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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Admission to Catholic school

118 replies

Evuliux · 10/01/2018 15:41

I just wonder if anyone could advice with re to admission to Catholic school. The main criteria is 'baptised children', however, my little girls is getting baptised in May. We are catholic family, attend parish church(which is linked to the school) regularly, church priest has signed the forms required with re to attendance etc. However, when I took the supplementary forms in I've been told that unfortunately we will be at the bottom of consideration list simply because my little one hasnt been baptised yet. Surely, it would be more important that she would start school in September as baptised child and us attending church regulary and having a date set with the priest etc would be enough of an indication to meet the criteria. Has anyone by any chance had similar experience or have any advice? Many thanks!

OP posts:

Lifechallenges · 10/01/2018 23:55

I was late baptising both of mine for a myriad of reasons: far flung family, terminal illness in family, family bereavement, moving house and parish, pregnant with DC2 soon after DC1 etc
I chose to have one service for both when family could attend. They were eighteen months and just three. The other delay was that our new parish priest would not baptise them unless we'd been to church for six months!!! He was blatantly sceptical of baptisms for school admissions.... yet I dont like the school. As such the RC school was never my first choice so they don't go there but I didn't want to not baptise them. We go to church, albeit now not every week. They know they are catholic.
Our local RC school gives priority to baptised in parish and I'm sure Some thought that was our reasons lol not realising I had no intention of it.
Other RC schools expect baptism within six months and some dont seem that fussed as not over subscribed.
Op post age four is very late even by my standards!!!

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 11/01/2018 00:50

There are no unintended consequences to the admission criteria, brilliotic?!

And adopted / looked after children do come under exceptional circumstances in the criteria priority.

shhhfastasleep · 11/01/2018 05:55

Looked after children are a top priority in our Catholic schools, primary and secondary.

brilliotic · 11/01/2018 09:55

Some catholic schools (ours included, until recently) only give priority to CATHOLIC looked after/formerly looked after children. I.e. baptised. All other LAC children come only after every baptised child has been admitted, when there is frequently no space left.

There may be other instances that legitimately lead to late baptism, as Lifechallenges says. The consequences of requiring baptism before a certain date e.g. school application deadline, 6 months, 3 months etc may be intended or unintended, which is why I put a question mark. I believe most admission criteria are intended to ensure that only truly catholic children/families get admission priority (to weed out people who find faith for school choice purposes). Being cynical, they may be intended to also weed out those children who, albeit catholic, might cause trouble for the school further down the line (behaviour, results) - as looked after/formerly looked after often do, and also perhaps children who by other legitimate circumstances have not been baptised yet, even though the family really is catholic. But I prefer to believe that when a school effectively excludes catholic looked after children who had an incredibly rough start to life and have therefore not yet been baptised (by only giving them preference if they have been baptised) and other children who may for legitimate reasons not yet have been baptised despite really being catholic, that that is an unintended consequence. Like our school, they may be amenable to including a clause in the admission criteria that allows for late baptism in extraordinary circumstances (which could cover other circumstances than LAC too).

shhhfastasleep · 11/01/2018 10:20

Nope . Our schools don't distinguish between catholic and non-catholic LAC as far as I know.

jellycat1 · 11/01/2018 10:46

Sorry but it's highly unusual for a practising Roman Catholic family to wait that late to baptise a child. The norm is within the first 6 months but almost never later than a year in my experience. I believe that's why most RC schools place an emphasis on this requirement - because its a key sacrament and it's not meant to be memorable for the baby!

jellycat1 · 11/01/2018 10:49

shhh - TOTALLY agree with you re the ball-less wonder Tony Blair.

shhhfastasleep · 11/01/2018 13:27

Ta, jellycat. It really bugs me that he was clearly too cowardly to do it. We've never had an RC PM. Never had any number of minorities represented at PM and I hope that changes too.

EggsonHeads · 11/01/2018 13:31

Pretty much the entire mission of the chathoilic church re children in the past 50 years has been to get 'em while they're young. It's not really surprising that they demand baptism is it? Can you have her baptised earlier?

prh47bridge · 11/01/2018 13:31

Just to confirm, Catholic schools are required to give first priority to Catholic looked after and formerly looked after children. Non-Catholic LAC/former LAC must be given priority over all other non-Catholic children but can come after all Catholic children in admission priorities.

Catholic schools are mixed. Some give top priority to all LAC/former LAC, others only give top priority to Catholic LAC/former LAC.

Lifechallenges · 11/01/2018 19:50

Eggs that's so true normally... But our new parish priest after we moved was awful and really made me almost give up. In fact I almost went to another parish to just ask them to baptise them as I wanted it earlier ideally. But I also wanted to do it locally. It was like the power crazed priest was sure that people only did it to get a school place, despite us being catholic, had attended catholic schools etc
I wonder what he thought when we never applied lol

StopTheRoundabout · 11/01/2018 20:19

I've never heard of anyone who is actively practicing the Catholic Faith waiting years to baptise their child. The point of baptism in the RC Church is to cleanse the DC of 'original sin' and welcome them into God's Family. It is also important in order to be buried on sacred ground should you die and in order to receive the other sacraments as they grow within the Church. It wouldn't make any sense to leave any genuine and practicing Catholic child without the sacrament for up to 3 or 4 years. The RC Church rules are the same across the world AFAIK. I'm not surprised the School aren't taken in by your explanation. What Country are you practicing in? If it were tradition the School would be aware of the practice.

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 11/01/2018 20:24

Power crazed priest; suggesting you had to have attended church for the past six months, Lifechallenges??
I can see why he thought you were only after a school place when you wanted your three year old christened as a matter of urgency but weren't prepared to attend mass

Lifechallenges · 11/01/2018 20:34

We had attended in our old parish but as we moved house the new one then insisted we went every six months which meant we were later than we would of been was my point. As I said we had a number of reasons why we didn't ask until age 2 and 1 including family illness and subsequent bereavements, family situation and lots of other things.
I never said I didn't want to do it at all - just meant that we had to wait six months extra

Lifechallenges · 11/01/2018 20:39

I'd also know several other parents who for one reason or another didn't baptise DC until age 1-2 years. Not that unusual round here... where we live a lot of people don't have family or God parents living near by due to the nature of the population, so need to get a date when everyone can come, much like sorting a wedding and no upset aunt Nellie who has to be there.
I can see it's easy for people to make sweeping assumptions....

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 11/01/2018 20:40

But... they do Christenings as part of a normal church service. If you'd genuinely been attending mass in your old parish you could have had it done without any particular fanfare almost any Sunday at all.
What you really mean is that it was logistically difficult to organise the celebration party? For three years...

Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar · 11/01/2018 20:41

Ah, x post. It was about the party

OlennasWimple · 11/01/2018 20:43

There's a big difference between baptising at 1-2 years, though, Lifechallenges and doing it at school application age 4-5 years, though, surely?

If baptism is an integral part of your faith, as it is for Catholics, then there is really very little excuse for not getting it done in the first 4 years of your child's life. Unless, of course, it isn't really important to you because you are not actually that devout

Rainbowsandflowers78 · 11/01/2018 20:47

You really should have read the admission criteria before now - only just before the deadline
You’ll need to get baptised this weekend or you won’t get a place.

Hoping for the best isn’t going to get you in.

And fwiw - we had all manner of family stuff going on and we still managed to baptise our dc before a year old each time

Lifechallenges · 11/01/2018 23:28

You have to love how nasty and self righteous people get on these threads. In my case as I said we had a period of significant upheaval and a house move with two children under two and two family bereavements following terminal illnesses. We wanted a baptism with remaining immediate family there who all live 2-4 hours away and have own DC and jobs etc. We did not have a party or big cheesy celebration - we had a quiet meal for 16 and a lovely special day with 12 family members and DC and two good friends and there two DC. Flame me if you like and no our parish priest at the time would not just do a baptism as part of a normal Sunday mass..it had to be booked weeks in advance

Lifechallenges · 11/01/2018 23:32

So Iamagray I find your post is really very offensive. I was merely saying that its not always as simple as you may think, but hey feel free to pull up judgey pants.

Lifechallenges · 11/01/2018 23:44

Lamagray also - whilst you pull up your judgey pants consider how you would feel if you lost both your parents whilst your DC1 was less than 12 months old and you were pregnant with DC2. Then factor in an area move and job moves and a priest who won't just build baptism into any old Sunday mass without you being a parish regular and wanting family and god parents to be there.. and maybe you will gain some Christian empathy SIGH

shhhfastasleep · 12/01/2018 07:37

Life, my experience too. Yes, baptism can be part of aSunday mass but it is obviously with prior arrangement.
Some priests are hard work . As are some people- our old priest was a come one come all type with whom I had some fascinating discussions about women priests etc. The new one is pretty horrible- not a people person at all. He's losing parishioners to other parishes /or completely in droves.
Sorry you've been having a rough time.

Rainbowsandflowers78 · 12/01/2018 08:12

I think they put the rubbish priests in the ‘safe’ seats of outstanding school parishes... there’s no ways ours would get a tenth of the parishners if it wasn’t for the school. It’s a shame because I think it’s puts the kids off long term.

shhhfastasleep · 12/01/2018 08:15

In our case with a rubbish priest, the school has been close to "special measures ". Hard work of the head and staff to improve it. Priest remains hopeless with children and people generally. If only they had women priests ... for another thread, I guess.

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