WWYD if the only decent school in your area was Catholic, you aren't religious and all other schools in area are rubbish?

[CrapBag]

DS isn't starting school until next year but I am thinking about this now.

We don't live in a great area but can't afford to move at the moment. The only decent school, and my closest one is Catholic. We aren't religious. The other schools are not good at all and I do not want to send DS to a single one of them from our area. I wanted a close school as I have M.E. and wanted to be able to walk, if we can't do the Catholica school, I will have to drive during a school run which will be a real pain.

WWYD? Would you only apply for ones that are outside your catchment area?

WWYD? Maybe ask yourself why it's the only good one in the area?

What would I do? I would look at all the other schools in the area, and see what they were really like. In reality he will end up at one of them. I would also apply to the Catholic school, but not get my hopes up.

And just for the record, my DC's primary school did teach about condoms in Y5.

They do like to pray though (four times a day) but FHC isn't that big a thing...every one does the classes, and if you're not Catholic you're hardly going to be sitting in church watching everybody else receive their FHC.

So, you will probably end up having to drive on the school run. It's a pain, yes, but welcome to the world of sending your child to a school you like.

I would make sure the other schools are "rubbish" first. What are you basing this judgement on?

Oncemai - you use language in your earlier post which is offensive: you are right it was not funny.

And then you tell us your child goes to a CofE school. Never mind what other people are doing how can you reconcile your public cynicism about christian values expressed earlier with sending your child to a CofE school. Education is not just about what children learn in schools but what they learn from home. If you have the good fortune to go to a good CofE school why then do you mock some of the values upon which its ethos is built?

I'm not mocking anything - I am a confirmed, practicing christian who is not judging those who attend church merely to get, in their opinion, the best possible education for their children.

But the elephant in the room in all these discussions is that church-aided schools aren't necessarily 'good' because of the values they're built upon; our local non-denominational state primary shares most of those values, I bet - and what do you know, it's inclusive too! So a much better model of a Christian ethos than a school which rejects non-Christians.

Church schools are 'good' because they're selective. They're selective on the basis of only allowing in the children of people who can be bothered. Being a committed and practising member of any religion requires a lot of bothering - regardless of whether you have faith or not. If you do have faith, you still have to get yourself to church regularly and sign the register for your child to be guaranteed a place; you can't just believe and commune quietly with God in open spaces. If you don't have faith, then you've made the decision to commit to a (possibly cynical) behaviour purely because you want your child to be educated with the children of other people who've made the effort too.

Church schools have automatically excluded the child from the very dysfunctional family who's lucky to get breakfast, never mind be taken to church on a Sunday. They've automatically excluded a lot of people who don't have the wherewithal for one reason or another to 'work the system'. And they've excluded those children of the parents who really don't care much about whether their children turn up at school or not, the children who more than anyone else need a stable and supportive school environment if they're to have any chance.

That was a brilliant post singersgirl.

There are exceptions, though singersgirl.

At the school my DC attend, only 50% of DC are baptised Catholic. It's a good school, but but not because of the type of parents of the children. It's a good school because it had a fantastic head teacher, and because of the Catholic ethos. (I would have poopooed that untill I actually experienced it, and realised they wouldn't give up on my DS, no matter what her thew at them, unlike the CofE school he was at previously.

It has two good schools (and one awful school) very close by, so parents have no worries about getting a decent school place for their child. It almost comes down to what colour uniform you like best.

And I reckon of the Children who are baptised, very few of the parents attend mass regularly. Until their child is due to have their first communion or confirmation, and then there is a lot of grumbling about the effort.

As our local school only has a small amount of Catholic applicants, they will take others according to the rest of their criteria, it just depends on who applies.

In this area, it is probably better as the parents who apply there are the ones that give a damn where their kids go as oppose to the others who have lots of children with behavioural problems, familes that live on benefits and a school that struggles to encourage more able children and there was a neagtive comment about the school dealing with boys in particular that put me off.

Its not just me, my friend is home schooling because of the schools and someone she knows, who works within the LEA sent her children out of the area because she didn't want to send her children to a Catholic school but she said it is the best one in the area and she wouldn't even consider the others.

Schools are often dismissed as "rubbish" without proper investigation. How do you know that all the other schools in the area are not worth considering?

And would you want your child to go to a religious school when you are not religious? You have to buy into a lot of Catholic stuff if you are at catholic school.

Sex education may not be too graphic at Primary, however, assuming that your DC would want to go to the same Secondary school as their friends then they will be exposed to a Secondary Catholic sex education?

Oh and Singersgirl

singersgirl is absolutely right, and the more socially deprived the area, the more obvious it is. The effect on the neighbouring community schools is not good at all.

Don't know that it helps much with the op's dilemma though.

We realised when DS was about 2ish that the only junior schools in the village were a CofE and a Catholic one. Neither were suitable to us as atheists and moving wasn't an option so it prompted me to look into home education. Best thing I ever did. DS never went to school and is now 6 and will be Home ed for as long as he wants to be

"and the more socially deprived the area, the more obvious it is"

I am in (or actually on the very edge of) a very socially deprived area that does seem to be getting worse unfortunately. We are lucky and live in a nice quiet street but I certainly wouldn't live any further into the area we are in.

Even though I don't believe in religion, my childrens education is far more important to me than my non religious beliefs and I want them to go to a good school.

I don't want to go down the home schooling route.

OP we were in a very similar position to you - we applied for the local Catholic school. DD was 9th on their admission criteria list so I really thought it was a long shot. But she got in. So it's worth trying IME

SingersGirl is so right and eloquent and lovely. It's very true what she says, though with the caveat that overscribed faith schools exclude those groups that she mentions. There are many faith schools that for whatever reason aren't seen as particularly desirable and so are more representative. But often the statistics show that there are far higher levels of EAL and FSM in the non-faith school than in their faith school neighbour. After, that recently arrived migrant isn't exactly going to have been signing the vicar's register for a few years are they?
Strangely enough, where there is a very good non-faith alternative (for example a grammar), Catholics don't seem so het up about ensuring that their child receives a faith-based education.

I would send them to a "rubbish" school rather than a faith school, but we would not fit at all into a catholic school, for our family that would be impossible. We are rather vehemently atheist.

And if they went to the "rubbish" school and it was truly dire, after a couple of years I might reconsider.
.

"
Even though I don't believe in religion, my childrens education is far more important to me than my non religious beliefs and I want them to go to a good school."

Depends what you mean by "important' 'education' and "good".

I would go and talk to the school about all the questions you have. Your children get one bite of the educational cherry and if their education is important to you and you would face difficulties either moving or transporting them elsewhere, I would be very inclined to go to the Catholic school.

If the school admits a significant number of non-Catholics they are sure to have sensitive ways of dealing with religious instruction and sacramental preparation. When it comes to sex ed, I think responsible parents transmit their own views and values and are far more likely to influence their children than a school would. FWIW, most Catholic school sex ed focuses on respectful relationships, and not a list of No Nos. As far as 'Catholic ethos' goes my observation of how it works is again the focus on respectfulness of everybody's right to learn and to be treated fairly.

You are likely to get a lot of anti-Catholic bias on MN wrt questions about non-Catholic children attending Catholic schools; questions tend to open a lot of cans of worms. Your best bet therefore is to ask the school directly.

Thanks, I will do that when the time comes.