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

[Caroline1852]

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!

Yeah for Littlebella.

I find it ridiculous that in this secular society my taxes and everyone elses go to support a particular type of religon which then would have the affrontery to reject my child when I am effectively paying for their schools existance.

Spending a few weeks at church is much less of a sacrifice than a retirement in penury paying for private schooling and if it makes me a hypocrite then so what.

Sorry - should have added to my post that whilst I can call those people hypocrites , I actually don't blame them if they are given no option. There should be NO STATE FUNDED Faith schools.

I have to go to Church every 4th Sunday to supervise dd with her Brownie pack (she can behave herself but I like to be sure) - I'm not going to start clocking up attendances at the local Catholic church in the off-chance they'll accept her in the secondary school which is affiliated to it when they'll have the pick of the girls who'll have come through from nursery upwards.

Besides which I intend to move before dd is 11 so it's largely immaterial .

lucky guess I suppose Caroline. Something to do with the fact that you are unlikely to use a genuine first name as an MN 'nickname' unless it's really is your name perhaps? Bit lacking in imagination otherwise...

My name really is Sue. I don't have imagination at all.

Don't worry SueB I was actually having a pop at 'Caroline' not you, no need for you to get caught in the crossfire

Fecking annoying when someone uses your name (or worse that of your dc) to say something chippy / testy isn't it? - so I do sympathise

Bloody hell . Is there a full moon or something? Chill pills needed all round I think.

YANBU, I totally agree.

lol, I'm tot-lee chilled. I really don't have any imagination. And I am rarely vewy vewy serious.

I like the name Lily. It was on my candidate list...

(Am I a ponce now?)

The name Lily is not material to this thread, I apologise to anyone who is upset by this. I did not realise it was so common.

What, the name Lily, or the pretending to be religious to get into a school?

dd1 goes to a CofE school

we don't go to church and don't intend to, I put on the form that I didn't attend church and we still got a place

however, if it was oversubscribed you betcha I would have been there doing whatever they do in church

and if they wanted me to moon in the window of the local shop, I would do that too (not regularly mind)

Are you calling Lily common ?

Where I live, to get into the (massively over-subscribed)CofE school, you need to prove that you go to church on a weekly basis. It puts off lazy atheist gits like me who contemplated it for 5 mins but then decided it was far too much effort.

We are moving house instead but I feel guilty because the local London comp is actually a really good school (ib terms of the kids happiness, well-being and stamping down on bullying) even though it doesn't get good results because for at least half of the kids English is their 2nd language.

MBS - I haven't decided for sure (we're not moving far) and I may not have a choice anyway. It's tricky though - there's also a girls school down the road that has a fantastic pass rate. BUT if the school was all about the grades (like my own horrible secondary school was) at the expense of the well-being of the pupils, then there's no way I'd send my dd there.

i dint think they woudl dwindle - but yes agree in principle that pretend catholics are rubbish

Another Catholic tried to tell me recently that it's really hard to fake - as compared to C of E where you can go along and sit and be nice and quiet and sing hymns, smile, but not get involved? I can believe it, actually.

YANBU but most of my catholic friends went to a faith school and they are now mostly atheist (agnostic at best) so there wasn't much point in them going to the school anyway other than it pleased their parents.

mmm. I looked into faking Catholicism, but didn't reckon I could be convincing enough.

If you can play a guitar so much the better.

yeah - you can always tell the ones - who dont know when to stand,sit, kneel in mass and look slightly confused if there is an impromptu baptism or if its holy communion

poor bastards who get dragged along at easter i feel sorry for - its an ordeal for the best of us the easter mass

For C of E, clearly.