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?

Have been avoiding this thread cos knew it would make me mad. Unquiet, totally behind you on this one. I teach in a v multi-cultural area where at secondary level there are 2 almost entirely white C of E schools at top of league tables, 2 almost entirely white Catholic schools near top of league tables, about 3 mostly white non-faith comprehensives near bottom of league tables, 1 comprehensive where students are 99% Muslim. This area was one of the ones which experienced race riots a couple of years ago and the report on these stated that the segration of children by faith and ethnicity was largely responsible for this. White, Christian children grow up without ever having mixed with Muslim children and vice versa. Obviously this leads and has led to ignorance, prejudice and fear. Post the northern riots kids are bused from one type of school to another a couple of times a year so they get to realize that the other kids don't have 2 heads but it's really obvious to see how potentially damaging faith school are and why ethnic minorities might feel isolated in this country.

DC you american vice president you!

I certainly agree about the lack of mixing, but also see structural problems in the long term.
Once you take into account the tax breaks for private schools, you find that more than 95% of school funding goes through the government. Also there are proposals such that graduates who choose teaching get breaks on their tuition fees, so that % is actually probably going up.

In many countries we note that where a group, be it religious, ethnic or class gets control of education funding, the "others" get shafted big time. Used to happen in Britain a lot, now we don't have it all that much. Want it back ?

Only 6% of children go to private schools so they're not that relevant. I found where I live which is very mixed, 18% hindu etc, the greatest ethnic mixing is in the private sector because immigrants put a higher regard on education than many people born here and often pay fees in India anyway so are used to payment for schools.

Apparently there are 2 1/2 times as many boys as girls in private schools.
My FIL was for some years head of the board of governors for a well known, highly successful girls school. A major pain was that they simply could not charge as much as equivalent boys place.

Parents would not pay it.

Another reason hindus pay is the racist allocation of education resources in the state sector. Places with high non-white populations don't get anything like the money they need. Try visiting a school in highly white Winchester compared to (say) Tower Hamlets.
Low expectations of coloured pupils does not help.

As the parent of one of my godchildren said, "I don't want my daughter growing up talking like a nigger" Having heard local kids I entirely saw his point.
Both parents were of course black, and were prepared to stump up, even though it hurt financially.

I don't think there is that disparity any more. Certainly in the old days parents would spend on education for a boy but not a girl because she'd get married and not work. There still are some price differences but not massive. As boys do worse than girls in exams a lot of boys private schools now take girls to bump up the league table positions.

black and whitecat- my dd attends a Roman Catholic primary because it is a fantastic school AND ethnic minorities are there too

Hi all, new to MN, i've not read all the thread so very sorry if any of this is repeated. Saw the title of the thread and thought i'd ask...

My friend's and her little girl live very near to an estate with three schools, one being a community state school the other being a voluntary funded roman catholic school. The community school caters for the nearby council estate which is a bit on the rough side (I live on a council estate too so not having a dig). She wants her daughter to go to the RC school but will she be allowed? She's been Christened (C of E) - how will she stand?

Sorry if this is a bit long, hope someone can help!

Sorry, that should have been two community schools. Its a big estate!

Your frined should contact the school, ask them if they are usually oversubscribed, and then ask what the criteria is for admissions.

However, most church schools give at least some priority to active/baptised members of the church. My daughter is starting in the nursery at a COE school, and the admissions policy is to give 70% of the places to active church members and 30% to those who live nearby. So, if a child lives across the street, he/she would likely get in.

Thanks, they live on the same street as two of the schools (its a big street!).

They don't actively go to church but are bringing her up as a Christian, same as a lot of people nowadays I think. I'll tell her what i've found out anyway, should it help if she gets her daughter's name down fairly early too?

At our Catholic state school (London so different from a lot around the country) you have to be not only baptised but go to mass every week and also play an active part in the life of the church, so not just turn up each Sunday but that's heavily over subscribed. Some Catholic schools aren't.

Xenia

Ditto our Catholic school in London. It is such a good school and has such a long waiting list that only those attending mass every week can get in.

15 years ago when my eldest applied (and didn't take up the place as she got into the independent school we wanted) you had to fill out what you did in the church. My ex husband is an organist and often helped them there. So even just turning up a mass wasn't enough. You can do things like run Sunday School or serve teas etc.

think you are meant to do this kind of thing through 'media requests'