Church schools - how can they get away with it?

[CountessDracula]

Am I right in thinking that they are state funded?

How come they can pick and choose when others can't? Isn't it essentially exclusion on the basis of religion, isn't that BAD in the current climate?

There's also something rather strange about selecting chilren for a school on the basis of what their parents believe or how their parents behave (i.e. regular church attendance.

yes I said that a while ago - though I guess if they took kids on the basis of what they thought we would have barbie and spiderman themed schools

Still, it separates them from schools which might select on the basis of a certain talent or skill.

Haven't read all the thread but I had the opposite problem to some of you on this thread. My Mum is a strict Catholic and my brothers, sister and I were all sent to Catholic Schools regardless of whether or not it was the closest. The upshot of this was that we never knew any kids in our area as they all went to the local school and we went to schools miles away.

I don't consider myself a Catholic at all, dd hasn't been baptised into any religion, and she will (hopefully) go to our local primary school because it is local and has a good reputation.

I've never agreed with segregation on religious grounds. School should be about education. Religion should come from home.

are you heathens still moaning aboput this?

now there is still time to pray for forgiveness.

follow me in prayer.

dear god(s)

i am a good for nothing heathen, i am not even good enough to be saying prayers, infact please actively ignore me. i am worthless. you are mighty but not big headed or self absorbed being the creator and everything its only right that we should praise and thank you every second of every day for our lowly existance - being lowly in your eyes - yet i am so much better off than so many other people and we have a collective responsability as the human race and so basically we are all doomed. i am so lucky to be living in a country that doesn't beat me for being able to praise you. you can't interfere free will - we all understand - i mean where would it stop? how could you possibly sort out the repentant fromt he non repentant? do you have beer in heaven?
amen"

I can almost understand that though

For eg if there is one school in a borough that focusses more on music than the others then the very musical kids can go there, that is an educational need. I don't agree with it but it is more understandable than doing it based on what your parents believe or are prepared to put up with (ie the non religious church goers)

When we moved house we only looked at properties in walking distance of primary schools because we were sick of driving the kids to school. The school within spitting distance of our house refused to take our kids because they were full- of kids being driven from elsewhere in town. Not a faith school, just a bogstandard primary but no choice for us.

Our DD was refused a grammar school place and ended up going private- we were still paying tax for the school she wasn't allowed to go to..

I am also paying tax for things I particularly disagree with- that's what happens in a civilised society. I can't follow this anti-faith schools argument at all. The C of E schools tend to perform better because of the sort of pupils they get, so non C of E people demand to go there.. crazy.

Our nearest High school had a foul reputation. It was the sink school you went to only as a last resort. The church took over the school, funded it and restructured it and it reopened with a new name, new Head etc. The admission criteria is 50% church affiliation (includes coming from a C of E primary, of which there are several feeders) and 50% on proximity to school. If they don't fill the 50% church affiliation the other places go to proximity. They make it very clear they have a christian ethos. It has become the best high school in the area with a huge waiting list, despite a lot of its catchment children coming from a very rough council estate.

The Govt has decreed we have thousands of extra houses dumped on us, and there have been another 3 big estates built between us and the school since DS1 started there. If i had another child looking for a place I could only get in on religious grounds because we are not in the catchment area for any secondary school. Tell me how that is fair?

I asked my pink plastic statue of Jesus if the government should fund religious schools and his answer was 'I died for this?'

If I was a tinpot dictator I would ban all religious, private, single sex and grammar schools and place all special schools in units adjacent to nt schools with plenty of mixing compulsory. No one agrees with me though.

well i would agree with your pink plastic jesus. if all children went to the same local school they system would be fairer, the schools would improve because they would have diverse students with a huge range of abilities and the roads would be clearer. we have to all integrate in the world after school, why split them up at such a young age.

My baby Jesus glows in the dark!

Custy

I don't see what mosques and the closing of them has any relevancy to Cd's original question, nobody is paying for the mosques aside from the attendees.

Cd (from what I gather), is not religious, does not wish to send her child to a religious affiliated school, and is annoyed that her taxes go to pay for the schools which she feels her child is excluded from.

Our local schools are a pile of pooh, our local Muslim school is really good, it also costs £3,000 a year in fees. Someone point me in the direction of the state funded Muslim schools of which there appear to be a plethora, all the friends who send their children to Muslim schools pay for the privelege.

Personally I could care less about my taxes paying for religious schools, my taxes pay for other things which I have a far stronger objection to.

no I am annoyed that my dd cannot go to the local school for which I pay taxes because I am not a catholic and not prepared to be hypocritcal.

I also don't want her going to a church school particularly!

What is a Christian Ethos? If its just about being nice to other people then I think that this is an ethos shared by Jews, Muslims, Humanists, Hindus etc. etc. and you don't really need to establish a religious school to create it. If its about believing that Christ died for our sins, then thats great, but I don't believe it and take my belief seriously enough not to want to go to Church and pretend that I do. I would also rather that DS went to a school where this wasn't an issue. Where I live, as anywhere, there are more and less popular schools. I think the more popular schools tend to be in more well off areas. Whether they are Church schools or not doesn't seem to have any effect on how well they perform. I think the minute you have some kind of hoop (whether buying an expensive house or going to church) that the middle classes can jump through to create exclusivity you get a popular school.

I do accept, however, that points of views on this are probably influenced by where you live. I probably wouldn't be bothered if there were just a couple of church schools in the borough - its when you struggle to find a secular school that there is a problem.

77% of primry schools in the scummy one's area are religious. What is the heathen mother of heathen twins (actually one has godly tendencies in a confused way) to do, eh? Lucky they (eventually) got in to one of the two non religious ones.

if anyone seriously thinks the "christian Ethos" is about "being nice to each other" they are seriously (?wilfully) under-educated about a. the Bible and b. the history of the Christian church.

what about Abraham's sacrifice? that really isn't about lovng each other. It's about God requiring a father to place his son on an altar to be sacrificed i.e. slaughtered because God's justive has condemned the child to death is the same way that we are all condemned sinners and deserve God's judgment and death and eternal damnation. but we can be saved as long as we submit and are obedient to God's will.

I suppose that is "love" to some people but don't let's get confused and think that the bible is full of fuzzy cuddles. it's full of slavery, vengeful deaths and the subjugation of women. the last time I looked.

oh dear harpsi

have you been going to those fundamentalist meetings again?

I go to church most weeks and I've never heard anything that strong.

I've certainly never been asked to 'obedient'. I wouldn't last long in that kind of environment. and 'eternal damnation'?

er, no. not at all. the nearest I've come to eternal damnation is attending a summer fair in the rain.

no cappucino I went to a church school.
I went to church until I was a teenager. I heard plenty of things "that strong" and stronger.
what about Noah's Ark - i.e. the entire population being drowned for their sinfulness?
my sisters are elders of the church.
I heard that sermon about three months ago.
wht do you think the story of Abraham and Isaac is about then? how to get fresh lamb for dinner?!

me: would you attend the church fete in the rain?
pink jesus: it is not righteous

scummymummy do you know what punishment is set aside for the blasphemous in hell, btw?
just asking

Me: Do you think what Abraham did to Issac was ok?
Pink Jesus: Sinner

(does he mean me or Abraham?)

Me: Will blasphemers go to hell?
Pink Jesus: The holy water will sting!

I love this pink guy.

here you go - from christiananswers.net - a picture of Abraham's sacrifice for the kiddies to colour in....
"Later, another man showed that he would obey God...."
I think you may have been misled, Capp: obedience is required. even to willingly sacrifice your own child.
just as a test, of course.

Me: Would you like to colour a picture?
Pink Jesus: I would!

some more to colour in here children:
Years later, mankind again proved disobedient to God. A great flood was sent in judgment that covered the whole world. Because Noah was obedient, God spared him and his family and the animals which God brought to the ark
(drowning men, women and children not pictured)