How to get your kid into a Catholic school?

[MissLucyLiu]

Hi parents, how do you ensure to get your kid into the local catholic school when my partner and I are not catholic?
The school is 2min walk from my house and has an outstanding report. Appreciate any pointers!

You need to look at the admissions criteria. Some will have more and stricter criteria than others; schools differ. The school should be able to tell you how many people have been admitted under each criteria in the past few years.

As PP has said you need to check their admissions criteria. The ones near us prioritise catholics, then other Christian’s then other faiths with no faiths being bottom of the list. It’s disgraceful that taxpayer funded schools are allowed to discriminate in this way.

Thank you everyone. My partner's mother is Catholic. I am Buddhist but it's very different to having to attend a church on Sundays for example. How do they get you to prove you are Buddhist for example?

As two people have already said - you must check the school's admission criteria, and whether the school is over/under subscribed.
Non-Catholic children might get a place quite easily if it's under-subscribed.
Otherwise, preference will of course be given to Catholic children - and proof of this will be via a Certificate of Baptism into the Catholic faith.
Whether the parents have to prove they attend the Catholic church, or live within a certain catchment area, I don't know.

What's best for your child, do you want them to be educated in a Catholic environment

For Catholicism they usually require proof of christening and a letter from a priest saying you regularly attend mass. Priests are not fooled by someone turning up for three weeks in a row then asking for said letter.

Re Buddhism I'd call the school and ask. Do you attend a Buddhist centre or anything? I wouldn't get too hung up about it.

Why not go on the open day when they do one and ask.

@HermioneWeasley I don't see why it's disgraceful, it's not as if they are discriminating on academic grounds (which state-funded grammars do) or class grounds (which private schools basically do). Catholics are from all walks of life, nowadays Catholic schools often have a lot of children from Eastern European and African heritage.

They take the same funding and get better results, usually because of a better approach to discipline and a more coherent sense of community. Catholics often want their kids to learn Catholic teachings, celebrate Catholic feast days etc which are slightly different from other communities.

I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools, I'm not Catholic now but don't see why people can't be tolerant about it. Other non-denominational schools could develop the same ethos and results if they chose.

Read the admissions criteria!

None of us here, without knowing the school, can tell you exactly what they will require and in what form. Or whether they would even consider other religions in any way.

Have you looked at what Catholics believe? Can you support this for your child? Speaking as a lapsed Catholic I'd have a good think about that first.

My kids have been to two Catholic schools ( I am Catholic). The primary school, they needed proof of baptism before the age of 2 plus a years worth of church attendance ( London, very oversubscribed) the secondary school just proof of baptism (not London but outstanding and oversubscribed.) so the criteria are different. You will be fairly low down the list, but as someone who lives locally, on the list at least. The thing you need to consider is as others have said, if you want them to have a Catholic education or not. Mine have to go to mass every term, they have to say prayers in assembly even though there are many non Catholics at the school they have to accept the Catholic ethos. I wanted my kids to learn about Catholicism because, even though I don't go to church and am not sure I even believe anymore, its part of their culture and their wider family is Catholic. I would also say it is not the be all and end all. It depends on the child and the school. Both my kids schools are outstanding but I'm not sure I would choose it again, especially for DC1.

As a Buddhist / non-Catholic why on earth would you be happy with your child being indoctrinated educated there? Are you actually familiar with what they teach around eg sex / contraception, pregnancy/abortion, religion, sin, confession, purgatory? I worked in a Catholic school for years and have seen first hand how it all works. A child was told their mother who took her own life was in purgatory. No way my DC would be setting foot in a Catholic school.

Basically, you can't cheat the system. Places are awarded in order of criteria.

However anyone can apply. I know of Catholic schools that get down to the "everyone else by distance" criteria... or even allocated to people with no school place.

Some schools do have a criteria for other Faiths above general... Buddhism might come under this.

As others have said, check the admission criteria.

We are not Catholic (but do have a Christian faith) and moved to an area where the 'best' school was the local Catholic one. Our DS was joining in Y4 and there was only one space available and we went and had a chat with the Head and were offered the place .. we did discuss faith and we were very happy to respect the Catholic teaching (which incidentally was very low key).

We moved again and my DS went to a third primary school .. the Catholic one was by far the best - I appreciate that may or may not be coincidence but it was an incredibly caring and supportive environment.

No it's not disgraceful. Don't ve ridiculous.
Many schools discriminate on different ground. In a Catholic school Catholic children should come first. Best way to get a place is to be a Catholic preferably a practising one. Catholic education is known to be very good so they are usually over subscribed.

This would be fine if they weren’t taxpayer funded schools.

Catholics pay taxes as well. Plus the Catholic Church pays towards the schools... they own the land and pay towards maintaining them.

DS got into a Catholic Secondary by attending the catholic primary which we got into via the council saying it was the only space in the city, to get away from bullying in his old school. Plus the "other Christian" criteria - we just had to write what we did, no proof needed. And we're out of area.

And it's not indoctrination. They're very focussed on "inspiring your child to be the best they can be", "love and acceptance" etc. Mass and chapel are attended by choice. DS currently doing a Judaism module in RE, which is very balanced and unbiased.

Read the admission criteria.
in our local (very over suscribed) one it is baptised catholic, weekly mass attendance and “significant involvement in the catholic community “, i.e. mass preparation, helping with children’s service, helping with food donation hand outs,…. it requires a lot of free time!
The school is hardcore catholic, so you really need to buy into being catholic to send your child there from reception.
There tend to be open spaces from year 3 on as not-quite-as-catholic parents pull their children out and go for fee-paying options instead. but not all catholic schools are hardcore!

Thank you everyone for your kind responses

If you are so close then you have a chance of getting in on admission criteria. We have been looking at our closest catholic secondary (which my mum would love DD to go to but I think is too far) and they take kids from all over, it goes (I think):
Looked after children
Baptised Catholic with letter from priest
Other church denominations with recommendation from church
Distance to school

I know kids go there who aren't catholic and I think non church goers get in on distance.
Good luck

Luckily, those pesky Catholic schools cost the taxpayer much less than non denominational LA or Academy schools.
The school buildings and land of Catholic schools are owned by the Catholic Church. The Church provides these premises, at no charge, to enable the state to fulfil its obligation to provide education for the population. The day to day running costs of Catholic schools are funded by the state in the same way that all schools are funded (either through local authority or DfE funding agreements). The Church covers 10% of the capital costs for the maintenance of the premises in all voluntary aided schools.
Through this arrangement the Catholic Church saves the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds a year.

Don't choose a school just because it is rated OFSTED outstanding. The criteria they use to decide on ratings aren't always what is best for your child. One if our local schools (not the one my DC attended) was a CofE school that had been just a few minor poinst short of an outstanding rating at their inspection and the head teacher was totally driven to regain those few points and be outstanding next time. The obsession made it a thoroughly miserable place to work and they started haemorrhaging staff.

Look at the school properly, and think about how well it will suit your individual child.

You have to call up the school and ask for their admissions criteria because it will be specific to them. The school near us wanted to see a baptism certificate and a letter from a priest confirming that we are from his parish. Then, they gave priority to families living in the catchment area.

Well, you could say that VA schools can no longer operate.

But remember that except for the very new ones, it's the church that owns the school, and who have agreed to run them in co-operation with the state. They are not state-owned schools that are allowed to have faith ethos and/or oversubscription criteria. They won't automatically and seamlessly transfer to state ownership. They would have to be bought. Not even New Labour when we all thought we were rich attempted that one!

If the DC has been baptised and has attended church with her DDad (who was presumably born Catholic and baptised) or at a pinch with DGM (check criteria for whose attendance can count) then this might qualify you for one of the higher ranked categories.

significant involvement in the catholic community “, i.e. mass preparation, helping with children’s service, helping with food donation hand outs,…. it requires a lot of free time!

That sort of thing really should not be included in criteria - precisely because it requires a lot of free time. It should only be countable basics of adherence to the faith - eg membership (baptism) and participation (attendance at regular worship - which is often easier for RC than other faiths as in general they have more weekday masses or ones at different times)

Are you really this naive?

RC schools are forever changing admission criteria so they get the 'nice' children.

Schools used to have 'baptised RC' as a criteria, but then we had mass migration from eastern Europe. Suddenly your child had to have been baptised by a certain ago, often that age was 6 months.

If you are from Poland, you may want to take your new baby 'home' to meet family and be baptised there, good luck arranging that and getting the baby a passport before 6 months.

It's also traditional in some eastern European counties to not baptise until 1 year old.

Basically RC schools create hoops for parents to jump through and the feckless parents don't do the jumping.

The percentages of children on free school meals and those with SEN are lower in faith schools.

OP

Please look at the actual school. Will your child be happy and thrive there?

RC schools are forever changing admission criteria so they get the 'nice' children

Depends where you are. RC schools are more diverse than the national average (it's not just eastern European migrants who are Catholic and, despite the scenario described above, in some areas the schools have very high proportion of Polish and other eastern European pupils)

And after the legacy of the many years of anti-catholic sentiment (in general) and Catholic schools being the most swerved in many towns and cities, it is good to see how completely this has been turned round. It is a very, very recent development.

I read a while ago that, when demographically matched, one stand out aspect of RC schools was lower rates of exclusions, particularly of black boys. Now considering that they are demographically matched, what is making the difference? Is that what has been drawing people to these schools much more since about the 1980s?