DH and I are both non-religious. I have no strong feelings about religion either way, it's just not a part of my life. DH is more leaning towards atheism.
We live in a funny school zone where we have our catchment school (secular) a 25 min walk away and then a faith school a 20 min walk away (which doesn't have a catchment). There are two other secular schools around a 40 min walk away. All of the schools are oversubscribed and all places are filled. Some children in our town have got places in surrounding villages a good 20 min drive away.
On our preferences form, we put all four schools down as advice is always to fill spaces. I did go and see the CofE school and really liked it, but was advised that it was highly unlikely DS would get a place as he's low on their admissions criteria. We put it as our second choice purely due to distance.
On Monday we found out that he got a place at the faith school. I'm happy with it as it's a lovely school and whilst not religious myself, we're more than happy to support their ethos. I think DS1 will be very happy there.
However, I'm now worried about DS2. Faith as a criteria is higher on their admissions criteria than siblings. I've lived here for long enough to know that we were lucky that DS1 got in - on the tour the HT said that last year all places were filled on the faith criteria alone. I'm not confident we would be lucky a second time.
If a place comes up for DS1 at the catchment school (he's on the waiting list), should I accept it? This is what DH thinks we should do. I think it's silly to move a child from a good school, especially if he's already started.
I think that we should see how DS1 likes the faith aspect - I would be more than happy to take him to church if he wants to go. I don't want to be one of those parents who goes to church just for a school place but also don't want two children at two different primary schools! DS2 has a few years until we would need to apply but I don't want mega stress around his application time. What would you do?