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Original poster

Church schools - how can they get away with it?

567 replies

CountessDracula · 23/08/2006 21:33

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?

OP posts:
Original poster
CountessDracula · 23/08/2006 22:58

sorry your holiness

OP posts:
VeniVidiVickiQV · 23/08/2006 22:59

CD, I much prefer that phrase......."Religious schools".

(as opposed to "church" schools, which is what I suspect was LGJs point...)

Original poster
CountessDracula · 23/08/2006 23:00

oh WWW priceless! I have heard of many similar stories

It's how the chuch bolsters its flagging attendance figures too. If it weren't for desparate parents the figures would be more like 1%. Also it is a fact that most churchgoers are aged 60+

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WideWebWitch · 23/08/2006 23:00

Btw the dd was turned down first (oversubscribed) and step sister appealed (cracking letter iirc) reminding the school that she'd attended church regularly, was in catchment area, was known to the vicar blah blah. She got in on appeal and the younger sister will get in on the sibling rule plus the churchgoing. It's a shite system imo.

CountTo10 · 23/08/2006 23:00

Yeah but like it or not christmas is a religious festival.

I think you underestimate religious schools in particular c of e. Yes they are attached to the church of england and the christian faith and some may treat the religious part seriously as an entry requirement but their remit in life is not to indoctrinate their pupils with the bible but to educate according to OFSTED rules and regs.

Again, I do agree that no child should ever be refused entry to a school on grounds of their religion or non religion as the case may be - it would be like saying 'Sorry we only take pupils with blue eyes here'!!!!

iota · 23/08/2006 23:01

well both my non-religious, non-catchment kids got in without me having to do any abseiling

you lot just don't live in the right places

Original poster
CountessDracula · 23/08/2006 23:01

church, religious, it's semantics really

You can see from my posts I mean any religious school

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fireflighty · 23/08/2006 23:01

I went to a local C of E primary in a village and I'm sure even now that distance is the first criterion there. However, where I live now all the church schools give places first to children of the right religion: they're extremely explicit about that in their admission requirements.

This actually also, ironically, gives those religious children the pick of the non-church schools, because the main priority for local-authority-controlled admissions to the other schools is first preference. So while non-religious families daren't give any school other than their catchment-area school first place (because if they put another school first and it's oversubscribed they would then shoot to the very bottom of the list for their catchment-area school, through not having put it first, and therefore possibly end up miles away), religious families can safely do that, because they can put a church school second and know that they'll get into that based on faith regardless of having put it second rather than first. So lay claim to some religious faith, sincerely or hypocritically (which we won't do), and you basically get the pick of the local schools round here. That's a separate issue to the segregation and funding ones, which I feel more strongly about, though.

Cappuccino · 23/08/2006 23:01

no your taxation is going straight to non-religious schools www

and other services that you use

I'd personally like to believe that none of mine went to pay for the millennium dome

it all went towards my bin men and my c of e school

everyone's child gets educated, we haven't nicked all the teachers and condemned non-religious kids to a life in the gutter

I know that the system doesn't work well for some people and that sucks, but there's no reason to throw everything away because of it. there are a lot of people who live in areas/ go to schools where it does work and all parents and children deserve a choice of schools

soapbox · 23/08/2006 23:01

Oohhh Custy!

We're going down,
we're going down,
we;re going down, down, down!

In football chant style

Original poster
CountessDracula · 23/08/2006 23:02

but Iota I DON'T WANT MY DD TO GO TO A RELIGIOUS SCHOOL!

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WideWebWitch · 23/08/2006 23:02

Oh and one other last thing, the potential logical conclusion is the situation in some of the USA where religion IS mixed up with education to the extent that Darwinism is denied and Creationism taught. Think it couldn't happen here? Really?

Original poster
CountessDracula · 23/08/2006 23:04

most I think you mean www

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Cappuccino · 23/08/2006 23:04

CD if you don't want dd to go to a religious school then, hey presto! you get your wish!

you have a choice. why can't everyone else? I

iota · 23/08/2006 23:05

well CD I wouldn't want my ds's to go to a RC school, but the C of E school as Cappuccino pointed out isn't really that big on religion anyway

fireflighty · 23/08/2006 23:05

It doesn't really matter whether the aim of parents is to keep their children away from the non-religious ones, the effect of a school that prioritises children of the right faith when giving out places is that type of segregation. And that is exactly what goes on over and over again - it's not a rare thing at all.

WideWebWitch · 23/08/2006 23:06

OK, so if a CofE school isn't 'that big on religion' (isn't it? Really? why bother then?) why does the vicar get a say a lot of the time, eh, eh?

Really really must must go to bed now!

SherlockLGJ · 23/08/2006 23:06

Well then send her to the local hedge school, state school, Steiner school, but leave the rest of us in peace to practice our religion, and pass on to our children our faith, beliefs and the community ethos that is a Faith school.

bubble99 · 23/08/2006 23:06

Good thread, CD, I've had a few rants about this one myself recently.

Our local Catholic primary school was funded for the initial set-up costs by the church but is partially state-funded. ie. My council taxes are paying for the running costs (teachers salaries etc) of a school that my children have no chance of attending (it is heavily oversubscribed, so the '10% of other faiths' rule does not apply) even though it is their nearest school.

I do not object to single-sex schools, as children of all faiths can attend if they are the right gender. I do object, however to funding a school that my children cannot attend.

Imagine if council tax payers were asked to fund the ongoing costs of Christian/Jewish/Muslim only playgrounds?

Original poster
CountessDracula · 23/08/2006 23:07

I want dd to go to my local school

I don't understand why my local school, which is state-funded, excludes her

Is that really so complicated to understand?#

I am not concerned for myself, I can send dd wherever I want because I can afford it. I am concerned about the general principle of the thing as you will understand if you read the whole thread (which I appreciate you may not have time to do)

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WideWebWitch · 23/08/2006 23:08

choice, hmmm, that was Thatcher's argument for a lot of things too. Like selling off transport and council houses blah blah.

Cappuccino · 23/08/2006 23:08

WWW it couldn't happen here because the church no longer has the influence it once had. as I've said before further down this thread, the influence is fading and the secular agenda controls everything.

I'd like dd to have some religious education at school. I did, and then I didn't go to church for about 20 years. And when I did go back I had a background and a safety in it. I want her to be able to choose to either reject it or keep it for later or use it, but I want to have it there. I don't want her to come out bashing her bible and I don't believe for one moment that she will.

bubble99 · 23/08/2006 23:08

See my previous post, CD. I'm with you on this one.

Original poster
CountessDracula · 23/08/2006 23:08

Leave the rest of the 2% of you to hog all the education resources LGJ?

Yeah right

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WideWebWitch · 23/08/2006 23:09

Sherlock, you can all practice your religions whereever and whenever you like, no-one's saying otherwise but some of us are arguing that it's not appropriate to mix education and faith. Of any kind