To go to church to broaden my childs choice of school

[AwkwardAadvark]

Hello
I live in an area where the comprehensive schools aren't great. There's only 1 I'd be happy for him to go too. We also live by 2 religious schools that I'd be happy with. Issue is these schools require church attendance. It's a while off but I do worry about these things. Do I start going to church to widen his choice of school?

It's not cheating. The admissions system says you are higher up the list if you do x y and z so you do x y and z. Cheating would be saying you'd done it when you hadn't.

How would that happen? If there was,a genuinely religious child surely that family would have more proof than the Op.?

A religious child doesn't need to attend a religious school. God won't care.

Also the school can set their criteria to ensure the truly religious get in if they can be bothered. E.g. stipulate parental church attendance since before child born

Let the family go. This is what churches are meant to be doing, to be welcome. The places get allocated anyway who knows how

Religious selection is completely awful and needs to stop.

https://fairadmissions.org.uk/

I genuinely don't understand how people can be ok with children being prioritised in the admissions process for a state school on the basis of their parents' religious beliefs and church attendance.

I am applying for secondary also and I am one denomination, the father the correct one. I havent baptised my child aither as a baby but anyway, just went to the church ( I am a believer though and this is known about me) and said to the priest as it is: I am intending to apply for this secondary, and that is that. Enrolled in the relevant courses and groups etc. I am going to put only once choice though on the application so God really has to give the place lol

The church folks will definitely be able to spot why you are there but they won't mind.

How would they know?

Unfair is a child born to parents of the "right" faith having a greater choice of state-funded schools, or preferential access to a significant proportion of state schools, than a child born to parents of the wrong or no religion.

The system is explicitly discriminatory. It's not the only issue with school admissions - distance-based admission has its own major issues - but a child not being able to access their nearest state schools because their parents don't pray right is iniquitous.

I did it for primary and I’d do it again. I took a very active role in the church, we were out of county but got a place.

There are no "genuinely religious children ". They are just children following a parent's lifestyle/rules.

In any sane world the idea of publically funded schools which are legally allowed to select kids on such fucking ridiculous criteria as belief in God should, of course, not exist.

But here we are, so you absolutely do what you need to do to get your kid into a decent school.

It's even worse than that. It's got nothing to do with a child's beliefs. It's about a parent's church attendance.

Attending church services when you don't believe in that religion solely to get your child into a specific school is teaching your DC that you should lie or at least pretend to be something you're not to get what you want in life.

Well I don't think faith-based schools have a place in modern Britain. Children should grow up in multi-faith environments, learning about and respecting all beliefs including their own to help them become respectful and open minded adults. It's a hard no from me, but I'm not you, OP.

I think it's a completely reasonable thing to do in response to an unfair discriminatory admissions system.

Yes, very true.

I went to a Catholic school in the 80’s/90’s. Church goer at the weekends with the family.

Maybe things have changed but all my friends parents were also Catholic, it was very socialiable with lots of events. Consider you might not feel fully part of the community.

My DC isn’t baptised as I turned against all that years ago. My family are very liberal in many ways but since being an adult can see how the school teaching and religious environment wasn’t great for me.

Everyone wants the ‘best’ school for their kid. Just recognise thats not just results.

It really doesn't work like that any more, not round here anyway. Catchment/proximity to school means absolutely nothing in any of the schools in my area. Genuine RC faith also means little because admission goes on 11+ and entrance exam results. DD despite being RC, tutored and in the catchment, sat the exam and failed.

There are many dc from other major religions in that RC school. The parents tutor like crazy to get them in, then happily let the child take the compulsory Catholic studies GCSE, because the academic standards are so incredibly high there compared to the other local secondaries.

The faith thing is just another level of unfairness in an unfair system.

My DD is in Y5 and the local CofE school has a great reputation. We attend church anyway (though probably not often enough for a letter from the vicar in strict terms but that has more to do with health and DS additional needs).
We looked round and gosh, they think a lot of themselves. We want a school that will care for her and make her feel comfortable. Not one that thinks it's a Russell Group feeder school and, when you ask safeguarding questions, says "well if that's important to YOUR family".

Be warned OP if your going to do it you need to attend regularly for quite a time period. The ministers/priests/vicars are very used to once a month brigade 6 months before applications and many won't write the letters as its obvious why they started attending!

The Church of England own the land and buildings of around a third of the state schools because church goers from 200 years ago thought it was good to educate children when the state didn’t. They have covenants and trusts in place to ensure that the building is solely used for Christian education but they still exist for ‘all faiths and none’ (unlike faith schools like Catholic or Jewish etc). So they are multi faith!

And CofE schools are expected to ensure that their RE teaching - a fully academic subject which teaches about other faiths and critical thinking - is absolutely outstanding. And yet in non-faith schools, RE teaching is in crisis. So your assumption that church school children would not be taught to be ‘respectful and open-minded’ is inaccurate and contrary to the reality in uk schools.

"but they still exist for ‘all faiths and none’ (unlike faith schools like Catholic or Jewish etc). So they are multi faith!"

Are the children whose parents attend church advantaged in the admissions process?

"And CofE schools are expected to ensure that their RE teaching - a fully academic subject which teaches about other faiths and critical thinking - is absolutely outstanding. And yet in non-faith schools, RE teaching is in crisis. So your assumption that church school children would not be taught to be ‘respectful and open-minded’ is inaccurate and contrary to the reality in uk schools."

Isn't a core feature of Christian faith the belief that the only real god is the Christian god, and only followers of Christ can escape an eternity in hell? So 'I respect your faith but you're wrong and you're going to hell' basically. Obviously you keep a 'respectful and open-minded' manner. But underneath you think everyone except people who share your faith are wrong and are eternally fucked.

Why do you want to send your child to a school the purpose of which is to indoctrinate them if you are not religious?

Because their results are outstanding aswell as their pastoral care ?