Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wish that pushy parents would stop pretending to be religious in order to get a place for Lily at the faith school?

311 replies

Caroline1852 · 03/10/2007 13:13

If these schools are "better" it is because parents are clamouring for places, thereby artificially raising the standards. Left to their own, the number of faith schools would dwindle dramatically. There are nearly 5,000 C of E schools, most of them oversubscribed, yet bottoms on church pews are falling (save for a lot of red-faced couples and their 10 year olds). I have nothing against faith schools by the way.
Grrrr it's that time of year again!

OP posts:
FrannyandZombie · 03/10/2007 13:14

What does Lily have to do with it? Is this another name that's getting ridiculed as being too precious now?

Original poster
Caroline1852 · 03/10/2007 13:14

Perhaps I should have given her a biblical name?

OP posts:
UnquietDad · 03/10/2007 13:15

I wish they didn't feel that they had to do it. Taking faith schools out of the equation would make things fairer.

FrannyandZombie · 03/10/2007 13:16

Perhaps you should have said "their child"? I don't like these titles that say "I hate parents who won't make darling Tarquin share" etc

hana · 03/10/2007 13:16

I have nothing against parents wanting their children to go to a 'good school'
choice?

pah

Kewcumber · 03/10/2007 13:17

problem is if a local faith school is doing well and local non-faith one doing badly, no-one wants to let their child be part of the experiment you describe.

There are many things I would do for my child - haven't decided yet whether going to church and pretending to believe is one of them.

UnquietDad · 03/10/2007 13:17

"choice" is a laugh.

swag · 03/10/2007 13:18

Hear, hear

or maybe

here, here F&Z

LadyMacbeth · 03/10/2007 13:20

Who knows what I would do if my only alternative to a really poor school was a faith school? Probably find a sudden interest in the Catholc faith I was brought up to believe in... and subsequently dropped like a hot turd as soon as I left home...

There but for the grace of God and that (no pun intended).

BTW, don't mock the name Lily, it runs in my family and is dd1's middle name!

alittleone2 · 03/10/2007 13:24

Message withdrawn

MeMySonAndI · 03/10/2007 13:25

I welcome anything that artificially raises the standards, actually artificially or organically I think good standards are a great thing.

CountessDracula · 03/10/2007 13:25

They are hypocrites

YANBU

UnquietDad · 03/10/2007 13:28

Ideallty I don't want faith schools.

Failing that:
I'd be amused to see faith schools demand regular church attendance for the child's entire school career as a criterion. For 12 years. See how much they really want it.

diplodocus · 03/10/2007 13:31

YANBU. Our village local school where DD should be going (10 mins walk away) is a church school - I'd rather it wasn't but it's a nice school and would mean her classmates were those children she's grown up with and been to toddler gp / pre-school with. However, it's possible that the favouring of churchgoers may mean my DD is "bumped" to a school in a neighbouring village while those from further away / other villages are given a place as classes are very small. I'll be furious if this happens, as while the other school is fine, it would be disaster for her socially.

MarsLady · 03/10/2007 13:31

Unquiet... I like that suggestion. Attend church for the duration. I like that muchly!

LadyMacbeth · 03/10/2007 13:33

Oh yes, they could call a register before mass. Any absences to be suitably justified in writing within twenty four hours of service.

UnquietDad · 03/10/2007 13:37

I'm not saying this is a good idea, note! Just that if you are going to have a bad idea, at least do it consistently!!

Original poster
Caroline1852 · 03/10/2007 13:38

Kewcumber - I agree. I pay for my sons' schooling.

Perhaps a secret poll of parents and students religious beliefs taken anonomously at every faith school in the country, at least once a year. We could then all see in black and white how representative these faith schools are in fact?

OP posts:
LadyMacbeth · 03/10/2007 13:57

Don't worry UQD, I wasn't being serious either - can you really imagine a register being called before mass? But I do quite like the idea!

SueBarooeeooeeooooo · 03/10/2007 14:00

One of my daughters is called Lily, I'm a devout Christian, and I don't agree with state-funded faith schools.

flounce

lou33 · 03/10/2007 14:03

i have a lily

aside from that i agree with the op

Original poster
Caroline1852 · 03/10/2007 14:04

The name Lily is not material to the OP. It could easily have been Toby .

OP posts:
Amethyst8 · 03/10/2007 14:05

My DS still has no reception place at a decent school. Places offered are too horrible to contemplate, can t afford private and can t afford to move. Can t afford anything as a matter of fact.

Getting to the stage where I will do whatever it takes to get him in to a decent school.

lou33 · 03/10/2007 14:05

my lily is 15 tho so i got in there earlier

23balloons · 03/10/2007 14:13

Unquietdad ds is at a catholic school - last week at the children's mass we did not see one person from his class. However he is only in y2. Next year he will make his communion and the classes are after mass from October-May, then from y4 anybody wishing to attend the Catholic Secondary has to sign in at the back of mass each week. There is a ballot box with a form to fill in every week from Y4 onwards!!!!!!!!