ofsted and faith schools

[louloutheshamed]

I keep hearing about how much harder it is to get outstanding under the new Ofsted regime.

However, in my local area I know of at least 4 (probably soon to be five) secondary schools, including the one where I teach (though currently on mat leave) which have been given outstanding....and they all have one common factor...they are catholic schools.

I suppose I should know as I teach in one of them and have done so for 7 years, but as I haven't taught outside of the RC school system I am wondering what it is that these RC schools are doing that others are not...

I am not Catholic myself and so my own dcs will not attend an RC school. Our local secondary is in a v well heeled middle class ton but is still only ''good" according to Ofsted.

So anyone got any ideas what RC schools are doing so that children in non rc schools can benefit?

[reducedSugar]

"Our local catholic secondary doesn't give priority to children in local authority care"

Sounds illegal when stated that way. However, they are allowed to make a distinction between Catholic looked-after children and other looked-after Children, and that effectively does the same job if you take the reasonable view that children in care are less likely to have had baptism as a family priority in their early years.

The over-subscription criteria for my local Catholic primary are: ...

1. Catholic looked-after children
   
2. Catholic siblings
   
3. Children baptised Catholic within a year of birth, who also have a priests reference from certain parishes to say they're practising Catholics.
   
4. Children baptised Catholic within a year of birth, who also have a priests reference from other parishes to say they're practising Catholics.
   
5. Children baptised Catholic within a year of birth who don't have a priests reference to say they're still practising.
   
6. OTHER LOOKED_AFTER CHILDREN
   
7. Other Christian Children
   
8. Children of other faiths
   
9. Anyone else
   

As its an outstanding school, and very oversubscribed, in reality they don't admit any children beyond category 4. So, looked after children don't tend to get a look in unless they can prove they're Catholic.