Faith Schools

[Cam2020]

Morning M'net,
Does anyone have any experience of sending children to a faith school if you're not practicing? If so, what was your experience?

My daughter will be starting primary school in September 2021, so we are starting to think about the local schools in our area, of which there aren't loads. There are two very good faith schools, one C of E and one Catholic. My partner and I were both rasied as Catholics but have not practiced as adults (not married, daughter not baptised). I'm really torn about applying to these schools as a non practising family. We don't want to go down the suddenly 'rediscovering' our faith route, so I realise there's a good chance of her not getting a place anyhow, but my concern would be that she might feel left out or too different if she were to go.

Does anyone have any insights or thoughts?

practising

Faith schools differ wildly in terms of the level of "religion" involved so the only real answer is that you need to go to school and see for yourself what you think of the school and how they undertake the religious side of things.You might be surprised how much is more PSHE than religion content. All schools, whether faith or otherwise have to have an act of worship each day.
In terms of getting a place, you need to look at what the admission criteria says. If it includes, which is very likely for the catholic school, giving priority to baptised children, then you need to be considering whether it is sensible to be considering the school as many will have more applications than available places.

Thanks for tali g the time to respond. Priority is definitely given to children who attend the local church and the Catholic school has a stamp system to prove you are a regular church goer for priority admissions. We'll definitely be taking a look at both schools at their open evenings in the autumn so we will find out more then. I know it's not really worth worrying about until then, but I am a planner/worrier (and probably over thinker too)

My daughter attends C of E school. Was a bit of a shock when she came home and told me about the good Samaritan at 4 years old BUT I love that the school actually focuses more on the values and the underlying messages. The school is so so nurturing I couldn't be more pleased.

"will she feel left out or too different?" will probably depend on how many children don't get faith places which also affects how likely you are to get a place as well! First thing is to check exactly what the admissions criteria are for all local schools and then (although it is not an exact science year to year) check the previous few years admissions data (might be on local authority website or may be on school website) to see how it works in practice and, where geography comes into play, whether you would have got in.

You need to look at the schools and compare with the alternatives. In areas where there are only faith schools, there will be many children from non-religious homes. Where there is a choice, the faith schools may have very few children from other backgrounds, but equally non-denominational schools occasionally get a head who wants to push as much religion as they can. While some heads at CofE schools may want to welcome the whole locality.

I applied to a CofE school over a non-denom one for primary, as the head had actively moved to prioritise only 50% of places for Christians, so as to reflect the local area. For secondary I could have got dc1 a place at the nearby amazing Catholic school, but only kids who aren't practicing Catholics there have EHCPs.

I didn't want it to be obvious dc1 has an ECHP, and if there are only 1-2 non-practicing Catholics in a year of 200 kids, people are bound to assume everyone understands what is going on. So didn't apply there.

Thanks for the replies, I guess it really does depend on the individual schools. I'll do my research and see how I feel when I visit later in the year.

I personally only have good things to say about my own experience at a Catholic school, and while I don't really believe in God any more, I do like the ethics and values of Christian teachings. I just worry about her being the only one who doesn't make her First Communion or feeling different because she's not in the congregation of the local church every Sunday, but I'll only be able to gauge that when I go along.

We are an oversubscribed faith school. We accept all faiths as equal for our faith applications.
We are a multicultural school with lots of different religions and many without any belief. The next school priorities C of E above other faiths. Catholic schools tend to prioritise Catholics first.

My point is even within faith schools there are some I would send my children to and others I would not. Faith schools are like chalk and cheese.

Thanks. Of course they all have their own culture and different environment, just as a all schools do. I shall go along to all of them with an open mind. I'm definitely over-thinking things