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Original poster

How to get your kid into a Catholic school?

31 replies

MissLucyLiu · 22/11/2023 11:51

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!

OP posts:
Kwer · 24/11/2023 11:05

HermioneWeasley · 22/11/2023 11:57

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.

This

meditrina · 24/11/2023 11:10

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

Interesting - can you share the source? It's a difficult one, usually, as there are so many Christian faith schools that they are formative of the national norm. I'm also interested in faith schools that are less than 10% (ish) of total schools (ie not CofE or RC) as there have been more incidents of poor compliance with Admissions Code (in relation to size of school) with other faiths.

Also interested to know how many non-faith schools have been hauled up for non compliance, and how VC schools fit in

Whattodo112222 · 24/11/2023 11:16

My daughter goes to a Catholic primary. We had to go to church for three months, show her baptism certificate and get a letter signed by the parish priest. Families who did this are given priority. For her particular school, other faiths were given last priority after catholics, siblings, catchment area Families..
Check the admissions criteria on schools website. Attend the open day and ask the relevant questions.

RafaistheKingofClay · 24/11/2023 11:24

Soontobe60 · 24/11/2023 10:33

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.

Show quote history

I’ve got a feeling it saves them increasingly less and less money. I assume this happens as schools convert to academies. Catholic Church needs to follow the CofE on this and remove religious criteria.

Any school excluding a proportion of the population will get better results. It doesn’t necessarily have a lot to do with the ethos of the school. If you make parents jump through hoops to apply you eliminate the sorts of families that have ‘chaotic’ lifestyles or who don’t see education as a priority.

Doveyouknow · 24/11/2023 11:27

Depends on how over subscribed the school is. Our local catholic school has a terrible reputation so they'll take anyone - no faith required - as bums on seats is what gets them LA funding and that is all they care about. On the other hand friends in a different area spent 3 years going to church to get their kid into the local catholic school. I assume it's either very good or the other options are awful!

Oldsu · 25/11/2023 00:09

HermioneWeasley · 22/11/2023 11:57

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.

@HermioneWeasley Of course Catholics are tax payers as well (at least all ones I know are) but isn't it funny that faith schools can be accused of 'discrimination' because some people can not get their children into them, but it seems to be perfectly acceptable that other children of tax paying parents are excluded from other schools funded by the tax payer because their parents don't earn enough to pay the over inflated house prices in the catchment area.

My Sister married a Catholic she converted and sent her DD to a Catholic school, no-one seemed to have a problem with the school being a faith school as they take children of other faiths and there is a very good non faith school in the area, now her granddaughter goes there and suddenly people who moved into the area to get a place in the non faith school are up in arms as that school is over subscribed and they found out that their money alone cant get them a guaranteed place in the Catholic school, suddenly it's unfair, discrimination, if they had got their way and turned it into a school just for the catchment area, her granddaughter would not have got a place as her tax paying parents cant afford to live there, but of course as I said that seems to be perfectly acceptable to exclude children based on income but not on faith.

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