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.

@Needmorelego yep brown uniforms, a kilt, and thick cream socks. And the uniform is STILL nicer than my (Catholic) secondary was many years ago

@Trickleg those socks....😂
I would like to say that any St Philomena's girls I have come across on places like buses/trains - they are always lovely, polite and well behaved 🙂

Generally they will have a supplemental form you will need to get signed by the priest of your parish and you need to submit your baptism cert. Your child will get priority over kids who are not catholic, sometimes this can be within the catchment but where we are it includes all kids even outside the catchment so a catholic child outside the catchment will get in before another child in the catchment.
We are catholic and the kids are christened but the catholic schools in our area didn't seem any better than our local village school so it really depends where you are.

Just a little adage…..
They can be really lovely caring schools with great ethos. But childhood will be children! Please check their bullying policies in detail, and ask around if they actually follow through. My experience was that ‘ we work on forgiveness’ , which meant some behaviours were left unpunished and therefore worsened. With some kids knowing they could get away with things, and other kids thinking there was no point telling as nothing was ever done. It certainly wasn’t widespread but it was a problem when it arose

I had a catholic education. Went to all girls catholic grammar which was excellent and I had a great time there. Consistently gets in the top 5 grades in the country. I'm currently visiting schools for dd. Slightly different area but I was really impressed with the Catholic girls grammar. Compared to the other grammars (mixed sex) the ethos was fantastic. You actually don't need to be catholic to get in- it's more diverse than that. I liked that the head talked about the girls being girls and celebrated girls achievements, particularly in stem subjects.

I'd visit a range of schools and check out ofsted, speak to parents etc.

Like everything in life it’s not a one size fits all. Some catholic schools will be great some will be crap.

The 2 catholic primary schools in my area are both outstanding, but that’s more to do with the schools teaching ethos and abilities than religion. My DDs go to one of the schools, there is a mix of catholic and non catholic children. The catholic feeder high school is also outstanding, but then again so are some of the other non catholic high schools.

Historically (where I’m from anyway) catholic schools were seen to offer a better education, but those days are long gone.

You need to check the school admissions criteria, every school will have its own.

The only school I looked at that had church attendance as a criteria was a C of E Academy. They required proof of church attendance.

none of the catholic schools around here require church attendance just proof of baptism. Being friendly with the priest is irrelevant as school selection is done by the LA not school or church. Academy’s are done differently.

My oldest DD got into the school on being catholic even though we lived 30miles away (we were planning on moving). She was given president over local non catholic children because catholic children from other parishes were given president over local non catholic children.

If the schools your interested in are over subscribed then look at the stats to see what your chances of getting in are. One school my niece went too is continually over subscribed, every year catholic children miss out on a place. One year 19 catholic children in catchment missed out on places. The school is in an area that has a lot of “looked after” and “previously looked after” children who took president over catholic children.