Atheist worried about non religious schools

[LylaLils]

Hi,

Firstly, I am new to mumsnet so sorry if this post is long winded.

I am a new mum to be living in south west London. I've always sustained that if I ever had children I would not send them to a religious school due to my own beliefs. Since becoming pregnant, comments have been made by friends and family which have got me thinking and now I'm confused.

The vast majority of them don't believe in god but have jumped through hoops in order to get their kids into the "best" schools...i.e catholic.

Do I stand by my beliefs and possibly be sending my child to a crap school? Are all non religious schools in London crap? I've searched online and looked at ofstead reports and I'm still confused.

Does anyone have any advice?

Just my opinion here but it is important to say not all faith schools are ultra selective. My son who is autistic is in a RC school which he has attended since Reception, he is now 9. He was not Catholic (although has recently been baptised). I chose the school because their reputation for supporting children with SN was and is fantastic. They take children who have not succeeded in other schools and keep them with lots of support where needed.
There is a Christian basis to the school but it isn't over the top.
This is what I mean about looking at schools before making up your mind - you might find the faith school feels okay (or not) or the so called failing school is making real positive changes.
Definitely a visit is worth far more than reading an OFSTED report.

So many variables of schools and individual kids. I'm very glad I didn't send my DD to the local faith school. One of her friends moved into the area and there was a place available in the village CofE. The headmistress gave her a hard time for not going to church. The child's parents were Chinese - WTF did the HT think she should be in church on a Sunday and what business of hers was it anyway? I dread to think how the interaction with my DD would have gone!