Admissions - faith vs non faith schools

[Ilovecaviar]

Hi, new poster here, long time lurker,

I have read some other admission related posts and some of you Sound really knowledgeable about admissions so I’m posting in the hopes of some advice.

We live in a small town and our only school in catchment in our town is a faith school, CofE, we are firm atheists and therefore would not send our children to a faith school. 1.1 mile away

Hence we applied to the other non faith based school in our town which is out of catchment 2.1 mile away. The school is down the road to us and its really fustrating that It is not in catchment but that’s a separate issue.

I believe the majority of the town are in catchment for both schools but given the way the catchment areas fall we are unlucky to not be.

We did not get into the non faith based school (first choice) and we did get a place at the faith school (second choice) - despite us explaining in the admission our reasons about faith and that we only included the faith based school as a second option as we were strictly told to not leave it blank etc.

We did not look at the other non faith based schools as they are out of our town, out of our catchment area, some are rated OFSTED outstanding so chances of getting in were nill and most importantly we already have 2 of 3 children settled in the nursery of the non faith school and believed based on last years data that we stood a fair chance of getting a place, i.e not all the 60 places were filled last year.

So we have appealed and asked to go on the waiting list for the non faith based school, based on our beliefs that all children should have a right to access a non faith based school given that there is an option to do so.

Children outside of the catchment area were successful in gaining admission so we know that there were places available once all children in catchment were admitted.

Do we stand a chance if we need to go for an appeal?

When places are allocated do admissions take into consideration the supporting text?

Do the admission authority allocate all available spaces or do they reserve some in case of appeals being successful or a vulnerable child moving into the area?

Thanks!

@exexpat interesting, will have a look.

You'd be utterly unreasonable to reject the school without even seeing it...

You can tell nothing from a website. You may well find the non faith is more 'preachy' than the c of e.

All schools have to have a collective act of worship btw - it's the law. The UK is not a secular society.

My kids school was a c of e. There were plenty of Muslim kids who visited the church you know. They also visited other places of worship. No school will be god made the world in seven days type stuff btw.

My DC attend a faith school, website mentions attending church etc. In reality the children take part in services if they are given permission. More importantly the teaching of God is not given as fact it is presented ds 'some people believe x'. Your child will likely have to attend the faith school so I think it's probably best you contact the school to establish what exactly they are taught and the extent of their involvement with the church.

C of E schools don't teach RE as fact (and it also covers other religions).

I also second what a PP says about the need for church schools to make their websites emphasise their religious side because of the inspectors.

The fact that you were told to put it down second rather than leaving a space makes no difference, you understand that yes? If you had left it blank, they would have put you in a school further away you hadn't chosen and it rather sounds from the description of the area that it would have been a more distant faith school no one else wanted either. Or if this school had spaces, you would have got it.

I see the point you're making, OP, and it has a certain validity, but beware of being too rigidly doctrinaire about rejecting a place at a C of E school. As many pps have pointed out, community schools are frequently at least as insistent on pursuing a religious agenda as 'faith' schools. The school character is usually led by the inclinations of the head teacher than the heading on the stationery.

DH and I are about as atheist as you can get - paid up members of the NSS and Humanists etc. We lived in a black hole for primary, where 5/6 of the closest schools were highly sought after faith schools where baptism after 6 months probably denied you a place, and the 1 remaining school we were 50m out of last place ever offered.

It was infuriating that our taxes went to pay for schools that actively discriminated against our child. Eventually we got a place at a fantastic primary in the 3rd week of reception - it was a 40 minute bus ride to get there (on a good day), but worth it. Also the nearest thing to a secular primary that exists in this country.

What did become obvious during my fairly extensive schools search at the time, is that the level of religiosity is basically dependent on the HT. I have seen community schools that have no faith criteria, but a born-again xtian HT who sees fit to ram as much god into the place as they possibly can, and CofE schools where there is little more than the Golden Rule and celebrating major festivals.

Quite often, a CofE is a better bet - at least you know what is likely to be being taught.

But yes, it is appalling that their is no right to opt out of a religious school - the opting out of religious services etc is easy, but it's actually far more insidious... prayers in class etc