V. annoyed about local faith school and failed applications

[PiaThreeTimes]

Our local primary is a C of E school and is very selective about who's applications are successful. The headteacher is very keen on references from the local vicar, for example.

This has resulted in many children within easy walking distance of the school not being accepted, to start in Sep. They will have to be driven to the schools at which they have been accepted. However, I know of two children who have been accepted and will have to be driven because of the distance from their home to the school.

This doesn't affect my driectly, BTW. I'm just very annoyed that people will have to drive when they could be walking. Priorities are all wrong here.

OK, it could be argued that it's a faith school and therefore church-goers are their priority, but this feels very ethically wrong to me.

OP - it's not just your local school, and head.
It's all over the country, about 1/3 of primary schools and controlled by the church who do it because it shores up their congregations.

It's institutional discrimination, and IMO it really should be done away with.

Himalaya - i think this depends on where you live - all the faith schools near me (except one) have faith criteria with nothing about church attendance - just confirmed baptism etc - so you don't have to go or even say you go to church to get in which is fairer to some extent but obviously not if you are of no-faith

dd not baptised and not likely to be less she wants to .But i accepted going to cof e school meant prays and even attending church with school for special services ( not often as church is infact over 3 miles away so means coaches) .I even go along to sometimes to help or when dd is taking part in things and i have no faith at all.

But dd likes as means she can attend after school clubs ,pta events and she now knows the othe rlocal kids ( essential when you do not have a park to meet kids or a village hall ).To me that takes priorty over attending a non faith school .I just make sure that at home dd leanrs about other faiths ( school are good anyway ) but she also understand why people do not believe

I have no shame that she may have stopped another child whose parents attend church regulary from getting a place especially as they would have to drive in .I feel right to be schoole din her community over rides that .Oh and i never even pretended to go to church and was very honest at appela that I do not believe in God in any shape of form

himalaya: CofE schools (VA and VC combined) make up around 25% of primaries (not sure off the top of my head about secondaries), but a growing proportion of their schools have high or 100% community place admissions, with aim to get all to minimum 90%. For C of E it is most definitely not about congregation size.

I Don't know the situation for schools of other faiths.

oh should ad dthe cofE school do take normally on attendence grounds first and i know several parents attend church just to get a place .Know because a few were annoyed that dd got a place even though i have no faith

how did you get in then if those of faith didn't? Admissions criteria are legal and schools can't just choose which criteria to admit and can't make special allowances even if they want to. Even though it worked out well for you, i'm not surprised the faith parents were mad if they should have gotten in above you - right or wrong, the whole point of admission criteria is to prioritise.

sunny: the community places will be allocated regardless of faith, as laid down by the admissions criteria (typically siblings then distance). VC and newer CofE schools and academies have 100% community admissions.

it went to appeal and i won on ground sthat since we live in such a tiny village ( 25 houses )next nearest school with space was 12 miles away. next school that i could have appealed to was 5 miles away

.And i pointe dout that since ds3 has sn and come shome in a taxi and I do not drive i could not get dd to school ( though lea would had to pay for taxi for her) .In the end they agreed that dd had right to be edcuated in her community especially as it is so small and needed to be able to join in with social side .And i wa snot afraid to afraid to point out that as christians they had to take everything into account .But it wa sthe community grounds that I won on

Think they found it refreshing that I did not lie or even pretend but did say that i would not object to dd attending church or taking part in relgious worship

sunny
even if that critera meant my daughter could not go to school and socialise in her very small community and yet parents with kids miles away that drive in could .And to be honest its not the faith side that draws a lot in it is the ofstead and the schools reputation .dd school is 5 mins walk away .We have 12 dc in the village so think that counts as something more important

And to be honest I would say at a guess at least 50% do not attend church regulary and ironic as a non believe i am one of the parents that attend the church led school stuff ( assemblies readings etc when dd is involved) more than most

sunny: no-one should get their children baptised unless they want them to be part of the church and grow up in the faith. If they merely want their children to go to the school walking distance from their house (our alternative schools are 8mile drive away) then they should be able to do that - whether they are of strong faith or not!

none of my dc have been baptised was not prepared to lie .ds1 not bothered about it at 17 .ds2 he will call himself athesist and he can explain why yet he has opted to take Rs as a gcse and he does enjoy learning and discussing relgion and does respect other peoples choices and faiths.

Dd goes to c of E school and she enjoye sthe church stuff but is also very intrested in other faiths and likes to go to other relgious buildings.If she wants to be baptised when older her choice

Ds3 well he does not understand it

Myself i have my wown personal reasons why i do not believe in god of any kind do not spout that i do not believe but if asked I am honest as to why and am not willing to lie
.But I do respect other peoples faiths and relgions and their right to believe

bb99 what sarkylady and Himalaya's points answer your questions.

i would like my kids to go to a local school. There are several faith based ones within .05 of a mile of us who exclude de facto non-faith families with their admission criteria. It's fundamentally unfair that non-faith families have less 'parental preference' or 'parental choice' than faith families. As I mentioned above, there aren't enough places for kids whose parents worship in the parish at the school around the corner.

I actually wouldn't object to schools admitting on the grounds of faith if the church or other religious body paid of all the maintenance of the building, for their teachers to be trained, paid the teacher's salaries and all related costs. I object to the appropriation of public funds and exclusion based on faith.

I don't object at all to children learning about all faiths in school which is different to daily practice of one faith with it's texts etc being heavily embedded in the curriculum.

Haven't read the whole thread, sorry, but I also think it is wrong wrong wrong.

When we were applying for DS1, out local school was C of E and was a stereotypical faith school. Fantastic results, strict admission criteria, very very middle class.

No community places available and, although we lived two mins walk away, we were offered, and accepted a place a five minute drive away, which is impossible to walk to, as it is up a dangerous steep hill, on a single track road under a motorway.

Despite the strict admission rules, a friend of mine got in, even though she didn't go to Church for years, because a friend of hers was mates with the relevant people and found her a job helping in the Sunday School for a few months. This, of course, stopped as school as they started school.

Doesn't bother me personally, as DS1 is very happy at his school, which I think is a much healthier environment anyway, but the system itslef does annoy me.