Does anyone know about catholic schools ?

[wush]

Primary and secondary.

Are they good ? My H says they're very good. I don't know much about them at all. Any advice ? Thinking about it for our 3 year old when she starts reception.

We are Catholic, we have a church we belong to. But we don't go to a local church. I guess we should start going to a local church if we want to get her into a Catholic school ? Any advice appreciated.

Have you visited any of the schools?

Have you read the OFSTED reports?

Is your child baptised?

I would say that 2 of our local Catholic schools were previously in special measures, but they were turned round quickly. The diocese doesn't let them stay poor for long.

I haven't visited any yet. I've had a look at the ofsted reports and the ones I've seen around here have a ' good ' rating.

Child is baptised.

Depends. All the catholic schools here in Surrey are beyond superb, very sought after, very high grades, happy pupils with excellent pastoral care, difficult to get into. Is your area the same?

I'm just looking at primaries at the moment. Surrey. But near London surrey, not deep Surrey. Ofsted reports are ' good ' rated.

I haven't worked out what you need to do to get in yet.

Do you know how they usually select pupils in the ones in your area ? Is it a long waiting list or is it more about being known by priests etc ? Sorry if I sound very ignorant. I have looked on their websites and it just looks like application forms you need to fill in.

Excellent options near Twickenham and Richmond - St Elizabeth's, St James's, Richard Reynolds plus Salesian.

You need to find the exact admissions criteria, usually from their website.

Some will require strong evidence of regular church attendance, others just evidence of baptism. You would need to check each school, for example st Clements in Ewell has no attendance requirement in their admissions but St Joseph's in Epsom does.

Nationally, no 'being a Catholic school' doesn't automatically equal "being a great school" . They are quite a mixed bunch where I live.

Secondary in particular, I can think of one Catholic secondary that has a really poor reputation and another one that has an excellent reputation.

However, to find out the admission criteria you need to look on the website of the particular school. It isn't exactly the same everywhere.

You can visit the schools and ask for the admission criteria. It will also depend on if they're over subscribed or not. Getting into the good books of the local priest will do you no harm if you want your DC to go there. However, make sure you look at all the local schools.

Broadly speaking yep I recommend them. They’re a bit old school in a nice way. They don’t go in for gender bending nonsense and trying to be like Waterloo Road.

Old school in a nice way is exactly how I’d describe them too. They have a very community feel in my experience. Admission criteria varies so you need to look at individual schools but do it early enough.

They are as variable as any. If you want to get in on religious affiliation it's more than just turning up to church on a Sunday.

Near to me Catholic secondary excellent. Very heavily oversubscribed. I taught there for 13 years and when I taught there you needed a reference from your parish priest to say you and child attended on a regular basis. Because a faith school it had a wider catchment area. Excellent pastoral care and many extra curricular activities after school and competitive Sports on some weekends.

Could you be a tiny bit more specific as to where you are, OP? Generally if a Catholic school is oversubscribed it will be “better”than one that isn’t, simply because anything that introduces a hurdle to jump (eg church attendance) means that you get more involved/engaged parent body. But it still varies by area.

Mine went to a catholic primary in Kent. It was a very good school and extremely over subscribed as it was a one form entry. Their admission criteria was the child had to be baptised catholic and the priest from the church next door had to fill in a form to confirm you attended the church regularly and by regularly it was at least 3 times a month! So basically everyone goes every week until the form is signed and then mass attendance dwindles!

Then children in care or with ehcp got first priority, then siblings/children of staff and then distance to school.

You need to visit the schools and check their criteria as if you need to get the form signed by the local priest you'll need to be showing your face at mass and coffee mornings etc from now if your child is 3 as you'll be doing the applications soon and you'll need the priest to recognise you and your child from your regular attendance!

Sunday it is then..

It's Surrey but also kind of Croydon could be part of it

Just go look round the local schools and ask about admissions criteria. If they require regular attendance at church either start that or find another option that doesn't depending on what you are willing to do. All areas and schools are different.

My dc school just requires proof of baptism not attendance at church. We go anyway because I'd only send my dc to a faith school if I actually wanted to raise then in the faith. We pray and celebrate religious festivals properly: nativity and Easter plays etc, go to mass in school time. Does that appeal to you?

Personally I love Catholic school.

Some are good. Some are terrible.
I live near the edge of Croydon borough. There's a local RC Infant school and Junior school - these are apparently fantastic, everyone loves them etc etc.
The Boys secondary (where most of the Junior school pupils would go) has a reputation for being rough. The girls equivalent closed down due to the building being unsafe, some kind of (allegedly) money fraud and many past pupils said it was a terrible school.
I don't think anyone can say that all Catholic schools are good or any better than other schools.

I went to a Catholic secondary school and it was pretty shit. It's now very shit - something like 28% 9-4 grades. It serves the sort of community where education isn't valued, unlike a lot of Catholic schools in leafier parts of the country.

I agree with those saying that there isn't a homogeneous mass of Catholic schools- some are excellent but that doesn't necessarily follow that all will be. Treat each school you are interested in as an individual school, whether Catholic or not.

OP, as you don't seem to have a good understanding of how school admissions work I'm worried that some comments above may unintentionally mislead you. All schools will have a set admissions criteria that must be followed, and in some Catholic schools church attendance has absolutely no bearing on admissions whatsoever, and all that is mentioned relating to religion is that baptised Catholic children are prioritised over those that are not. If this is the case, then attending church every week and 'getting in with the priest' will make no difference at all to your chances of getting into the school, as the admissions criteria must be followed and your children are already baptised. Within this category, distance to the school is likely to be the tiebreaker rather than how well the priest knows you. For other schools, church attendance will be a factor and you may need to attend church regularly for a certain amount of time (and possibly get a form signed by the priest) to be in a higher admissions category. Have a look at the websites of the schools you are interested in and your LA school admissions booklet to find out what the admissions criteria is for the schools you are interested in.

Thank you ! Yes the ones I have looked at, only mention a list of prioritised entries. So the first priority is children in care etc and then, as the list goes on it mentions baptised Roman Catholic children. It says nothing about a reference from a priest.

if you have a girl, St Philomena’s has an excellent reputation by the way

I went to catholic schools for primary and secondary and would not send my dogs to one now. This is in Ireland though.

I wasn’t going to send my children to a catholic school either. There was a local outstanding school that was “the” school everyone wanted, and a good community school.

I hated the outstanding school, was meh about the community school. Visits felt very sales pitchy and look how wonderful we are.

thought oh fuck it I’ll go and see the catholic school just so I know I’ve ticked all the boxes.

what pp said about “old fashioned in a nice way” about nails it. They got two year 6’s to come down and show me round, the atmosphere was quiet and calm, except for the wonderfully batty music teacher collecting children from their classes for choir practice.

interestingly it was less “churchy” than the local community school. Yes they went to mass, most kids were involved in church at weekends, but for a non- denominational school the community school went to church weekly, the vicar was in a lot for assembly etc.

most catholic schools prioritise looked after children, then catholic siblings, then baptised catholics, then other religions, then anyone else by distance.

if you don’t go to the local church that isn’t usually an issue wrt entrance. But if you live in a different parish you may be too far away if the school is oversubscribed.

@Trickleg have they still got the brown uniform ? 😂