Would you send your DC to a catholic school if you werent religious?

[allaboutme]

If the best school near you is Catholic would you apply to it?
Its 'sometimes' over subscribed, so slim chance DS would get a place, but still a chance!
We are not religious at all, but would be fine with DS having hymns in assembly and the nativity at christmas etc.

Are there negatives to this if by some chance he does get a place there?

What do you all think?

you'd be lucky to get in tbh...catholic schools are usually the best schools..always over subscribed.....

no harm trying though....

my kids both go/went to catholic school. they are not catholic. its a fantastic school and theyve both done well. i chose it because my eldest son has aspergers and needed a small school. its a fantastic education. they both went to feeder schools so got into the comprehensive because of that, just had parents evening tonight - im !

id recommend.

oh...and in answer to your Q..

yes i would send my dc to a catholic school if we wern't catholic.....

but we are....and the schools are fantastic...

not all catholics are totally fucked up....

In answer to your question would I send a dc to a catholic school if I wasn't religious - no

I do...and we're not.........great school

No

Am lapsed catholic. Very good catholic school nearby, oversubscribed, all my friends are beavering away at church, i won't do it.

The CofE school (nearest) I feel more relaxed about.

For me the reasons that I am lapsed are so strong that I couldn't see round them even for tiptop school.

Yes and I do, am a fairly lapsed Catholic who wanted my boys to have a Catholic education (after having been to all Catholic schools myself).
It is a far more religious school than any of mine were, but DS1 is thriving at his Catholic Primary school and there is a real community feel.
DH is CofE and he is happy with our choice of school too.

No. Especially not if we had to lie/baptize our dc to get a place.

I do and am not but I did 10 years of Catholic education myself fairly recently so was confident that I knew what I was letting us in for. I like going to church too.

Friend of a friend chose a Catholic school and is agast that her 3 year old is singing the Bob the Builder theme with Bob changed to God!

No.

No I would not. My closest school is RC, and my children will not be going there.

Over. My. Dead. Body.

Saw enough of the Catholic church through my Gran - and my father's tales of being sent to Catholic schools.

I wouldn't want my child indoctrinated by a church hierarchy who are still hiding the identities of child abusers (see the recent report about widespread abuse in Ireland - that's just one country), who are responsible for the deaths of millions of people from AIDS in Africa (and other countries, probably) because hey, condoms are more evil than a killer disease...

I have nothing against individual Catholics, they are just as likely to be lovely, or irritating, or kind or whatever as anyone else. But the church and its leaders are responsible for a great deal of evil.

Yup - in Ireland they used to excommunicate women who had abortions. Not terrorists, obviously, they got the full service including decent funerals.

No would not even consider it

Message withdrawn

daftpunk your catholic school may be excellent but it certainly doesn't follow that they all are!

The RC secondary here has a huge problem with discipline (a former teacher tells me and tbh I can observe the behaviour of the kids myself at 3.15pm) which would make it a big no-no for me.

Some catholic schools in my town are oversubscribed, some are not. It depends on a lot of other factors tbh.

Absolutely not. But I am an atheist (brought up as Catholic, went to a good Catholic primary school). If you are happy with the Catholic influence then that's fine, but just be aware of the social side - I was stigmatised because I didn't go to the local church as that's where so much of the school community was focused. I guess it probably depends on how much of the intake comes from practicing families from your local parish.

We do and are not. Struggled with the idea, but thought it a great school and was open with the Assistant Principal at the interview that we were not catholic. She basically said fine, but we are a catholic school and will teach as such, if you are happy with that. So far we are, tend to answer any of ds's questions and dh def puts a scientific spin on things! But a lot of the basics appeal to me: show kindness to one another, everyone is different but God loves everyone equally, etc... Also a lot of it goes over his head, I think. Not so sure about Catholic high school though. But will cross that bridge etc.. Ds did look at the cross above the desk when we went for interview and said 'mummy what are those two sticks for?' so we had to give him the basics before he started!

I know a teacher at a Catholic prep school, and the kids are not given balanced view on (in fact zero exposure to) world religions, and could easily leave school with a scant understanding about one of the most importnat elements of what makes the world tick. This may be an extreme case, maybe primary schools differ, but I would hesitate before sending DC there.

Also consider whether mass is compulsory and your feelings on that.