Do some Catholic primaries in London require christening by a certain age?

[annh]

SIL has a 9 month old dd whom she fully intends to have christened (Catholic). It was initially going to happen in the summer but seems to have fallen into the ethernet somewhat. They live in sw-ish London and want their dd to go to the local Catholic primary. During a vague conversation about dates for christening recently, it occured to me that I had read here that some schools require the child to have been christened by a certain age. Was I dreaming that and, if not, does anyone know of areas where this happens and what the cut-off age is typically?

I don't think it matters as long as they are baptised by the time you actually apply for a place. Certainly when I applied for a place for dd (in a Cof E) nursery, they just wanted to know when she had been baptised. I suppose some schools may have different rulings. Can you look at the school's own website?

I have heard of this anecdotally, not seen it in practice.

Our borough produces a document each year with the entrance criteria for all the schools, is there something like that you can look at - check your borough website

If it's SW London they will probably need to prove regular church attendance for a certain period in order to have a chance of getting a place.

Should be able to see the admissions criteria from school or borough website.

Christ it's depressing.

From London Oratory website

"Unless there is good reason, ideally Baptism must occur within several (3 ? 4) months of birth"

london oratory is particularly strict though, understandably.

Most RC schools round here ask for baptism (whenever) and regular church attendance, they are not as strict as the CofE schools.

tell us the school we will investigate for you.

Always remember though that admissions criteria change year on year...

[specialist subject emoticon]

I'm a bumpkin so I am under the general impression that all of London is mad. You here tales of registers in mass and the like. You just waltz up round here, no need for baptism at all. I don't know a single person who didn't get into their first choice school and I don't know anyone in a class of 30 in infants either. Most are about 22-25. [don't know I'm born emoticon]

You are a lucky lucky person

Is dreadful in this part of London.

I want to know the school so i can investigate (sad woman that I am).

Actually I don't know which school it is. As mentioned, it is my SIL's dd and they live in Earlsfield. SIL is Catholic and attends Church in a lazy sort of manner. We live in an area of the UK where it is not quite so impossible to get into a faith school and I don't think SIL has any idea that it might be a teeny bit more difficult than just rocking up on the first day of term! She is also the kind of person who will start casting around for someone to blame when she realises in a few years time that it requires more than just filling in the application form and yours truly will be expected to have provided some useful info before then! All I really want to do is be able to point out to her with some certainty that her application will need to be be backed up with church attendance and (possibly) this issue of the christening by a certain time. Thanks for the info so far!

Not seen this at primary (though they might be suspicious if the child was baptised much past infancy), but it has suddenly appeared as a criterion for secondary admissions over the past few years, as the new school admissions code has removed many of the loopholes the schools were using to try and decide how good a catholic you are.

No-one can say what admissions criteria will be several years from now, but if she lives in London and wants to have the fullest possible range of secondary options, she would do well to get cracking on having her dd baptised asap, and def. before the age of one. Some secondary schools specify even earlier than this, or at least give more points for earlier baptism, so the sooner the better from that point of view.

10 years ago when the current crop of secondary admissions candidates were being born, age of baptism was not particularly an issue for schools. Now suddenly it has become one, and lots of very devoutly practising families have been caught out on the basis of decisions they made 10 years ago.

Each school will usually have their admissions criteria on their website, if you want to back up your point to your SIL. Many secondary schools require weekly Mass attendance (primary schools also, if oversubscribed) and want you to be doing something active in the parish. It pays to read the writing on the wall early and carefully.

Tell her to check it out ASAP...

A friend had three children at her local Catholic school (SE England). For some reason she didn't get the fourth baptised until late - he was refused a place at the school his siblings went to because he hadn't been baptised before the age of 2!

They're trying to weed out the people who suddently find God in school admissions year.

If it is anything like the schools my dc go to it will be within the first few months of birth. I know several families who missed out on primary and secondary places because they left it too late.

Good grief evensunnier that is insane!

Maybe it is secondary schools, the primaries don't seem that bad round here and i live somewhere that you would have thought it was bad...

Going to check local secondary out of interest

Local difficult secondary (oversubscribed catholic) not as bad as that, has no time limit on baptism.

It's getting silly IMO.

Not sure that there will be a date for baptism, but there will be a church attendance requirement, usually for 3 years, and this will need to be signed off by the parish priest. I think that you would be doing your SIL a favour by getting her to check which school her particular parish is linked to, and whether she will meet the requirements for that school. For examples sometimes children who attend the local parish church will get preference over children attending a different RC church.

This is an example of the sort of admission criteria. For this school all applicants last year came with category 2, so if you didn't attend the specified church (regardless of whether you live in the parish) then you didn't get in.