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.

As for not going to communion, the non-Catholics at our school can choose to go up for a blessing or just not go. It's low-key and no big deal. I've attended a few and seen it for myself. I am pals with a couple of the parents and they (and kids) don't feel any pressure to join up. It's the nearest school for them and it makes sense for them to go if it suits them.

I was brought up a Catholic and even in my day (I am about 150 years old), Mass was entirely optional. There was a short Assembly most mornings, but there is in a lot of schools I'm guessing.

You might want to check if your child can just decide "oh yeah, I'm going to do Holy Communion." They probably would need to be Baptised a Catholic first...

I have a junior adult relative who was baptised but did not go to catholic schools. He has a really tough job (physically and emotionally) and has moved to religion for comfort. He takes communion but hasn't had any of the sacraments after baptism.
Not met any Catholic that thinks God or whoever would mind.
All I am trying to say is, although I do know some serious God botherers, most Catholics aren't.
Ever wondered why we don't have more kids than most, why plenty of us get divorced, why pro-choice is what many of us believe in, why we fight homophobia, why we support equal marriage ( see Rep of Ireland and most if "Catholic " Europe), why we want priests to be allowed to marry, why we support women priests. Catholics are many and varied in their opinions.
Your child will not be brainwashed into some mad cult. Especially if you talk to them regularly about what issues matter to you.

I went through o a catholic school for a while. The religious side of things was not extreme or one sided. We had a prayer session every morning, a couple of religious study classes (thus include Catholicism, Christianity in general, history of Catholicism and Christianity, histories of saints, other religions and bible study so things like use of symbolism in the bible, morals of the stories etc) and then a full mass every few weeks. This did not interfere with our usual studies, science and sex Ed were both taught properly. If you have concerns why don't you see if you can find a current parent to talk to?

JonSnowsbuttocks there's a lot of Catholic schools in London, too, and in some places more of those than other or non-denom schools, but they still have very strict entry! (Which makes it really bloody difficult in some places if you aren't Catholic, or can't fake it.)

lalaland1985
Frustration is an understatement, when my DH came home last night.

They use the word mass for the morning but iv been to mass exh was/is catholic and im aware it is quite timely. So I just assumed that took them through to 9.15 or so and then to class.

I will need to just bite the bullet and bother my neighbours and the head of the school and get fully informed then make a decision from there. If it even is my decision in the end as pp say it might already be over subscribed.

I was a little worried about the whole brainwashing thing lol not that I think it's genuinely like that but if your told something enough some do start to believe it. I was also worried about science and sex education being glossed over which I'd be unhappy about.

Everyone's experiences of catholic school seems relatively positive except MiaowTheCat which sounds like it was pretty awful when it was already a hard enough time.

This one is for Greendale, if you want to talk about hypocrites...

www.independent.co.uk/news/science/atheists-nicer-to-christians-religious-identity-known-study-research-ohio-university-a7944586.html

I went to a non Catholic primary but catholic girls school, with its own on site convent. I am a practicing RC my husband is not. DS 18 went to RC primary and has received all the sacraments , but went to a non Catholic high school. He was quite evangelical till his early teens, but he only comes to Mass Xmas eve to keep up a family traditional these days.

I found his primary school to have a lovely inclusive atmosphere and the few non RC were not excluded from anything , and rightly so too.

I am in central Scotland and have just started my PGDE. I volunteered in a local RC school before my course.
Basic outline was:
there is a morning prayer at the start of the day. A prayer before lunch sort of a child friendly way of saying grace. Then a final prayer at hometime.
The prayers used are dependant on the stage the children are at and are all pretty tame. Nothing too preachy.

There was a Muslim child in my class who either simply stood up with the rest of class but stayed silent instead of saying the prayer, or she would remain seated. Whatever she wished to do.
During sacrament preparation, she would often stay with her class and listen to the information, or she would join another class for the hour that the children were doing work directly relating to their upcoming sacrament. The teacher would judge what was appropriate.
You can get more information about what will be covered in terms of RC education on the curriculum for excellence website. They will naturally have a bias towards Catholicism teaching, but they are required to cover other main world religions too.

I'm an atheist too and loved my time at the school.

Proper Mass would never be over by 9.15

At my Catholic secondary school OP, the hypocrisy of teaching the Big Bang theory in one lesson and Adam and Eve in another lesson made us quite critical and scathing of religion to be honest. I think if anyone who left my school was religious it will have been down to their home life and what their parents believe rather than any indoctrination by the school. Good luck!

I agree with Puppy. The shortest Mass anyone I know ever attended was a 20 minute spesh my husband went to when the priest wanted to watch Ireland in the World Cup and assumed everyone else did.
On a related theme , Mum went to a Mass where they got regular updates on England's 5-1 victory over Germany.
9.15 finish for a Mass? No way!

I am RC and went to RC primary school in Ireland, and my DCs went to RC elementary school in the US. My DCs and I went to state schools for secondary (in US this means completely secular, in Ireland relatively secular - school was 'multidenominational').

Nobody in the school will ever address the topic of divorce/remarriage. That is a huge hot potato and would only ever be approached in a full on theology class at secondary or third level.

Science will be taught, and do not worry about evolution. The RC church likes science and has never had a problem with evolution, unlike protestant fundamentalist churches.

Adam and Eve will not be be taught as gospel truth. The RC church is 'prima scriptura' not 'sola scriptura'. Actually, in all the years of seeing my children off to school and supervising homework, I never once encountered any reference to Adam and Eve. Noah's Ark ditto. The focus was on the Eucharist, which is the central element of religious practice, and on what Jesus said and did - parables, teachings, death and resurrection. The emphasis in their religion classes was that we are all God's family, God loves us all, we should try to love one another. During the years of sacramental prep they covered first communion (2nd grade) and reconciliation (4th grade) prep in school - confirmation was done in evening classes.

They did one art unit where they portrayed themselves as saints in the style of certain eras in art. They could pick a saint if they wished for their "dress up as someone famous and give a three minute talk to the class about yourself" day in 3rd grade. DD3 chose Joan of Arc because she liked her warlike qualities...

They had an age appropriate classroom prayer every morning, with any child who wanted to asking for the class to pray for (for instance) a grandfather in hospital, a cat on her last legs, neighbour whose daughter's house was burgled, etc. They had grace before lunch, and a thanksgiving prayer afterwards. At 3 o'clock they had a prayer of thanks for the day. Once a month they had an all school Mass. There is a new priest in the parish now, and Mass is once a week. Children who were not RC could either sit in their pew or go up at communion time with arms folded across their chest and receive a blessing. DD4's Baptist bff used to do that and still does in the very good RC private high school she now attends.

I have a niece who is a Buddhist, attending a RC convent school - no problems related to arrangements for sitting out Confirmation classwork, etc.

Our local school is RC, rated outstanding, just beside the university so attracts a lot of parents from very diverse backgrounds who all want their DC to get in regardless of the faith taught. There are a significant number of children who do not attend RE. There is corruption in the admissions process as there is a long waiting list however every now and again a new family will arrive, the Head will enquire about their occupation and suddenly a new cancer specialist in the university got 3 of his children in, when there are over 100 children waiting . They seem to give less priority to faith background than parent's occupation.

That's not great Grecian .

Mathanxiety your post is really reassuring and as I said down post there are loads of great lessons to take away from religion so I really don't see how it can be a bad thing.

I'm going to set up a quick meeting with head, fire a few questions her way and then speak to my neighbours. I think I'm going to trust my instinct as well and if i like the school ethos i will be happy enough.

Down with that sort of thing [derail alert!]

Ours is a very catholic RC school. DP is RC on paper, I am more of an agnostic having grown up in a Protestant region but fairly religion-free family.

I'm not so sure about things like divorce/single parent families never being mentioned and bible stories not being taken literally!

DS came home aged four being worried about the devil and going to hell. Asking us to get married and me to convert in order to be 'eligible', so to say, to go to heaven; and to be able to be a part of his 'catholic family'. We had several conversations about bible stories with me pointing out that whereas I see them as very important stories, both in terms of what we can learn from them for our own choices and in terms of how they have shaped our history and still do shape our society, I still firmly see them as stories rather than literal truth. DS however having been taught them as truth, made a deliberate choice (at age 4!) to believe his teachers over me and accept them as truth. And he has been taught that God created the world in seven days etc. but, at age 7, has not been taught any evolution theory yet, so guess where he thinks the world and all creatures and plants in it comes from?

I trust in his mental abilities, in concurrence with a critically free-thinking household, to eventually move beyond 'believing someone' (be it his teachers or the bible or a textbook or his parents) to arrive at his own conclusions.

But do check out your particular RC schools. Their character varies hugely. And do not underestimate the brainwashing powers they CAN have over very young minds! More often than not young children are eager to please, and have little choice than to accept what they are taught.

My mum was very devout. I grew up in the 70s. Went to full range of Catholic schools. Didn't really meet any non Catholics till Uni.
Never once heard any bs about what a real family is etc. Because it is BS.

I am divorced myself, and four of my DCs were in school at the time exH and I separated. In fact, I discovered exH was leaving when he came home after dropping them off to school, announced that he had told the DCs in the car that he would be moving out and had invited them to help him find an apartment. After picking myself up off the floor I phoned the school and asked if I could see the principal, as something had happened, and I needed to talk to her urgently. The principal ushered me into her office and after hearing what had transpired that morning gave me a huge hug and said of course I could take the DCs home, so I did. One asked to go back to school after lunch but the others were not in a fit state. The art teacher contacted me to say if the DCs ever needed someone to sit and talk with, to go to her. They couldn't have been kinder to me or to my children.

My atheist parents sent me to a C of E Primary and a Catholic secondary. I'd say both schools were equally religious, however at Primary age I don't think I was affected at all by having to go through the motions of religious worship as a non believer. It really just felt like saying meaningless words. Catholic Secondary I think had more of a negative effect because I was old enough to have a greater understanding.

Db sent his twins to a Catholic primary school rather than the non-denom catchment school.

He then get upset when they taught the P1s that Christ was nailed to the cross at Easter He thought it was too gruesome for 5 year olds he got short thrift from us, given he'd chosen a Catholic school

You've already decided to go in an see the head. That's definitely the right thing to do. Whether it's the catholic or the non-denom school, it's always advisable to visit to get a feel for the school.