Another which school should I choose..

[geojojo]

We have decided on the top two but realistically we won't get either of them, there is a small chance we will get number 2 but I'm not counting on it. Which would you put third out of the following:
A. CoE school about 15 minute walk away. Has average results for area but a good reputation. My ds goes to the linked preschool (purely because it's closest to us) and most of his peers will be going to this school so he'll have friends. I wasn't impressed by the visit. Reception seemed chaotic and I saw some silliness from children which they didn't stop when head walked in. My son is quiet and sensitive so it didn't strike me as an environment that he would settle easily into.
B. Catholic school next door to school A. Results slightly better than school A. I loved it when we visited. It was calm, quiet and organised and children were polite and seemed happy. I could imagine my ds really thriving there. However we are practising Christians and I feel a bit uncomfortable with the Catholic ethos. I emailed and they said they are inclusive as they do have a lot of non catholics but children would be expected to take part in daily prayers and they have Catholic icons everywhere. I think it might be good for ds to have exposure to other religions though? Although it's v different to church we attend on Sundays.
Both have been undersubscribed for the last 4 years so we would probably get in but would put the one I didn't choose 3rd as 4th choice.

2 as you prefer it & not anti religion.
Catholics are 'practicing Christians' too just like you. You would just be showing them a different type of Christianity at a Catholic church that's all..

I went to both a catholic primary and secondary school. I am atheist.

Your child will grow up believing what it wants to. You can give him the well rounded religious education outside of school / explain the differences etc.

The catholic teachings only spread so far into the curriculum and you can counterbalance them at home if you don’t like them.

If you liked the feel of the catholic one and feel he would thrive better in a more academic ethos - send him there.

Thank you for your replies.

I am leaning towards the Catholic school. A couple of other concerns are that the school may become more popular and my dd wouldn't get in in a few years and also that my ds might miss out on fully being a member of he school community as a lot of the children will go to the same church and go through the same rites of passage like FHC.

As another committed-Christian who is non-Catholic I feel your dilemma. I think you might have to be more clear at times with your children over "some people do this but we do not" or "some people believe that, we believe this" - although, that may be no bad thing in clarifying how you make your religion part of your lives. And of course you can remain strongly committed to your own church.

I'd try to understand in real terms what proportion of the school is typically non-Catholic - is it nearer 50/50, or are a strong majority Catholic, that could create a very different experience for your children.

Personally we would never have considered Catholic schools for our children, but that reflects having grown up elsewhere where the catholic schools were incredibly unpleasant about religion, and mostly put it a long way ahead of educational standards too. Even though catholic schools in England are quite different to where we come from, we couldn't have felt comfortable going into that environment let alone putting a child in it. [and, as I told a catholic friend of mine once, we'd have had to answer to both sets of grandparents had we done so!]

If you have a strong chance of getting into both I would go for the one that you got it the best gut feeling for.

To me that would be the catholic school. I would see how many of the children are non catholic though. Catholic schools do teach about other religions so your DS would still learn about them, just wouldn’t get the first hand experience of mixing with them. Going to a catholic school doesn’t necessarily mean your DS will become a catholic, you are able to explain that this is what some people believe but your family doesn’t. It will teach your DS more about being open minded about life and others beliefs.

As for the CoeE school I would expect a bit of chaos in a reception class but would expect this to stop further up the school. Did you get to see the other classes? What was the behaviour like in those?

Have you considered going and looking around the schools again? Asking for a tour of the whole school? Write a list of questions and concerns and see how the head teacher (and class teacher if you are able to speak to them) answers them. This will tell you more about the place than an open day.

All schools have to follow an agreed syllabus for RE so every school will give some exposure to different religions. The religious schools give more exposure, on a daily basis, to their own religion than non religious schools but all schools must have a daily act of worship.

When choosing a school, you must list at least one you will definitely get into. If the preferences you list are all oversubscribed and you don’t qualify for any of them, you will be allocated the nearest school with places. So do check which is your local school where your DC will get a place and definitely put that one down.