why do church schools have such good reputations?

[startingtobehalloweenylover]

The best school in my area is a Catholic one and it would seem from various threads on here that this is the case in a lot of other places too...

but why? is it a respect thing? do church schools seem to have better "control" (for want of a better word) of the children... is it the school environment... is it just the kids that go there?

hmmmm

kids

parents

chirch attnders

You're on a roll ths afternoon SL !!

TBH, the CofE primary school here is the worst in the area performance wise although the ofsted report does talk about what a good attitude the chldren have. Not sure about the local Catholic primary school but the boys catholic secondary school is much better than the not very good non denominational boys secondary. Don't know why really ......however the girls state non denom s better than the grls catholic school.....

More money

lol i know! i'm obviously on a churchy-roll today!

Not sure, its the same in the area I live in the catholic schools have the best reports and reputations. I moved my ds to one of the catholic schools and must admit can see a difference.

its cos god sees EVERYTHING you do. this scares the shit out of you at 5.

lol custy

I don't think it's more money.

The local CoE senior school was recently closed and has become a City Academy... in fact 2 have closed

As far as I can see Faith schools tend to be smaller than non-faith schools, at primary level anyway, and I'm a firm believer in small school good, big impersonal aircraft hanger school bad

With secondary schools, I wouldn't say that Faith schools (in my area) had a better reputation, but mine aren't old enough for me to have much knowledge of that yet.

yes god oversees them and makes sure he gets the pick of the crop

and you will go to hell if you bring the school stats down......

Ours are the same as the non-church schools - all are really good, but I think a lot of that is down to the catchment area.

I wouldn't say the same for secondary level - in fact our best, award winning comp is non-church.

religious schools are allowed to select their pupils unlike other state schools -- therefore they will get better kids as they can select not to choose certain kids that would have to be taken by state schools..

Yes, ours can set their own admission policy because they are only (splutter) 90% funded by the LEA.

Don't get me on to this - it really pees me off!!

Not all I'm afraid in my experience. larsxx

Jellyhead, I couldn't agree more, it's been a misery for me and ds. In fact you could say it's put me off religion in a big way. Where as I thought the church should be compassionate. I found them to be the opposite larsxx.

I went to a church school (primary and secondary) and noth were VERY good. my secondary school out perforemd many of the local independant schools and was a very high ranking school in the country (top of the county!)

My theory is this.... to gte into my church school was VERY hard.... people would come from about a 20 mile radius!

To get it we bascially ah dt be regular church goers with a note from vicar etc... and so did our families...

as a result IMO most of the people their were from 'nice' families with more traditional values (who wer happy to go to church every sunday etc!)

i just think that in general (and im talikng HUGE generalisations not meaning to offend anyone) that those people can somehow be a bit 'nicer' as its their children that go to the school!

thats my theory as to why church schools are often much better.

also given that my school was so 'good' there were ALOT of church going children their whom if that had not got in would have been sent to independant schools instead, and so you could argue that alot of the children were from 'better off families' who would have otherwise used the independant system anyway, thus being 'those' sort of people.

what about the church is a community with responsibility collectively for its members and so the school develops from that ethos

and so the core pupils are from a community and those others who are not of the church community but also send their children there through other channels are those who have a very strong interest in education

yep its all about the selection.
Gobbledispook, I bet the 10% is re capital funding, too. probably 100% of running costs get paid...
(parping myself, so I don't end up having two simultaneous rows about faith in one afternoon...)

The Diocese took over the local failing High school and it became a Church school. 35% of places are set aside for church families but that includes children coming from a Cof E primary (which covers the closest 2 feeder primary schools). The church pays a lot more than 10% to the LEA but as I can't find the exact figures at the moment I can't tell you how much. We live in an area with the 11+ so it takes kids who didn't go to grammar, and it's in a very underpriviledged area, yet it has gone from strength to strength and improves every year. The secret seems to be that they make rules and stick to them. If the kid doesn't turn up at school you get a call by 9.30 am asking where he/she is. The uniform is cheap (sweatshirt etc) but enforced. It works.

Some church schools are right at the bottom of league tables and are failing schools. I strongly suspect that the top-performing ones either have a very expensive catchment area (eg the church infants school right slap in the middle of Dulwich village, or they use their interview system as covert selection, which is so ridiculously easy.
Also of course, Church schools are packed to the rafters with the children of ambitious, often middle-class but essentially irreligious parents who think that wasting their Sunday mornings godbothering is a small price to pay to get little Johnny into the best local primary and thus it becomes self-perpetuating that it is a good school.

aloha you need to parp

You are probably right Cod!

i put it down to commitment and good basic values. Most parents are likely to be singing off the same hymn sheet (excuse pun) and consequently similar standards are expected throughout the school. I also think respect plays a huge part.