Experiences of non-religious families considering a local church primary school

[KhakiZebra]

Hi mums! We are considering moving areas with our 5 year old son, and one of the locations we are exploring only has a religious school as the local state primary within walking distance. We are not church goers so are a little wary of a school that leans heavily on Christian religious teaching as I want our children to learn about all religions and decide for themselves.

Have any other parents been in the same situation, and what have your experiences been? Our children haven't been christened so I also wonder if we would have issues even getting a place at the school. Thanks for reading!

Lots of village schools in England are C of E due to historic connections with the local church. Since they are often the only school in the village, they can’t usually specify church attendance tho check the admission details. But in any case if there is a space and you are outside the usual admission round it won’t be relevant unless there is a WL. You need to ask how far the church links go but it may be little beyond a visit there to sing carols at Christmas (which my dc did at a non-C of E school).

Does the school have a place as you will be an in-year application?

I sent mine to a catholic primary because even though we have no faith the year dc1 went into reception the school we anticipated sending them too when we moved house, changed the way they had reception and went to one large classroom with 84dc (3 classes in one large room). I knew it wasn't going to work for dc1as has asd. The religious side wasn't really an issue (it was routine saying prayers etc) and opened conversations at home. I think the worst thing ironically for outgoing dc2 was small class sizes meaning less friendships/forced friendships. For dc1 and 3 it was great. Other religions were taught and the Catholic side of things my dc saw as part of their schooling.
The only issue was on leaving y6 the majority of dc freinds moved to the Catholic secondary which was over an hour by bus and mine wouldn't have got in as they did not fit the criteria but after a little wobble in y7 whereby dc1 and 3 were upset leaving their friends it was ok.
I dont regret sending them to a Catholic school however I would say from what I've read on here not all religious schools are the same so may need to do some local research.

The school or council website should have the admissions criteria for the school.

We weren't a religious family (celebrate Christmas and have Easter eggs but that was it) and I really enjoyed my village COE school. We sang hymns in assembly which I enjoyed and we learnt some bible stories (but we learnt about all the religions so I didn't notice it too much).

We would pray at the end of assembly but I thought it was quite nice having that moment of quiet reflection, even if I didn't believe anyone was listening in.

We would have some carol singing and christingle services at the church and the occasional class nativity.

I thought it was a great place to be for primary. I'm still not religious now but feel very at peace in churches and do love to belt out a traditional christmas carol.

Edited to add I was never Christened, I think our school was just catchment area based. We had a few Jehovah's witness kids who used to sit out of religious assemblies in the school library.

My sons went to a CofE primary (wasn't planning to, but they were the nearest one with a nursery at the time) and I was a governor there for several years.

The school will teach the standard Religious Studies curriculum, learning about the major faiths, in the same way as a non-church school. They will also have specifically Christian lessons and worship and probably a linked vicar (the children at ours were all very fond of Reverend Alan) but they will be aware that many of the children come from families who don't believe - or indeed from other faiths (church schools are often quite popular with Muslim families, I believe).

My younger son went through the whole school as well as our own church attendance and came out the other end not believing in God, so make of that what you will 🙂

You may find that even if it's oversubscribed, not going to church isn't an issue - a few years ago we agreed to change our admissions policy to remove the priority for churchgoers, and that was becoming quite common at the time, (The school is in a less affluent area, and one of the reasons was that it was set up specifically to serve that area)

Mine went to the local CofE primary in England. Religion was very light really, nativity plays, one prayer at assembly. The community school near had a very religious head, and they did way more religion and had the local evangelical churches leading assembly regularly.
DC school head, vicar and Diocese were very high Anglican. A more evangelical Diocese with a super religious head may be a different environment, so do your research.

I went to a CofE primary and decided not to send my own DC to one because I have no interest in religion as an adult (however we live in an area with a wide choice of schools).

I now work in a CofE school as a TA and whilst I wouldn't send my child there because I don't want her joining in prayers, being taught Christianity as fact etc there are definitely advantages to a CofE school so if it is your only option it may well work out as a good one. Behaviour is very good because they lean quite heavily on the Love and Respect for others stories from the Bible. Collective Worship provides good structure to the day and there is a strong sense of community which was a bit lacking in my previous non religious school. Other religions are taught as per the national curriculum, but Christianity is very much taught as "Jesus teaches us that..." rather than "Christians believe that..." So if you are ok with that and can open up conversations at home about teachers believe that / teach in that way and we should respect it but think differently then a CifE school can be great.

I sent mine to a Christian primary school and it was really nice, there were a few children of other faiths there too and so being Christian wasn’t mandatory.
They did a church service once a week and a traditional nativity play but I don’t think it was detrimental in any way as it was a learning experience for my son.

I’m a lapsed Catholic atheist. My dc (now teens) went to a CoE primary school largely because it was very convinient and had wrap around care. Christianity was fairly moderate. They said a prayer in assembly and before lunch. Nativity play. Church services at the end of term.

We have never been religious as a family/household. I rather like that the DC experienced Christianity at school, but it had never been something that we’ve done at home, or considered since they left primary school.

Considered it for one of our DC. Went to an open day, Head wanged on about the Christian character of the school, Christian values etc (yawn). We asked the Year Sixes showing us around and got the real picture of how religious the school was from them! I.e. not at all religious. Didn't go for that school in the end but that wasn't the main reason.

My DS is just coming to the end of his time in a C of E primary school. They have collective worship twice a week and a school prayer. They also do some religious education. it's a bit happy clappy and I always skip the religious bumph in the newsletter. Result: my 11 year old is now an atheist. My DH is a Christian. I went to a convent school and am also an atheist but we left it up to our son to decide what he believes. Other than that it has been a decent enough school.

DD is in year 1 at our local primary which happens to be C of E. They cover all other religions in their teaching too, she can get a bit happy- clappy (“mummy, did you know god lives here <bangs chest> in our hearts) but I’ve been reliably informed by a lot of parents of older kids that they tend to grow out of that.

If the only school locally is the c of e school, you may well find there’s a big mix of religions / atheists at the school anyway. Ours is the only school in the village and people go there based on distance. Some go to a private school or a further away catholic school, but basically everyone else is at the c of e school, quite a few Muslims included.
I was also worried as a non religious atheist family, but it was fine. Ours is actually separate infant and junior schools, and the junior school was much more “our Christian values” than the infant school, and they both had “open the book” church visitors puppet show assemblies etc. Kids came home talking a little about Jesus etc from the infant school and we would just say “yes, that’s what grandma x believes too” or that sort of thing, didn’t want to put any pressure on them either way though they knew we didn’t believe or go to church. It ramped up at junior school but by that point they were more suspicious and didn’t buy it. It was a great school and they just ignored the Christian bits eventually.