Catholic private school if you're not Catholic? St Cedd's Chelmsford

[Girl339]

Hi everyone, I'm really stressing out about finding our daughter a place at a prep school near us. We had our hearts set on St Cedds in Chelmsford but I didn't realise it was RC until today and she is christened C of E. Is she likely to get in? Does anyone know how religion-orientated St Cedd's is? Would you send your child to a RC school if you weren't RC? I'm really stressing about this so would appreciate any advise or thoughts.

Slightly different but my son went to an RC state school even though we are c of e. The state schools however have to take 15% non RC to get funding so I don't know if this would apply to private schools too. We liked that they were able to teach religion in the way we were taught eg. The parables etc to instil a sense of what is good and right. They also covered other religions the same way other schools did too so they were taught about Islam, Hinduism etc. There seemed to be a better standard of discipline and the school had fab results too which swayed our decision for son to go there.

Hi HerelAm20, thank you so much for the reply, that's really helpful getting your perspective. I think I need to ring them and ask some more questions.

My DD goes to a catholic secondary. I put "none" in the box asking for our religion, and it didn't affect her application! The girls go to termly mass, at which DD is a bit bewildered, but nothing is made of it. They have the option of doing confirmation classes if they want to, they have a Day of Reflection each academic year and a house dinner each year to remember the nun whose house they are in. I have not found any of these to be OTT. The only thing which annoyed me, and which I can't complain about because I knew the position when she started, and which won't apply to your DD at primary level, is that my DD had to do Religious Studies at GCSE which she wouldn't otherwise have chosen, and Catholicism was a compulsory option within that choice. She really enjoyed it, and seriously considered doing RS as an A Level choice.

From the school's website:

St Cedd’s School is non- denominational, but functions on Christian principles and values.

So C of E sounds fine.

How did you set your heart on a school when you know so little about it you didn't even realise it was Catholic?
Basically, if they're over subscribed your chances of a place are quite low.

There is no requirement for state RC schools to take non Catholics at all.

Some stimulate admission of a certain percentage of non Catholics but the vast majority of RC schools that I know do not. In fact, the nearest 4 to me never get out of their second category (which is RC living in named parish), despite having 9 or so categories, as they are so oversubscribed.

Near me, a non RC has no chance at all of getting in a RC school.

Just to add, near me even non RC children 'in care' (who are usually top of the criteria) are admitted after all other Catholics and most of the schools have no social/medical need categories. E.g. RC kids in care are criteria 1 but non RC kids in care are category 6 in our school.

St Cedd's isn't RC! Are you sure you're not confusing it with New Hall?