Roman Catholic school

[JonSnowsbuttocks]

We live in the catchment area where we have two Roman Catholic schools and one Non denominational primary school.

I am an atheist but I honestly don't mind my child learning about faith and religion, however both schools have mass every morning and then several prayers throughout the day every day and I just think this is going to be too much.

Has anyone sent their child to a catholic school and not practiced? What were your experiences?

One of the catholic schools is raved about on the education front and it is literally a 5 min walk but I'm not going to put my child through years of what I'd call extreme one sided religious education for convenience.

I went to a Catholic school and was taught the main pillars of religion e.g. love one another etc
No mention of outdated thoughts , my church is very inclusive of everyone too. ( they are in two different towns so I imagine most modern Catholic schools/churches are the same way)

That does sound extreme compared to the Catholic primaries i know of. I was brought up a Catholic and while I'm an atheist now I'm also happy to put my DC into a faith school as they can form their own opinions, as i did. But that sounds a bit heavy. Do you know anyone who has children there in case it's not actually true? The 'mass' might be more like assembly? The prayers might just be saying thanks before going for dinner? I wouldn't object to those but i would to mass and real prayers.

Although in my school we had to do the rosary every day in November. Or September whatever month it was. Was no big deal to me at the time and didn't shape who i am.

I went to a Catholic school. In my local area you can only attend the Catholic school if your dc's have been baptised in the Catholic Church.

Mine has just started last week.
As far as I can tell there's something daily which will include a prayer.
She's had an assembly where the school logo was explained - holy family and who they are. There seems to be a song about the great big god that loves them. On Friday there will be a welcome mass at the church next door. The religious ethos has always been promoted as a key part of the school.
We are not religious but happy that this is part and parcel of the school. I am also prepared for her to ask to be baptised so she can do her first holy communion with the rest of her class.
Its no big deal to me - we will have age appropriate conversations about beliefs, faith, religious leaders and organisations and I'll let her choose her own level of involvement as she grows. I suspect she will be wildly evangelical while young and become more cynical as she gets older.

I'm quite relaxed in my views and I think there is a lot of great things that can be learned from faith. I also think there is a lot to be said for religion encouraging community where everywhere else in the modern world seems to be failing.

I worry about things that I see as normal being promoted as a sin. My partner and I aren't married, I'm divorced due to an abusive ex. Numerous other personal beliefs that some within the church may disagree with but that's life.

I know they are inclusive and do accept children who are not practicing or have been baptised. They obviously prioritise children of catholic faith.

My neighbours but I'm not close to any and worry about offending them by asking about the school.

My next door neighbours have both sold up and moved before children started primary due to this and I'm now panicking.

The non denom school gets an average review at best.

I do think they might have a happier school experience in the catholic school and I can't quite seem to put in to words why that is.

Hadn't thought of the holy communion aspect. It's a valid point, your DC may feel left out if hey don't take part and in order to do so they will need to be baptised. After holy communion comes confession which does discuss sin but not in things like divorce or having children out of wedlock. More in a 'lets be nice to each other and can you give an example where you could have been nicer'. Plenty of people will put their children in there because they're Catholic and have baptised their children but that doesn't mean they practice and there will be other divorced parents. I think in some families the continuation of baptism is a combination of tradition and better schooling options.

I've never understood why parents of non Catholic children would send their dc's to a Catholic school.
I'm in Scotland so maybe it's different here.
I was a single teenage mum when I had my dd. She was baptised, made her first communion and she wasn't the only one in her class who didn't live with both parents.
Our local school was named in the top 10 School's in Scotland. That is why the local council have now said only children who were baptised and follow the Catholic Faith can go there.

I know they are inclusive and do accept children who are not practicing or have been baptised. They obviously prioritise children of catholic faith.

So does my children's school. But the reality is that, despite that, there is not a single child there who is not a baptised catholic. Not all practising, but definitely all baptised.

MiaowTheCat
That's awful

park head op has said the school is better and closer and most likely receives government funding so imo it's a bit shit that she should have to be put off because they teach so much about Roman Catholicism when we're not even a Catholic country. Im against faith schools altogether. Go to church and Sunday school if you really want your children to follow and learn about your chosen religion. Other than a general teaching of all faiths and tolerance, there is no place for it in mainstream education.

Imstickingwiththisone I understand what you are saying but the School in question is a Faith School. I would imagine if you choose to send your child to that school you are prepared to bring them up that Faith. If your not happy to do this , would you not look at non Faith Schools.
I've never known any parents of non Catholic children to consider a Catholic school for their children .

I went to both catholic and secular schools in the 80's and early 90's because of house moves. Even back then it didn't feel that the religious aspects of the catholic schools was to my detriment - messages were always about love and caring and positive impact rather than negatives against divorces, single parents or other religions. In high school the compulsory religious studies lessons were actually challenging about what religion means, interpretation of the bible in our modern lives rather than the archaic views I often read about on here. The only thing my catholic school definitely got wrong was the fact that sex education was ignored but I understand they are no longer allowed to do that.
So having rejected the religion personally I find myself in a situation where the only walkable primary schools are faith based. But I visited them, chose the catholic one as the best fit and am willing to work with them to educate my children. I will not undermine them by saying I don't believe in God or religion and that it's a load of rubbish but am looking forward to some age appropriate conversations that will no doubt come up.
I have enough confidence in my parenting to not be threatened by sending my children to a catholic school and that as they become adults its their own choice what path to follow.

I find it very hypocritical when non-faith parents send their kids to faith schools

Depending on where in the country you live, OP, you may not have the choice anyway. In many parts of London, for example, to get into a RC state school you'd have to have regular church attendance, have baptised your kid before they were 6 months old, etc etc, before you had a sniff at a school place, however close you were to the school.

You pretty much summed up how I thought I'd felt about it @junglebookisthebest until I read how a normal day went. I guess my best bet now is talk to my neighbours and the head of the school and just see how I feel. I'm not firmly set in the camp of 'god doesn't exist' so I like the idea of challenging my child and letting them form their own opinions.

I don't think wanting the best education for my children is hypocritical and I highly doubt even half the families that are attending the local catholic schools are practicing in any way. If my children chose religion I'd fully support that.

I find it very hypocritical when non-faith parents send their kids to faith schools

Eh, I think any parents should be able to send any child of theirs to the nearby state schools, no matter what the denomination of the school. It's not the parents' fault if the local state schools are mostly religious ones, so I don't think it's hypocritical at all.

Archery I'm central Scotland so there is a lot of Catholic schools.

@greendale17
I've honestly never heard of it before.,It has been 20years since dd1 went to school. She was brought up in the Catholic Faith so went to a Catholic school . I would never have thought to send her to a Catholic school if that was not her Faith.

I'm atheist and my DS has started in the local catholic school. It's an excellent school and he has as much right to be there as the most faithful of his 4 yr old friends.

He's been telling me he can't wait for P4 because he'll get food in church 😂 And he made me a 'Mummy and God' card last week. But I don't see any harm in it and when he's an appropriate age he'll learn that some all people have different beliefs and Daddy believes in God but mummy doesn't. He is Catholic himself so can decide if it interests him later in life.

People who say it's hypocritical well, it says a lot about them more than the people attending the school with atheist parents. You do know that catholic schools officially often welcome Muslim and Protestant children? If you have a problem the only person you should be taking it up with is God. (See where that gets you).

Ok so iv just watched at least 10 families walk home in the catholic schools uniform and I would pretty much bet my last fiver that they all don't go to church but I might be wrong. My street doesn't clear on a Sunday morning which I assume is still when most people worship.

It is absurd that 21st century UK still allows the state funding of religious schools. They are divisive and detract from community cohesion.

If religions want schools they should make them private schools and meet all funding costs from their own budgets.

Otherwise religious education should be provided off school premisses and outside school hours.

Mass every morning? Sounds very out of step with Catholic schools I went to in 70s and 80s and nothing like what my daughter has now.
Are you sure you don't mean assembly every morning with a bit of an old pray (Father Ted joke, sorry). Mass is a big deal for at least 40 mins and has to be lead by a priest and includes communion.

In my local council they have recently changed the admissions policy so that you have to produce a baptism certificate go there. I'm in Scotland so that may make a difference. The catholic primary and secondary schools were oversubscribed. My DD has just been baptised. We did this to keep family tradition and also for schooling. I have a feeling I am in the same area as parkhead paradise. We may both be frustrated by the result last night