catholic families who have chosen to not send their children to a catholic school

[twinsetandpearls]

DD is currently at a catholic primary which apart from class sizes we are generally happy with and I feel our family gets a lot from being part of a catholic community.

We are about to move as we want to take dd out of this town and we are in the process of enrolling dd at St Mary's Hall Stonhyhurst. The results for a selective school are not amazing but I passionatly wanted to keep dd in a catholic school.

But this would mean a 45 minute commute for me every day and a smallish commute for dp. The fees are huge as she progressed but family have offered us help so we are not too worried about that. I am not happy in my present teaching post and have been looking for jobs near Hurst Green so that I would not have the commute and could be closer for dd school activities. The jobs are just not there, especially at a comparable salary to what I am on now.

I have seen however a job at a grammar school in the North which if I got it would offer me comparable pay with less responsibility meaning more time for dd and dp which is a huge issue ATM. Dd however clearly could not go to STonyhurst and it would make sense to send her to the girls equivalent of the school I would like to work for. But it is not a catholic school and that for me is a huge emotional and spiritual sacrifice. But the grammar school is a better school.

I suppose the question is If your faith is important to you what should guide your choice of school faith or academic results.

on the subject of faith, i think if the parents have a positive feeling about their own religion and/or the religion they were brought up in, they will think that is the best and therefore want that for their child.

i too have not heard of any children picking their own faith later in life.

on the subject of which school to chose. i would go with the one that was best for DD and for yourself in terms of commute etc. yes, faith is part of it, school results are part of it, but general life and the hassle of getting to and fro to there is part of it too.

i went to the local catholic school and hate it. not because it was catholic but because it was a very very rough school and i was a bit sensitive and a bit 'posh' for my classmates liking. i wish my parents had taken my personality into account rather than blindly plumping for the catholic school

for the record i want my son to get into our local catholic school as it's catholic, has good results and is an easy walk from the house, and his best friend is hopefully going there too.

ps- apologies for terrible typing