To apply DC to a religious school although we aren't religious at all

[Playdoughy]

First off, we are not from UK, but have been living in London for a long time, DC born here.
Can't afford private school, as many I guess.
The free school (the only one we'd get in 100,% if based on catchment area) is a Catholic one, curriculum includes daily prayer etc...
We are not religious, not practicing. Looking at our background we are closely related to several major religions.
While we've heard that some people start going to church ahead of school age for their kids, just to get a spot at school - I thought that is sort of optional. Especially because all these schools also point out importance of diversity etc...
But looking at their curriculums - there is a portion of time that is actually dedicated to bible, praying etc... Does everyone attend? Is it mandatory?
I know I can go to an open day and find out about all that, but at this point I feel that we've grossly misjudged this - that it may be even considered rude to ask 😐

And if that school is the only practical option geographically? What then?

Yeah and can you imagine creating a school with Government funding and setting admissions criteria to include only those of no faith or religious practice? Equally, imagine if hospitals admission were tied up in a similar way? Crazy. Unnecessary. Do your religious instruction in your own time and on your own dollar.

By all means send them, any decent parent would want their child to go to the best school in the area. Mine go to a Christian church school, we’re not Christian but it’s the best school in the area by far. What I would say is don’t complain or ask for them to be excused from the catholic side of things, if you’re going to do it - embrace it. Not saying you have to be catholic but you should respect it. If it’s what you choose!

Our local Catholic schools, only allow a handful of non Catholic children in , priority is given to baptist children, and yes the bible study etc class will be mandatory. I have never understood people sending their children to a religious school when they are not religious and then complain about the religion element to the school.

I'm not religious and went to a Catholic secondary school. I was very happy there. Mass was compulsory once a term as was Religious Studies O-Level (Old version of GCSE - I'm in my 50s).

My 18yo nephew also went to Catholic secondary and he had much the same experience.

DC1 had one term in a Catholic primary and in 2007 and also compulsory praying and mass. DC1 was very happy in that school and much preferred it to the non-religious primary where they went to for several years afterwards.

Well both I and @Mischance amongst others have given explanations. Not sure what’s hard to understand?

if you genuinely don’t get it try here:
https://www.secularism.org.uk/faith-schools/
or listen to Alice Roberts here:
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/zjT5XHW56zs

And if that school is the only practical option geographically? What then?

And we are ALL paying for this whatever our religion or absence thereof. This is fundamentally wrong in principle.

OP you are in London, while this might be your physically closest school, I would assume there’s also other schools in sensible distance for you to choice. Plus am I right that kids can go on buses to school for free in London?

This is not like in some towns where there’s literally only a faith school, you’ve got options.

Don’t get me wrong, if this school’s right next door to your house, I’d put it down as option 4 on my school application (we got 4, not sure how many choices you get!), but I’d definitely look round other schools that are a reasonable distance from your home.

Finally, as faith schools tend to have bigger distances for the faith applications, you might find your child has more local friends if you send them to the next nearest school.

I did not know that! Wtf!

I’m about to start school visits so I’ll be definitely asking about that when I go.

Some religious schools top priority children have attended church or other religious places in order to get in..others it's based on catchment. So you have to look at the individual school's requirements.

You can usually attend and opt out of the religious activities, but consider this carefully. Come Christmas time it's really shit to be the one child opted out of the nativity who just gets to sit at the back of the room and do un fun activities when all the others are dressing up and singing.

Catholic schools exist to create catholics. It's a far different ethos to cofe schools. After you've read their admissions policy and the oversubscription criteria move on to find the local Diocese schools handbook.

Here is Scotland the set-up is much better. There are RC schools across the central belt and some of the other cities. Where there are RC schools every home is in the (fixed) catchment area for both an RC school and a non-denominational school. When my DDs started school we were in catchment for both Suburb-name Primary (non-denominational) and St John's Primary (RC). No one would be forced to go to an RC school on the basis that there isn't a non-denominational school locally.
Places in the RC schools give priority to RC children but anyone can apply and if there is space non-RC children can and do get places. Many Muslims like the ethos of the RC schools and apply for places in them, and there's an RC school in Glasgow which has a Muslim population of somewhere in the region of 85%.

What non catholics don’t realise is that a certain percentage of the mass offering contributes to local catholic schools’ education so the more catholics who attend the local school and local church, the more funding that catholic schools receive. So non catholics are quite happy to attend a catholic school, not attend mass and not contribute to the coffers whilst expecting their child to
be excused from worship or religious teaching but receive education that their peers partly fund. I wish the Church were more transparent about how catholic schools are funded and I wish more people would explore the readily available data to see that catholic schools are not fully funded like other schools and rely on the local diocese to plug the gap. Consequently, catholic schools receive less funding per head than other schools. Catholic school don’t have access to grants that other state school do either. It’s quite interesting but frustrating that non catholics think they have a right to attend schools that require funding from the very community they don’t wish to be part of.

OP is based in London - do you think that’s the only school in the city? Of course there’s another option. OP wants this school, presumably it’s preferable for academic and behavioural reasons, but she would also like the school to change their polices for her. Equally, she could ask the other local non religious schools to obtain outstanding ratings and better academic results?

How did I guess it was a Catholic school. Why are the Catholic schools so much better than the non catholic ones?

She presumably also wants the school because her kid can walk there and the commute is all of a couple of minutes. It sounds as if it's practically close enough that the OP wouldn't even have to get out of her pyjamas but could just watch them from the front window.

No offense intended, but I'd happily say a few prayers for a school run like that.

absolutely - I’d love it too! But it’s disingenuous to say it’s her only option - it’s the easiest which isn’t the same. And lots of people choose to say a few prayers because they want the specific school and it’s part of the package - I get that. But saying you want catholic school but would prefer if it wasn’t catholic…. Is bizarre and naive.

It's not the Catholicism per se. Any school that requires any kind of extra effort to get a place there, gets better academic results than a school in the same kind of geographical/demographical location that has no additional requirements for applicants. This is simply because of the large number of people in the world who want to get through life with the minimum possible amount of effort, who have children who want to get through life with the minimum possible amount of effort. Filter that group out of any gathering of 11-16yos and the remainder will be kids that are more likely than average to put in effort.

I find it quite interesting that Catholic schools take funding from the state AT ALL and, in the case of some incoming academies have been gifted land and buildings www.secularism.org.uk/news/2025/07/nss-warns-council-against-spending-55mn-on-catholic-super-school. https://humanists.uk/2025/05/12/welsh-government-to-spend-over-100-million-on-two-new-catholic-schools-the-church-will-own/

A full overview of the types of funding and status of land, buildings is here: https://humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/schools-with-a-religious-character.pdf

There are 700 schools which are academies that are Catholic and funded in the same way, including capital expenditure, as any other academy. There are a further 1400 Catholic schools that are VA who are meant to pay 10% of building costs. Some may do this from diocese funds (as they should as the ownership remains with them in trust). some
seem to be scraping this back from ALL parents https://humanists.uk/2015/09/03/bha-research-reveals-shocking-number-of-state-faith-schools-demanding-money-from-parents/

anyhow, it’s quite the stretch that Catholic schools are somehow relieving the state of financial obligations in education and if the attendees of mass do not wish their money to be diverted to schools, perhaps they could consider petitioning against schools with a religious character?

I think you are missing the point. It is about the basic principle of state schools having a religious bias that is fundamentally wrong.

Of course parents want their child to go to the nearest school that has a good track record academically and behaviourally (they are paying for this via their taxes ... it is a right) , but it is wrong that this should entail tiptoeing around religious indoctrination.

Absolutely apply but you need your child to buy into the ethos of the school and engage with prayers and bible studies

you wouldn’t send your child to a swimming pool and say you don’t sent them to get wet so you can’t send them to a religious school and say you don’t want them to learn about god

But she is not being forced by the state to go to a swimmimg pool! She IS being forced by law to send her child to school.
Supposing it were a Christian Scientist (or Buddhist, or Muslim, or Seventh Day Adventist or any other religious) school that your child had to attend .. would the same rules apply? Do parents have to send their children to a school of any religious bias under the state system?
Religion should come from.the home; state schools should teach about all religions and about morality .... but they should not plug one biased doctrine.

But she’s not being forced to go to a religious school they are choosing a religious school

They are being forced to send their child to school, and they have paid via their taxes for a free state education. And now they find that this comes with religious strings attached. That the school with the best academic or other results, or the school with the nearest and safest journey, requires them to agree to their child being indoctrinated into one particular religion.
Does that sound morally right?