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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

Confused about schools and church

57 replies

Pastnowfuture · 30/10/2021 23:26

My son is only 18 months but a few people have asked me what school I would like to send him to. When I responded to this question today with my usual answer 'name of local non-religious school' I was informed that I'm unlikely to get him in as it's rated outstanding and there is a big housing estate right next to it where people buy to secure a place. It turns out this person is the assistant head there. She also told me that last year over half the places were taken by siblings.

The only other options within 25 minute walking distance are 1 Catholic school (outstanding) and 2 C of E schools (good), all of which a quick internet search tells me are oversubscribed. The online criteria says families regularly attending church for 2 years before applying will be prioritised.

I'm now worried we won't get a place at any and will have to take the bus to school in a different town. I had no idea this was a thing. We just went to the closest school growing up. It may sound silly but I'm worried about how I will get to work on time and the cost of the busses, plus how tired my little boy will be with the extra travelling time (about 40 minutes x 2).

I feel like my only option is to start going to church but it feels morally wrong. I was brought up Catholic but have no intention of returning to the Christian faith. Am I missing something? Is this common?

OP posts:

RussianSpy101 · 30/10/2021 23:29

Don’t send your child to a Catholic school if you aren’t going to raise them Catholic. The chances of having him baptised if you aren’t a regular attendee are slim to none, so it’s doubtful you’ll get him in anyway.

Childminder would solve your work worries. Any chance of moving onto the estate for catchment for the community school?

PeachesPumpkin · 30/10/2021 23:31

Usually faith criteria is at the bottom. It is usually looked after children, siblings in catchment, catchment, siblings out of catchment, faith, out of catchment.
Have a look at their actual admissions.
You would usually get into your catchment school.

RussianSpy101 · 30/10/2021 23:33

@PeachesPumpkin not for catholic schools.

RussianSpy101 · 30/10/2021 23:34

Our catholic school -

Catholic LAC
Catholic children living within the parish of the school
Catholic children living outside the parish
Children with a sibling in the school
Children who are members of a Christian church
Children who are members of other faiths
All other children

Piapiano · 30/10/2021 23:35

For faith schools, faith comes after looked after children such as those who are in care or adopted.

RitaTheBeater · 30/10/2021 23:37

I'd start looking into the admissions criteria of the CofE schools if they have any which they probably won't. Also, look out for neighbours children and see where they go.

plopplopplop · 30/10/2021 23:39

If you check and find out that you definitely won't get a place at any nearby school, then go down the church route if you have to. A lot of the other 'practising Catholics' are only doing so for school purposes so you'd be no more of a hypocrite than them.

ParkheadParadise · 30/10/2021 23:41

I attended a Catholic school because I was brought up in the Catholic faith. Both my Dd's were baptised in the catholic church, attended RC schools made their first communion, etc.

In our council area, you must show your baptism certificate to attend the Catholic school and also attend Mass regularly.

antsinyourpanta · 30/10/2021 23:43

Many people i know attended church for the (minimum) required amount of time to get their children into the school of their choice, not because they were particularly religious but because that was either the best, or nearest, school.

SpottyStripyDuvet · 30/10/2021 23:47

You need to look at the criteria for school admissions on your local authority website. It should list the criteria for all schools in their area. You can then see whether there is a requirement for baptism, church attendance etc. IME Catholic schools tend to be more likely to want baptism certificate etc.

plopplopplop · 30/10/2021 23:47

And the priest will baptise your child. They see many parents that have a sudden desire to find God just as their children are starting primary school and while they're not stupid, they rely on donations and so won't turn you away. But you will have to attend Mass weekly to get them to sign the certificate of Catholic practice or whatever it's called now.

RussianSpy101 · 30/10/2021 23:50

Schools or Frs aren’t fooled easily, either.
Having a child baptised after 6 months, unless there’s a valid reason such as illness, will raise eyebrows.
Don’t forget, if you plan to move them to an RC high school with their peers,
You’ll have to show up again in Y3 for FHC and again in Y6 to have their faith passport signed.
It’ll be embarrassing.

ParkheadParadise · 30/10/2021 23:54

Both my dd's were baptised at 2 and 3 months.
With Dd1 I attended Mass every week for years. I now attend with dd2 every week it's part of their school studies.

QueenofLouisiana · 31/10/2021 00:01

I teach in a CofE school, it’s very clearly a church school you couldn’t possibly think otherwise. However, faith is the last of our admissions criteria and is only used in the event of two children living the same distance from school and us being oversubscribed. Pretty certain we’ve never used it.
As a result, we have families of many different faiths and those of none at all.

RussianSpy101 · 31/10/2021 00:03

@ParkheadParadise mine were similar age to yours. My eldest son was the oldest to be baptised at 6 months as he spent 3 months in hospital from 4 weeks old.

CherryMaple · 31/10/2021 00:08

DS goes to a C of E primary school. There is no faith requirement - and the school is oversubscribed. There are practicing Sikh and Muslim families at the school.

Are families expected to attend church for 2 years at the C of E schools local to you, or is it just the Catholic one? If you do have to attend for two years, you may come to enjoy it? There’s no obligation to continue afterwards?

ParkheadParadise · 31/10/2021 00:11

@RussianSpy101
My 5 siblings and I were all baptised at 1 month old 😜
My Mammy had us down the chapel after she registered your births😃😃

BananaPB · 31/10/2021 00:12

Your local council website should list how far away each school took children from. This isn't a guarantee that you'll get a spot but you'll know how likely. Check this for the last few years for the non-religious school

RussianSpy101 · 31/10/2021 00:12

@ParkheadParadise I love that! Your mum sounds similar to my granny!!

prh47bridge · 31/10/2021 00:24

@Piapiano

For faith schools, faith comes after looked after children such as those who are in care or adopted.

This is not necessarily true. Looked after and formerly looked after children of the faith must be first priority but children of the faith can be prioritised ahead of LAC not of the faith. I haven't come across a CofE school that does this but most RC schools seem to.

ZenNudist · 31/10/2021 00:26

I'm surprised you know the name of the local community school. I certainly didn't know anything about schools when my dc were so young.

You seem to have hit on a button pushing issue as faith schools are a divisive issue on mumsnet.

Why don't you find out which schools you are in catchment for before you start worrying about it?

If you aren't in catchment for a community school then a local faith school should be an option as the system now seems to be designed to send children to a catchment school.

Faith schools have to take a certain proportion of non faith children. CofE is generally not a very religious school experience.

I wouldn't set too much store by ofsted outstanding and good grades as ofsted haven't been doing inspections in the pandemic.

Our "outstanding" RC Primary has been bobbins during the pandemic.

If you don't want to baptise dc or go to church then don't.

ZenNudist · 31/10/2021 00:32

BTW it's pretty normal round here to do a 2for1 baptism with an older say 3yo and a baby. We did similar with 4yo ds1 and 6mo ds2.

We also don't have faith passports or any major requirement to attend church (RC).

I started to attend church when ds1 did his first Holy communion but most people were very sporadic and dropped off straight afterwards.

TizerorFizz · 31/10/2021 08:55

CofE have two different categories of school. Aided and Controlled. Often Aided want parents to have gone to church. Controlled tend to be more relaxed.

Look at the web site of your Local Authority Admissions. They might have details of how places were allocated at each school. Don’t forget sibling numbers from year to year. See what you can find out about where DC go to school in your street. I would start doing research with your local authority. I think it’s not fair when parents live in these black holes for schools where they feel excluded from the local ones.

TizerorFizz · 31/10/2021 09:09

Just to add: my local authority has a county wide admissions policy for CofE voluntary controlled schools. I’ve just looked at it. There is no requirement to attend church at all. In fact admissions are the same as community schools. My DDs went to a CofE controlled school. It was our local school. At that time church didn’t come into admissions and I’m pleased if still doesn’t. It’s a school for everyone in the community. So do check. RC schools are rarely like this and CofE Aided set their own admissions and can select on religion.

spanieleyes · 31/10/2021 09:47

None of the Cof E schools in my local diocese have a faith requirement as part of the admissions procedure

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