Sorry Gig, I've just been reading through and I see you had your biopsy today. I hope it went ok. I'm being a bit nosy but I see on another thread you're selling some Olympics tickets - what did you have?
Stitching I'm glad it's nothing serious with your mouth. You must be so relieved.
Ok, church schools (I can't think of anything to say now, this will be a real anti-climax). My thoughts on church schools really come from my experience of attending catholic schools mostly in Scotland but also in England. We don't have CofE schools obv, and I have no idea whether there are any anglican type schools up here. Where I grew up, people didn't pretend to be religious to go to them, if anything, they just fuelled the sectarian hatred that was (is?) rife in the West of Scotland. You wouldn't dream of sending your kids to a catholic school if you weren't a 'tim'. So for that reason alone I think they should be banned! However, it may be hypocritical but I would send DS to a catholic school if it turns out to be the better school in whichever area we live in.
My experience (which is over 20 years ago to be fair [bgrin] (ooh, burns night smileys!) is that the reason church schools tend to do better is because of the ethos that grows out of being a school attached to the church community and nothing to do with the religion. There's nothing like the fear of the local priest turning up to have a word with your parents or being sent to face some scary nuns to make you behave [bgrin]. There's LOTS I don't agree with about catholicism, but there's a lot that's just good common sense citizenship (in christian religions generally) - love thy neighbour etc and I think that, and a generally community spirit, is what seeps into everything in good church schools and creates a better learning environment. They're certainly not perfect schools though (I was bullied).
In the schools I went to you knew everyone's family really - you didn't just see people at school, you saw them at mass with their family etc. So I guess essentially I think that all schools could do with a stronger sense of community and positive values. Now, I don't work in education, nor have I set foot in a school for a really long time and I know lots of schools are in strong communities etc but I think that's what makes a difference. See, not very interesting at all [bgrin].
I do absolutely hate when people pretend to be religious to get their kids into a school. I think if you want to be part of a community it should be based on honest participation. It's also a dreadful example to set your children. Do you get them to lie about going to church or drag them along week after week but tell them it's just pretend? Or do you indoctrinate them in a faith you don't believe in? Whatever you do you're teaching them that dishonesty gets you what you want.