Church of England schools?

[KJ1000]

I would love some advice. My daughter will start primary in sept 2014 and we are now starting to think about schools. It seems the better schools in our area are the Church of England schools and I think this is because of the emphasis on good values, morals etc.

I really agree with the whole ethos. Only problem, we are not christians and we do not attend any place of worship. There are some other good schools and in our borough (hounslow & chiswick), some outstanding, but due to location will be 50/50 chance of her getting a place in those. Also, with these schools, I am not sure how reliably good they are as I think results, etc is really dependent on the teaching, children and so many factors and ratings are volatile.

I do think the religious based schools are more reliable as they provide a good grounding and I would prefer my daughter to be exposed to this. We are open minded....but CofE schools are also further out. Do these schools accept non-Christians? Would my daughter have a chance?q

you would have to look at their admissions criteria. it quite probably runs something like

children in care
statemented children
CofE baptised and practicing (with form completed by Vicar) siblings
CofE baptised and practicing (with form completed by Vicar) in catchment
non practicing baptised in catchment
non practicing non baptised in catchment
outside of catchment

not always the case but I think almost all CofE schools have priority given to practicing baptised catchment first but will accept non practicing

do visit the schools as well. the c oe school that the dc's attend is very christian... others just nominally and less christian than non church schools.

Also check whether they are VC (in which case the admissions policy will be set by the council) or VA (in which case the school will set its own admissions policy). The latter is where you get preference for baptised children in parish etc; the former often have a CoE 'character' but without preference in admissions.

I think you will find the CofE schools are considered better because parents have to jump through hoops to get places there and thus are pretty much guaranteed to be motivated and interested in their child's education rather than it being down to good morals and values - churches do not have a monopoly on that! That is not to say that all parents in community schools are less motivated and interested, but it's less guaranteed that the majority will be.

The numbers of children on FSM tend to be much lower in selective schools - ditto number of children with SEN and children from overseas who speak other languages and whose parents haven't had the time to get bums on pews for the requisite time. All of these things can have an influence on the school.

In answer to your question, then yes, children from other or no faith can go to church schools but they generally come behind those children whose parents attend church and who are baptised. Out of my 6 closest schools, 2 were Catholic and 2 were CofE - we didn't stand a chance of getting a place at any of them.

Look into the admissions criteria for the actual schools near you. Some only reserve 50% or fewer places for qualifying Christians, but that won't help you if all the other places go to siblings. To qualify for the church places varies but often involves going to church (a set one or any one) at least twice a month for two years. Which some non-Christians do, to get their kids into a 'desirable' school.

Don't believe any rumours about schools or admission criteria - schools can.change fast but reputation takes a decade to catch up. Visit some and make up your own mind.

In your area (where I have 2 DC in primary!) I think all the primary schools are pretty good, and wasn't aware that the C of E primaries were considered "better". (Until recently it's been a different story at secondary, but things seem to be improving there generally). Echo everyone else's comments regarding different faith schools having different admissions policies. Also bear in mind that if the school has a rigorous religious ethos which your DC hasn't previously been exposed to, they (and you) may find it takes a bit of getting used to.

Our local school is CofE and in common with newer school prioritses 50% of places for practising Christians at certain (not all) local churchs. Other half is the usual in care, siblings and distance criteria.

I'd prefer not to send DD there, but was the only one she got into.

School is fine, except for DDs semi regular complaint of being the only one who has to pretend to believe in God. Which makes for interesting discussions.

I would not automatically assume that a Church school is better, I'd visit the schools first. That said, my younger DD is still in a C of E primary, but they only take 10% of intake on faith criteria and the rest on catchment, sibling preference and so on.

It's not very Christian at all, their RE is very much 'about religion' and not just Christianity rather than 'you must believe as we do'. I'd not have let my DDs go there had it been otherwise, it's just that I chose the school because it felt right.