do catholic schools take non christened children?

[lynsey2510]

does anyone know if catholic schools will take children who havent been christened? its just that we dont want to get our dd christened, its up to her when shes older but the really good schools in my area are only catholic!

Tommy, our local catholic (primary) school is heavily oversubscribed so, yes, they can and do choose to take catholic children only. I appreciate that many other faith schools, which have vacancies in classes, will take children of other faiths.

I have sons and no, I don't object to funding girl only schools, as girls of all faiths can attend.

Mercy, why should state aid be provided to any facility which discriminates against admitting children/people on the basis of religion?

This is not an anti-catholic rant, BTW. I take issue with any faith school which uses state funds to meet running costs, yet does not allow children of other religions to attend. These schools should be totally church funded, IME, if they wish to deny access to children of other faiths, as is the case in our local catholic school.

I assume you mean CofE/Anglican schools too should be funded by the church. Well, the Church of England is the biggest landowner in the country and many non-CofE faith schools and non-faith/community schools are built on land which they own so all those non CofE schools have to pay extra taxes anyway.

Mercy, can you understand what I mean about the unfairness of a school refusing to admit my child purely because of his religion? We live about 100m from this particular primary school but were told that it was oversubscribed (by catholic families) many of whom live much further away and that we would therefore not be given a place.

If any religion chooses to set up a school and fully fund it, then they can of course pick and choose who to admit. But if state funds (provided by taxpayers of all religions) are paying for the runing of a school, how can it be fair for that school, to discriminate against children of other faiths??

bubble, it's because Catholics (and others) are a minority religion. You say many of the families live quite far away, well it's probably the only Catholic school for miles around. And believe me, many Catholic parents are obliged to contribute to the school fund. 20 plus years ago it was £15 per term, per child.

Is your nearest non-faith school quite a way from you?

its not fair - but its how it is.

No, but it was the closest school to us. Sorry if I'm seeming stooopid, but I cannot understand how a facility of any type,which uses taxpayers money, can discriminate so openly about who is allowed to use the service.

Imagine a muslim only library? Or a Jewish swimming pool?

to be fair catholics do contribute to the running of the school. and fundraise for such.

Catholic schools were originally set up and are still partly maintained by the church in order to provide a distinctively Catholic education for Catholic children. By and large that is still what they do, although where they are undersubscribed they do take non-Catholic children whose famillies are happy to support the ethos. Judging by your posts you are anti-religious, so you presumably wouldn't want your children to attend an overtly Catholic school even if there were places available.

Meanwhile we have the reverse situation: Dd1 is travelling further than I would ideally like in order to go to a Catholic secondary school, 'cos I'm not thrilled with the very secular ethos of the nearer alternatives. Ds is slightly stuffed, schools-wise: the best boys' schools locally to us are Grammar schools, which he wouldn't get into 'cos he's not in the top 1-2% of the ability range, which is what they take. The school dd1 is going to takes girls only, so again ds misses out. There's a good Jewish boys' school in the next borough, but we're not Jewish. That's a bummer, but it's how life is.

If the school were overtly saying, "We will not under any circs consider taking a non-Catholic child" then I think that is a bit out of order. If they are filling up their places with Catholic children who fulfill their published admissions criteria, then that seems fair enough.

I'm sure they do, custy, but I'm still trying to work out how it can be right for these schools to be state-funded in any way if they choose to admit children of their own faith only. I realise that this is not an issue in under-subscribed schools which will accept any child.

Ther has been a big hoo-ha recently locally as a catholic secondary school was mooted in an area with a lack of secondary school places. The plan has been temporarily shelved as local, non-catholic, parents were unhappy that they would effectively be funding a school that their children couldn't necessarily attend. Fundaraising efforts by school parents cannot meet all of the running costs of a large secondary school.

Whoa!! Hold your fire, frogs! I am not anti-religious. I am anti-discrimination for any reason.

becuase the parents have such an input is partly the reason why those schools are good schools - becuase of the involvement and dedication of parents tot he school and its ethos - one which doesnt come about in lots of cases through state schools which are tax funded - becuase its not seen as direct input.

my kids are catholic and i had toappeal to get them in the local primary ( a few years ago) becuase it was over subscribed.

i see your point. i really do. but the good facilities and excellent education is down to parental involvement and fundraising and the continual improvement cause of the school which the parents are dedicated to.

I don't dispute that positive parental involvement contributes to a good school. My kids' primary is fantastic in that respect. But positive attitudes and involvement don't pay the teachers' salaries for teaching in a school that my boys can't attend. My taxes do.

Fair enough, bubble, but would you seriously want your children to attend a full-on Catholic school? Cos I think they overdo the RE a bit at my kids' primary school, and we're practising Catholics. There is absolutely no way I'd consider a school that took its faith that seriously unless I shared those values.

Of course you can argue that all religious schools should admit a percentage of non-believers, and quite a lot do that where their catchment area contains a high proportion of kids from other faiths. But if you compel a school to admit a proportion of non-Catholics (for the sake of argument) even where there is oversubscription from Catholics then you are fundamentally changing the nature of the school.

And btw, our local pool does twice-weekly sessions for muslim women only...

But I've established that you get my drift anyway, custy. I'm bloomin' pleased someone does.

i absolutley do. if i wasn't catholic i would be royally pissed off :)

frogs, I'd like to be able to choose if I wanted my children to attend a catholic school- which is the closest geographically to where we live. Our local pool does senior citizen only sessions to avoid them being dive-bombed by children or subjected to 'heavy petting' by spotty youths!. Muslim women only sessions is a modesty thing, of course. No problem with either of these as the facility is still open to all, albeit (love that word) at different times.

dd's school discriminates - proximity and other siblings are the main criteria for entry (or any special/social need at the LEA's discretion)

Where do you want to draw the line? ( and don't say under here )

Well yes, but if the Catholic school was obliged to admit children on the basis of address as opposed to religion, then it would no longer be a Catholic school, so Catholic parents who wanted a faith-based education would be denied that option.

One can of course legitimately argue for complete separation of church and state, but in the end we still pay taxes for all sorts of facilities that we can't use special schools, PRUs, single-sex schools, grammar schools. Surely that's what taxes do rather than pay for every service we might individually need we pool our cash, spread it around a bit and hopefully meet the needs of most of the people most of the time as best as we reasonably can, in the knowledge that it is never going to be possible to give everybody exactly what they want?

Proximity and siblings is logical and not discriminatory. A parent would be hard pushed to appeal for a school place over a parent whose child lives closer to the school. The sibling thing at primary school age is logical too. Parents/carers need, by law, to collect young children and it is not practical to collect siblings from different schools at usually similar pick-up times.

Special needs priority is now in statute as is priority for 'looked- after' children (formerly 'children in care')

Are there many private catholic schools in the UK?

my nearest school is a catholic school. It also has the best ofsted report. It has a 'priority' system of entry, and we would come pretty low down. However, as atheists we would consider applying. For me it is about getting the best education for DS. If no non catholic children were taken on here (it is self funding) then at least we tried!!

certainly a few
(don't get me started on that, though.....)

Wanna bet re proximity? Hahaha! logical my arse

Anyway, Im off to bed.

dd was admitted to catholic school although she was christened (but not catholic). However we would not get away with it now as headmistress requires signature from priest to say you are a regular mass attender.

They do have to take 10% non-catholic children though so dont know if your dd would be eligible for the 10%