.

It's a disgrace that state funded schools have religious selection criteria.

Ofsted is all political bollocks that tells you nothing about the quality of the relationship between the teachers and pupils in a school. I would never base my school choice around an Ofsted rating. Go and look round the schools and meet some pupils instead.

Also, my experience of Catholic schools as a trainee teacher was not good. I went in with an open mind but left feeling that there was a lot if hypocrisy and double standards and no understanding of SEN pupils. I know that was just one RC school but that school was supposedly one of the "best in the area" - I would never send my own kids there. I'm currently working at a school that's in special measures and it's lovely; it's warm and nurturing; the pupils are happy and I would send my kids there in a heartbeat.

When did it get it's Outstanding Ofsted? Many of them haven't been inspected for years and IMO a school that's achieved "good" recently will have achieved a higher standard than an old outstanding, even if the standards at the inspection have been maintained.

In our LA, there has been a spate of inspections of previously outstanding schools. One of them got good this time around, the rest were all worse than that.

Blatant discrimination against atheists and other religions, I really cannot fathom how this continues to be allowed. Preference to church going families should not be given. A school should not discriminate on any grounds.

Why would you want to send DC to a school whose ethos you don't support?