Church of England schools

[aideesmum]

Does it matter if you are not actively religous? The best school around my area is a CofE school and looks wonderful - would they take my ds?

It depends on the school. Some will take on the basis of location but some have strict entry requirements. For the one my DS gets into you have to attend one of two local churches and they ask that the vicars grade your applicaton from 'attends infrequently' to 'goes every week including weekdays'!!!. You also have to provide a photo to check that the vicar recognises you.

We don't go to church but we got in because there were not enough reception places locally so they added another class. Just pure luck as it is hugely oversubscibed.

depends if it's VA or VC. Ours takes anyone, the one down the road has the 'attends church regularly vicar's recommendation' thing... need to check individual school prospectus as all differ.

It shouldn't matter if there are enough places to go round in order of entry criteria. Usual priority is:

Looked After Children,

Church places (1/3 in our school)

Siblings

Nearest to school

Do make sure this is what you want though as we have many parents of children in our school who are not religious at all and thought it wouldn't matter because the school is 'nice', but find they are getting more and more irritated by the practices and teaching that they have no belief in.

We have church places because this is what we wanted for our children. There were good schools closer to us which were also nice, but we felt this was the right one for us because it is a church school.

We had to put an entry on a separate form to apply for the church place and they do check you out, but the remaining places are for anyone, in order of meeting criteria, so if the school isn't over-subscribed, you should get in.

Interested in this - we're moving from France (totally secular state education) back to the UK next month, so I've had to find my dcs a primary school from a distance (obviously I went over and visited) - this was my first interaction with the UK education system since I left school, so a bit of a learning curve.

In the town we're moving to, only one of the 5 primaries is non-denominational, and I liked one of the C of E schools a lot better. The head was lovely, and she has no problem whatsoever with us being heathens. So that's where they're going.

I am, not nervous exactly, but interested in how DS 1 will get on with having religion suddenly becoming part of his curriculum, and having something he's always known as a choice being presented as fact. But he'll cope.

And to answer your question, in this case (and I can't remember whether it's VA or VC), the school was very happy to accept them - then again, they had a place in DS1's year, and DS2 is starting in reception, which wasn't oversubscribed, so I suppose she was hardly going to turn us away...

Many CofE schools are VC - voluntary controlled - which means they have no say over their intake, it is decided by the local authority on the same criteria as a non-religious school. RC schools and some CofE are VA - voluntary aided - which means they do have a say over their intake and their criteria can be quite strict depending on their popularity. Our CofE school is VC so there are no religious criteria but the one near my mil's is VA and heavily over-subscribed so can (and does) demand the parents attend church at least once a fortnight.

This one is Voluntary Controlled so there should be no issue then, am i correct?
Thanks for your comments, I feel happier now there is a chance they will accept my ds

as long as you meet the normal entry criteria then no issue - ie catchment school, distance from door to door, siblings etc etc - depends on whether they normally have more applications than places etc - you should be able to check out their intake/ apps figure on the LEA website. never assume it's a done deal until you've got the offer of a place in your hand!! but at least you know no religious hoops to jump through.
we got ours from the waiting list - were turned down as too many applications for intake originally.