To have not chosen an outstanding Catholic primary?

[MakingABoobOfIt]

So, primary school applications are done. We are lucky as we live in a rural area and so have a choice of schools, however most are not great. I haven’t chosen the local catholic primary as an option - even though its outstanding and less than 5 minutes walk from our house. I feel very strongly about DS not being Catholic educated, as I have serious issues with the Church, however I’m starting to doubt my decision as lots of local mums insist you ‘wouldn’t even know it’s Catholic’ 🤨 Having been Catholic-educated I very much doubt this, however I’m worried I’ve made a bad decision - should I have ignored my own issues to get DS into an outstanding (and by all accounts lovely) school?

should I have ignored my own issues to get DS into an outstanding (and by all accounts lovely) school?

Yes.

I went to Catholic primary and secondary. My secondary was actually run by nuns. We had one hour of RE per week, as standard in the curriculum. There were no daily prayers. Nothing was rammed down our throats. Masses took place on special religious days such as Ash Wednesday, not weekly. We were taught very balanced arguments in regards to abortion etc. We were taught about contraception and taught about other religions and ways of life. In terms of views of women, it was an all girls school, ran by a female senior management team. We were never discouraged from any ‘male roles’ other that the obvious, women can’t be priests.within my year group There are people with good successful occupations, there are also people who have gone to prison, there were openly gay people, some of which are now in same sex marriages, there were girls who had babies when they were 16, there were girls who waited Til they were married to start a family.
The majority of your child’s beliefs and values will come from within your home, not from whether they go to a religious school or not.
I would always choose the best school whether Christian, catholic, non denomination or another religion

I was also’catholic educated’ for a couple of years. It was fantastic in many ways, I really benefited from the religious aspect.

I was raised in a religious home but am an atheist and am raising my children to make their own minds up when they are old enough as to what religion if any they choose to follow.

I would have (and did) send my oldest child to a religious school (CofE if it matters) and the bigotry towards other religion was gobsmacking! My child took in a book to read during playtime, it was a book about another religion that she was interested in learning about, it was confiscated and I was called in sat down and told that allowing my child to bring this book into a CofE school was thoroughly inappropriate, I ought to be ashamed of myself, what was I thinking, blah,blah, blah.

I swore that I would never send a child of mine to another school that promoted one particular religion.

(This particular school also accused my child of making up all the issues she had, such as autism as we didn't yet have a diagnosis, her dyspraxia, her anxiety - all diagnosed later on, but that is another story for another day.)

YANBU

Well, we are Catholic and our son goes to a Catholic nursery and we've applied for the school. The difference between the non RC school and the RC school is much. My son is taught to pray before he eats, but nothing more than that. We do go to church, so it's nice to see some of the teachers there, and some of my son's school friends. Some of the teachers are gay, and they are welcomed into the school and church as much as the Catholic teachers. We really haven't had the 'gay bashing, woman trashing' experience that others have had, especially since women are in a lot of the senior roles, including the head of the infant school. We wouldn't want our child to be involved with any teachings that promoted disrespect to anyone; our experience of being Catholic is one of inclusivity (as hard as it may be to believe, our priests are happy to tell us we need to do more to show love to all people, especially ones the church has let down in the past - gay people, divorcees, child abuse victims etc).

I'm here to make a point about the differences between the school here:
RC School is: quite diverse, all students attend forest school, rated good with an outstanding nursery, low teacher turnover, a lot of partnership with the local community that directly benefits the kids
Non RC school is: mostly white, no forest school provision, rated good with no nursery provision, turnover is on the increase, maybe two instances of partnership with the community that directly benefits the students

As much as I am Catholic and happy to be, I am actually not happy that the non RC school is nowhere near as accomplished as the RC school. If given the choice between the two, I'd not blame parents for trying to get their non Catholic kids into the Catholic school. But it's worth saying that the RC school would not be as good if it weren't for the attached church, which does so much to support the school and enhance the experience of its students. The non RC school needs better advocacy, and the government ain't it. Very sad situation and I really dislike the way both schools are so different.

I am utterly against Faith schools and their phoney inclusivity and even more against the nonsense pretentious and pushy sort of parent who rates meaningless Ofsted figures and ideals over the education and welfare of their child.
Not to mention their complete lack of a spine. If you don't have Faith stick to a secular school and leave the Faith schools alone. It is disrespectful to appropriate a Faith you don't respect.