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!

NO! guitars are wrong.

happy clappy types make me heave.

my dd annoucned she was going along to a retreat with school recent;y - was looking forward to it as she has obviously been shown some promotional stuff nd mentioned........groovy church.....coloured beanbags

i told her " if you come back with a fucking tambourine - your out on yer arse!"

I want to know who has done this on mn
Who are the liars?

I dunno - I always get a bit lost when I go to a CofE church with my PIL. It's a bit like Mass, but not quite enough like it for me to get it right. I don't think it's necessarily any harder to pretend to be Catholic. I just think people see it as a bit more 'foreign' and therefore it must be more difficult.

I think a nonestablished protestant church would be your best bet. DH sometimes goes to a Baptist church, and that is very easy to follow. But I suppose that might not count for a CofE school.

CD - I am fully intending to fake CofE

really?

yes.

I should point out that we are not trying to fake anything. We have Catholic and CofE both well-covered legitimately, and send our ds to a non-faith school.

So how are you going to do it?
I mean are you confirmed? Or will you just take communion and pretend you are

Are you ambivalent about religion IABS?

Both my nieces go to a RC school. One was already given a place as my sister lived over the road. By the time it came for her second daughter my first niece was expressing an interest in going to church and being confirmed. My dear sister (totally non religious but wanting her children to explore any religion) went to church for weeks with her first DD and for confirmation classes. Consequently they appeared really good church goers and her second DD was offered a place at the school even though by this time my sister lived the other side of town.
Guess what - the eldest dear niece has now got bored and refuses to go to church. Second dear niece now expressing interest so back to church they will all go.

I'm catholic and I always feel like a faker in church. I don't go every week, but I do go. It's the immaculately groomed church mums who always sit right at the front with their perfectly behaved chn that make me feel that I'm not really part of the club.

is your chin very badly behaved?

Agree, impossible to fake it in Catholic church. DH is RC, I am CofE, DC are RC. I do a lot of unco-ordinated flapping & bobbing

I had the good fortune to get a scholarship to a rather high church public school, where it was nigh on impossible to wriggle out of getting confirmed. So that side of things is all legit. It's just the belief part that I'm lacking.

I aware that this is probably really offensive. I should really clear off this thread, as I'm not up either for a row, or sending DD to the local sink school.

My chin is always very good. My chn on the other hand...

I could probably fake either
Cofe not hard
I went to catholic church as a child and with a bit of brushing up I could prob fake it

But I have no belief

I'm not spoiling for a fight. I'm just interested. Is the school overtly religious, and if you have strong non-religious opinions, how will you manage that? What will you tell your dc?

Best not to fake it. I get very embarressed when my ds's break into a hymn in the shops and I'm not even faking.

I thinkit is harder to fake if you are of a different persuasion rather than if you are none at all. I find CofE hard because it's just not quite similar enough to RC. I automatically say the wrong thing or move at the wrong time. It is conditioning. If I weren't so well-versed in the RC way, it would probably be much easier. And vice versa.

Am seriously contemplating buying Catholicism for Dummies to make sense of my Sunday mornings.

Tellusmate - I know you're not looking for a fight - I'm just worried about being really crass.

The school is not overtly religious, but oversubscribed. I don't have strong non-religous opinions either. Whatever works for others is fine by me.

I honestly think people's feelings on the issue are so strongly coloured by their own personal circumstances. When I said earlier in the thread that the local school is Knife Wound and Truant County Primary, I wasn't exaggerating. I live in an area of inner city London that most of you will only know from news reports about gun crime, and there are certain schools where extreme violence occurs regularly.

I must add that I don't think anyone should have to send their kids there, and I feel for those families who have chosen not to/don;t know how to play the system. I know that the only way such schools will improve is for middle class parents to send their kids there and take an interest in improving the school for everyone, but it's still a big ask to potentially sacrifice your DC's education and wellbeing for the greater good.

And before you ask, I'm not a Labour MP !

ooh, my typing
looks like I'm the one in need of a decent education.

I was raised a strict Catholic. I always feel embarassed in a C of E church, it feels like religion-lite. And if a guitar comes out ...... I really can't cope.

Really? I find PIL church (CofE) far higher than mine (RC).