how easy is it to covert to Catholicism?

[giddywithglee]

this is a long one, sorry!

3 years ago they restructured the education system in our town. This meant that the school that is on our road, that I had always assumed my children would go to, became completely oversubscribed with siblings, to the point that this year they had to take 37 children into the reception class to accommodate all the siblings (if anyone who knows me can identify me from this please don't give me away!).

Anyway, my son started reception this year, and obviously couldn't get into that school. My first choice was the school he was at nursery at, but he didn't get offered it on allocations day (unsurprising as it's over a km away as the crow flies so plenty of kids in between - our town has a lot of people packed into a small geographical area). But we were offered a place at the Catholic school which is also on our road and Ofsted outstanding, and which has historically been ridiculously hard to get into. We were delighted, accepted and took our son off continued interest for our other choices. He has settled in really well, made loads of friends and is very happy.

BUT I've got nursery applications coming up for DS2, which has made me look at their admissions policy, and I've realised that siblings of non-Catholic children already in the school come way down the pecking order below Catholic non-siblings who live out-of-town. So now I'm panicking (not about nursery, but Reception when the time comes).

There doesn't seem to be any way of finding out if the lower take-up of places by Catholic children this year is a blip or part of a continuing trend, so now I've got massive uncertainty about whether DS2 will get a place when the time comes, which means that I'm now faced with the very real possibility of my children going to different schools.

I've been trying to work out what I can do, and the way I see it I've got 3 options:

1. Wait and see. Apply to the Catholic school and the nearest school (which ironically will have resolved its siblings issue by then) and potentially have the children at different schools.
2. Convert to Catholicism. I'm christened CofE but my kids aren't. My FIL is Catholic and my mum's massive Irish side of the family is too, so it's not entirely alien to us and not something I'm completely opposed to. It just feels a bit drastic (although talking to a lot of the mums in the playground I gather that I would not be in the minority for doing this!).
3. Put DS1 on the waiting list for the next nearest school which is only a 10 minute walk away, and see if he gets a place before I do the Reception application for DS2 (in which case sibling rule applies).

I know it's not the end of the world for them to be in different schools but they're really close, and I hate the thought of them not having shared school memories, no combined school photos, no DS1 looking out for his baby bro in the playground...

Anyway, what would you do in my position? It's daft but it's making me really anxious and I keep changing my mind about what to do!

I am a Catholic and was brought up as one. My parents are both Catholic, my Dh is and my two Dd's are.

Our parish priest will baptise a child without the parents being Catholic.

I know this as some friends from swimming we see got their children baptised just to get in the school. They have never attended mass since. Their children didn't do their sacraments either.

Our priest lends you a dvd to watch and you have to attend one session where they tell you about Catholicism.

I am sure a lot of priests may be stricter but ours isn't.

I was baptised in 1977 and never received a certificate and my children in 2003 and 2005 and they had no certificates either.

I would say that your experience was quite unusual butterfly. The majority take church attendance very seriously, everyone has a baptism certificate which has to be provided with both primary and secondary applications along with a signed statement from the priest saying that the family attend church regularly. In our schools priority is given to those who were baptised before 1 year and to those who are attend more regularly than others. It all depends on what the criteria is in each parish i suppose.

For our primary and secondary applications it is just being baptised that matters and not when it was done. For secondary attending a feeder school is high up on the criteria. You need to write down the date of baptism and the parish but I was never asked for a certificate.

Catholic priests are human beings. They do recongise the church of england up to a point. (A catholic priest will recongise a church of england baptism, even if a catholic school does not recongise a church of england baptism.)

I did consider sending my daughter to a catholic school and the school were quite happy to recongise the baptism she had at three years old. The form asks why your child was not baptised sooner than a year.

My explanation of why my daughter was baptised at three years is old is that Hannah presented Samuel to the priest Eli once he was weaned. In the past babies were weaned between the ages of two and three years old. I chose to have my daughter baptised at a similar age. The catholic priest was happy to except my explanation of why my daughter was not baptised as a baby, even if he does not agree from a theological point of view. If I chose for my daughter to go on the waiting list she would be put in the same category as non catholic christian who had been baptised before 12 months.

If you have an honest conversation with a catholic they can be completely reasonable and sensible.

I was born into a Quaker family.
For convenience of schools my parents had me baptised CofE at age 5
To fit in with the social circle I was entered for confirmation classes age 15

I was not happy about the hypocricy of it

the Vicar told me to treat it as " a lesson in self discipline"

and the bishop who actually confirmed me greeted me with "so this is the atheist one"

I suspected that most religious people were hypocrites before that day

but since then have been utterly convinced that its all about the money and that we atheists are more honest in our caring for others
as we do not need to feel we are being watched

Falsely converting religion for a short term school place is despicable
as you are lying to your children and teaching them a deeply selfish and avaricious approach to the world

look into your heart and see the empty space where honesty once sat

If you are baptised CoE you can be received into the Catholic Church relatively easily esp as a child. for instance if a child wants to make his/her first Holy Communion thru could work towards that and be received into the Cathloic church and it wouldn't be a huge leap for their siblings to be received at the same time . The parish priest might like to see you at Mass though .

I am cofe and dh is RC. We had both dc baptized Catholic at age 4&2. No evidence of dh baptism was supplied and no issue with kids ages at baptism.

School asked purely that child was baptised before application date, nothing about parents, attending church etc etc so check school as I don't know any RC schools near my which stipulate church attendance as part of their criteria.

I do know my dn who is c of e made his holy communion in the Catholic Church! (goes to RC school) - still don't know how that worked but he can now apply to RC school as a Catholic applicant. His parents didn't undertake any classes. This may be an option for the elder child if they undergo communion preparation.

Buttercupsandaisies - "This may be an option for the elder child if they undergo communion preparation." When we were applying for a secondary school for DS, all the school needed was the priest's/vicar's/minister's signature and the church stamp . It is a heavily oversubscribed school (about 1000 applications for 180 places each year), so for other schools it must should be quite easy to get into on religious grounds.

I mean that they won't necessarily need to make the elder child Catholic (currently he isn't). If that child joins in the communion workshops at age 9 with the rest of his current class, then he may then be automatically considered Catholic for admission purposes. As my dn did.