"I went to huge lengths to get my child into the locat RC school because the results are brilliant - imagine my horror when they came home saying that contraception is a sin - what should I do?"

[seeker]

Do you thing there are going to be a lot of threads like this in the future?

i understood you seeker, thought it was obvious, but obviously not

well i got it! and i'm vv tired. thought it quite amusing too.
poor darlings, just doing their best by their little darlings - they're in for a shock he he he .....

BeeEm: "poor darlings, just doing their best by their little darlings - they're in for a shock he he he ..."

Too right they are, if RC state schools are anything like convent schools. Wild promiscuity and dangerous levels of alcohol abuse within a week of leaving.

Seriously, I hope most parents in this position would say "Don't worry, most catholics don't believe it's a sin, but the school has to pretend they do to get the church's money."

Being taught that contraception is wrong isn't as bad as not being taught what quotation marks mean.

In reply to OP, yes I think there are
Serves 'em right
I hope they combust with indignation

Perhaps there will be a few threads going: 'I lied to get my DC into a Catholic school and now I've found out that half the teachers have been shunted there from other faith schools in a hurry to hush up a kiddy-fiddling scandal.'

seeker

I went to huge lengths to live in a country where religious discrimination is illegal and where education is not dominated by superstition.
imagine my horror when my local schools are all run by churches using state money!
not to worry though, no doubt the people running the school will operate under Christian principles and not discriminate against children on the grounds of their parents' beliefs, and will of course follow the example of Jesus by exercising tolerance and understanding towards all

"im against non-faith people going to faith schools anyway"
????
people??
I think you mean children
"non-faith children"?
wtf?

I think you can enjoy a wry chuckle at the lengths parents will go to though, harpsi, and still be of the view that faith education should be outside the state system, as I am
Not least because then it really will be catering for people who are comfortable with doctrine...and as per seeker's OP and some subsequent comments, know when it can be discreetly subverted

Oh I hope so. It would brighten my day immensely

I honestly find it hard to laugh about religious segregation in education, marina, tbh. what great work it has done in Northern Ireland and the West of Scotland after all.
and I find the sight of "christian" smuggery over the exclusion of non-Christians from "their" schools extremely rebarbative. (note use of small "c" - real Christians with actual Christian attitudes and present company excepted )
as for telling children that contraception is a sin god how abhorrent
I am pmsl that anyone would think seeker was serious though

Fair point about it being the source of much sorrow and anguish harpsi - my own mum has personal experience of this sadly
I honestly feel that the sooner we go the French route of disestablishment of the C of E and the removal of faith-based schooling from the state system, the better and less hypocritical it will be, for us all, atheists and believers alike
I put my money where my mouth is and we are paying for the inclusive but explicitly Christian education of the dcs, as it happens, and this was one of our reasons for going the independent route
But if this happens the churches will then be accused of deserting the inner cities, I expect - and there are beacons of excellence associated with the more inclusive type of faith-based primary in many rough parts of cities
I absolutely hear what you say about the divisiveness of faith-based education but there are times when one feels very cornered as a 21st century Christian

Theres no such thing as "faith" and "non-faith" children. Only parents.

please don't assume that most Christians feel like luminarphrases does

am with you harpsi
state schools should not be allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion, full stop.
and I went to a catholic school
actually I don't remember anyone telling me contraception was a sin
or maybe I just ignored it...
or perhaps they just never mentioned it at all! Come to think of it I didn't have any sex education at school outside what they taught us in human biology.

lol seeker at your thread title (and at the ensuing moral outrage!)

I think it's good for children to be exposed to different beliefs.

League tables are the cause of this problem not faith schools.

Right on Harpsichord. Like your tenaciousness on the 'Alan Bennett' thread too but I'll bet you felt like you were going round in circles. I've just posted a link on that thread but it might be eually pertinent here.

education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2248284,00.html

well, I worked out this was reported speech

tho have little to contribute on faith schools question. Have a feeling that I'll be disagreeing with a lot of stuff taught at school wherever DS ends up... surely grumpy parent's perogative?

Good link idling about. But depressing.

I can see that there are good arguments for ending state funding of faith schools. My problem with this is pragmatic rather than ideological in that we would be disrupting one of the few parts of the system that works.

Would it not be better to take steps to provide an equal chance of gaining access to these schools for all children?

I can't see how segregation can be reduced without randomising access, regardless of the faith issue.

I have a friend in Australia who's Catholic and who went to one of the leading girls' Catholic schools in Brisbane. She went along for the interview to get her DD, 4, into a Catholic primary school near where she currently lives. All went well, then they received the letter offering DD a place and asking for confirmation of her taking the place AND there was, enclosed, an A4 sheet stating the school's ethos. Number one was something along the lines of ' instilling strong Catholic values and morality in the students'. My friend was INCENSED. She was expecting the 1st aim of this (Catholic, remember!) school to be high academic achievement..... She turned the place down. I mean, that's coming from a CATHOLIC! What DID she expect? Actually, I know what she expected- what any of us who undergo that 'Year Five Epiphany' and the religious secondary schools call the sudden awakening of religion in their erstwhile dormant 'flock' when school places are being decided!- she wanted the sense of community, discipline and respect that often accompanies 'religious' schooling that enables ANY child to learn more effectively.

I've said before that my position is that state-funding should be allowed for faith schools should exist because of the faith of the people that run them, with the altruistic aim of providing education for all, regardless of religion.

Anything else is an unjustifiable use of public funds for schools which deliberately religiously discriminate.