Can you tell me about reality of Catholic schools?

[confusedperson]

I am in a process of applying for Reception place for my DS1. Our first option is an outstanding Catholic school with all outstanding pass rates (far ahead from other schools in the borough). When looking at statistics, I also noticed that they have significantly lower proportion of SEN children, significantly lower proportion of children entitled to free meals and almost Nil gifted/talented children, all compared with other schools in the area. I wonder what does it say about the school?

Although people say this school is very good, I have heard that teachers shout in classes, somebody?s child started looking very ill after one term starting this school (somebody assumed it is due to high pressure), and also about endless money contributions and donations.

It does not sound like fun and I have doubts about sending my child there. I might be bias though, because I went to very strict school (abroad) and although I did well, I did not enjoy school at all.

If your child attends a catholic school, please tell me that it is not that bad!

It doesn't sound to me like this is anything to do with the school being Catholic or any other faith. It may just not be a very caring school.

You could say this about any school regardless of faith, etc.

DD goes to a Catholic one, outstanding and loves it, but none of the teachers seem to shout, children seem to be thriving, less than 25% are Catholic pupils, no endless moeny or donations.

She did one term at an outstanding CofE one, which we didn't like and was on the lines as the school you described above.

Dd2 goes to a "good" Catholic primary. It doesn't sound similar to your school, although it is a bit of a Sats factory in Y6 (as are many local schools). Our school has plenty of children with SN and EAL, but we are in an urban area, so all schools would be similar. You do need weekly mass attendance to get in though.

It sounds like a horrible school, regardless of denomination.

DS and DD attend a catholic primary school and im afraid what you have described could be any school, regardelss of faith.

DC's school is made up of 55% faith pupils and 45% non-dom. All children are expected to attend liturgey's (roughly once a month), church services and make donations to the schools choosen charity's etc (ours is CAFOD) however most schools do this.

We did view another catholic primary that stated in their 'mission statement' that they looked for a 5% wage donation from each family , strangely enough we thought better of it!

Sadly though most schools seem to be requesting money most months, since september we have had - CAFOD free dress day (£2 donation), Halloween free dress day (in class party) £3 a ticket, St (add schhol name) day £2.50 donation to church, Christmas (in class party) £3 a ticket plus harvest donation envelope where the kids were to 'earn' their donation...£5 each, fill a smartie tube with 20p's (god knows how mant that took!) for 'the poor children' plus a panto visit £15each and entry to the nativity (£5 per family). That is well over £80 between my two children alone. This does concern me as we can just afford it (and earn a decent wage) but the pressure on someone who could not would be a lot!

My boys go to a Catholic Primary. I went there too. It's a 'Good' rated school. Lovely family atmosphere. However the constant requests for donations does ring a bell. Our PTA is very proactive, and if it's not them fundraising for yet more playground equipment, it'll be some other good cause. i.e vaccinations for african chidren.. "Egyptian" children was one we had last term. Not sure why them particularly. Christmas boxes..anti bullying week. blabla ) I used to try to do it all but my oldest is in Y4 now so I am getting immune, and just ignore the various letters now. It was getting too much!! The head has promised to restrict the number of charity donations doing the rounds next term as many people made the point that it was getting stupid.

The school cannot refuse to admit children because they have SEN, are entitled to free meals or are gifted/talented. Indeed, if the school is named in a statement of SEN they must admit the child. SEN children (both with and without statements) are much more likely to be excluded than non-SEN children in schools generally so, even if this school has a high SEN exclusion rate, it doesn't necessarily signify anything untoward.

Some teachers shout in class sometimes, I'm afraid. If all of them do may suggest a problem but it is more likely that this is confined to one or two teachers.

The school cannot insist that you make contributions or donations. But I'm afraid some schools do give the impression they can demand money from parents and some send out endless requests for donations. This happens in faith schools and non-faith schools alike in my experience.

Ah Marge2... the christmas boxes, oh and the bottle for the tombola!

Those flippin' Christmas boxes can cost a fortune to fill. Nothing second hand grrr. I try to find some baby size shoe boxes to fill rather than DSs size 4s.

I only did one this year instead of one from each boy.

Plus I tried to explain to my DS2 who is 6 this year that he needs to think about the poor kids in Africa who got no Christmas presents and he looked at me like I was an idiot and said to me "Yeah they do..Children in Need?...DUH...!" Cheeky, but it was quite funny.

Thanks for all responses so far. I just read the school?s Christmas activity booklet, and another worry came up. So many religious activities are in daytime, for example Christmas carol 1, Christmas carol 2, Children Christmas mass (please collect your child from church ? what if a child goes to afterschool club, who would collect him?), etc etc. My full-time job will be screwed up. I hope we do not get in!!!

marge2 to the same note, somebody I know from Africa always says how poor they are and struggling with money, and then when I asked what would you like for present, he said "laptop or a camera" I regret that I asked!

Are you a Catholic? Is your faith very important to you? There seems a real absence of commitment or even interest to the school's most important element in your posts. I am particularly amazed that you are surprised at the number of religious activities which take place during the day. When would you expect them to be held?

bamboostalks yes I am catholic, and the point is not about religious activities but my ability to collect my child from there. If Christmas carols, for example, is sang in a town hall and the note says "please collect your children from there at 3pm", I wonder if the afterschool club will collect the child or I have to collect everytime. BTW, I was hoping for afterschool club because they are cheaper than childminders, and we do struggle with money. After all, I have to maintain my job.
Religious aspect is important and non-discussable, but we can maintain faith not only by attending catholic school, as we have done so far.

i wouldnt think the afterschool club would pick your child up tbh. All our carols services etc are done on school premises during the day but the ending time stays the same. The only time we have to pick up our children early is sports day but unfortunately when you work full time you have to either book holidays or try to arrange other parents to help you out.

Their good results are possibly a function of the low SEN and FSM. I wouldn't take any notice of the G&T as this is a quite meaningless category with no definition to measure one school against the other.

There are of course likely to be good and poor catholic schools. I sent my children to one initially (my DH is catholic) and it turned out the leadership were the most dreadful group of bullies who picked on staff, parents and children. Other schools I'm sure are an entirely different experience.

I'd say don't just send your child to a catholic school because you are catholic. It's far more important to pick a school that is welcoming to families and that has a happy atmosphere. Somewhere where you think your child would flourish.