Non Catholics in a Catholic school ?

[Hideehi]

I have found a lovely school with great facilities, wonderful discipline and of course it's Catholic.
I am sort, ie I was Baptised, went to Catholic school for the first three years. Hubby is not and thinks they are all bonkers.
Is this a non starter, do you think we could get away with going and just keeping our mouths shut, they will take us btw.

Hubby is not and thinks they are all bonkers.

There is your first stumbling block.

Our HM is committed to our school and has brilliant radar for picking up non committment at the first stages. Our admissions policy is still overseen by the Governors and every admission is discussed.

You sound as though you only want the school for the education and not the ethos. IMO the two go hand in hand and you could find your time there quite difficult.

LGJ

It depends on the school, though doesn't it?

Our local Catholic Primary no longer takes just Catholic children.

We take non Catholic children, but only if we are sure that the parents will...

a) Not undermine the ethos

b) Not seek to change the ethos

If that understanding is in place, no problem.

Depends on the area. In bits of London for example hard to get in. In some parts of the country hard to get pupils and many don't even go to mass. If they will have you as you say and you like it then go as long as you don't have problems with what she'll be told as long as your husband won't object when the children want to make their first commmunion, as long as her father won't be saying what they said at school is rubbish and she's been told something else by her teachers which might confuse her.

They might want to do the communion thing though, because all their friends are doing it- in this area it seems to be a big thing at the local catholic school, with everyone having big communion parties - they may feel very left out.

The children do it at school at the Oratory in London. But it probably is different around the country.

Erm, isnt this meant to be about a Catholic education? I am horrified that you would lie before God to do such a thing. This is the state of our country. Sorry off my soap box now but eeeeeew!

my kids go to catholic school, they are not baptised and although i was brought up catholic i am def not one now. however i dont feel the same as your dh, i dont think i would want them going somewhere with people i thought of as bonkers!

i chose that school because it is a lovely, caring environment and the religion aspect didnt really worry me, they were at a non religious school before and were coming home having learnt all sorts of stuff about god so i didnt really see the difference. i went to a catholic school and i think the faith taught me a lot about respect and caring for others and i would like my children to learn that, last school was def lacking in that aspect.

we didnt have any problems getting in and i was assured my younger kids would get places there, they are only a small school but have plenty of places so we didnt have to compete with a religious family for which i am v grateful as we would not have got them in. i would not have kept my mouth shut about not being catholic, i dont think it will help to start out telling fibs!

(sorry if that was a bit garbled, kids and dh keep asking me questions am not really able to concentrate)

Tenalady has a point, but I find it hard to believe that any child of that age is a "catholic" (or atheist).
The parents have lied to a God they don't really think exists, so I don't see much of an ethical issue there either.

And yes, it is indictment of the system. We allow state funded schools to discriminate on the basis of religion. Some people genuinely feel that their children should not have their schools polluted byt people of darker skins, and we rightfully scorn them.
But the state takes our money, by force if necessary and gives it to people who prevent chidren from using the resources their parents pay for, not even on the basis of the children's belief, but that of the parents.

A lot of people pay for state schools who don't use them, those like me educated 100% privately whose children are educated 100% privately, the infertile and all those people who choose not to have children or are beyond childbearing age. There's an argument for the abolition of state religious schools altogether. Even my mother 40+ years ago thought Catholicism could be taught just as well or better in our home than via a school.

I have a practicing hindu friend who went to a catholic convent school, (Holy Joes in Reading if you're interested), I went to a CofE school that required a letter of recommendation from the vicar & know lots of people who went to church just to get that..guess what I'm trying to say is if it ticks the boxes for a bright & happy future for your child, go for it

Have you been and had a look around?

We considered an RC school for ds1, and several of our friends from church (Baptist) send their children there. But when we went to look around - although we were impressed by many things - we didn't feel comfortable with the religious element. They have an assembly every morning, which is (understandably) very RC; and RE is very RC-biased (although they claim to teach a balanced view on everything). As a tiny example the displays on the wall happened to be about abortion, and were pretty much one-sided. Also in many schools they have just 1 hr a week of RE, but in this school they had 2 hrs a week at KS4 (compulsory).

I completely understand the school, and don't disapprove of what they do in any way, but we decided it was not the right place for our dss.

Xenia seeems to share my view that even in terms of religion, it may not be great to teach it in schools.

We observe vastly fewer people attending church in adulthood than who have attended relgious schools.

Islam is almost not taught in British schools at all, yet it's numbers are rising even on top of migration, and is attracting converts.

In countries like France, Russia an the USA where religion is outside the state curriculum the number of people professing faith and attending worship is far higher.

I've seen the output of fatih schools and they should be ashamed. 6 to 7 years and they haven't even imparted the basics, and all we see is a generalised superstion, leaving young adults prey to homeopathy, cults, crystal healing and a thousand other weak and stupid ideas. Doubt if more than a couple of % of so-called "Christian" kids have read even one word of Aquinas, or could name even one major heresy.

Have we had dodgy priests and paedophillia yet ??

If they are dodgy,they must be from the BBC, eh Dom....

so funny DC, as is Thomas Aquinas is the sort of stuff that would be on the shelf of anyone outside a Catholic Seminary.

please, if you want to be taken seriously, talk real.

Have only read first message on thread, but my ds is at at RC school and we are not catholic, and nor do we go to church. He is in Year 2 and we havent had any problems. He loves it there and hasnt questioned anything...yet. I didnt do anything special to get the place, just filled in tbe form and was honest. As it turns out he is a special needs child and being in this environment is a definate plus for him. They have to go to church a few times a year and obviously they pray every morning, but I dont see a problem in this. I would go with your instincts.

LOL at religious schools leaving people prey to homeopathy