Sending non catholic child to catholic school - Glasgow

[naemates]

DS is still pretty young, but I'm thinking ahead - mostly as I've no idea how schools work here. Assuming we have a choice, the two nearest schools are a pretty sad looking non denominational school and a much more pleasant looking Catholic school. We are not religious, but nor are we from Glasgow and since many of the schools here are Catholic, I'm assuming it's not that weird for non catholics to go to Catholic school? My non religious mum worked for her local church for a while, and I feel this would be similar to that, respecting beliefs while not having to pretend to believe? Am I miles out and being daft?

Are you basing the decision on how the building looks? Have you visited?

In my experience it's pretty weird for non-catholics to go to a Catholic school in Glasgow. Unless they're another religion with similar values. I don't personally know anyone who went to a Catholic school who isn't Catholic or Muslim

Don't know how much its changed but our Catholic school was basically 'school' the differences occasional visit by the parish priest, Mass on holiday of obligations (sometimes at school, sometimes in the chapel), preparation for first communion and confirmation.

And we had a Christmas nativity play and Carol concert.

You may have to attend the Catholic Church and have your children baptised as catholic. I think to attend secondary they have to be baptised, have their confirmation and first communion before they are allowed to register. It’s not as easy as ‘I like that school’ plus as someone who grew up in Scotland I have never known a non catholic to attend a catholic school it’s rare.

I agree - seems a funny way to pick a school.

Having had recent experience of some Glasgow catholic primaries, I would check out the school’s equality and diversity policies and check their religious curriculum for inclusion of other religions. How are these these is included in the curriculum.

Do the school’s views align with yours?

My cousin sends her non Catholic children to a Catholic primary in a region of Scotland (not Glasgow). She thinks it's better than non Catholic schools. Personally I don't think it matters. But I am not religious so it makes no odds to me.

My two boys are in a Catholic primary school and my daughter in a Catholic high school. They haven't been baptised

It's definitely not rare

Again I agree.

Some areas of Glasgow are quite sectarian even down to football teams. So Catholic = Celtic and Protestant = Rangers.

So tread warily OP....

I’m in my 40s and even in my school days there was non catholic pupils at my catholic school. Some of them sat out of RE lessons and some didn’t but they didn’t do things like have their communion. I don’t think it’s that rare and even less so these days.

Catholic schools spend about 30% more of the year teaching the religion vs non denominational. You can opt out of the school events such as visiting chapel etc, however the majority of the school will attend so they may feel left out. You cannot opt out of their overall teachings of the religion, from what I was told by our local Catholic primary school. This particular school taught religious sex education rather than science based, and "traditional family values" so that was a no from me.

Catholic schools tend to be the better schools in terms of grades in Glasgow/East Coast.

Your child could be positively or not, discriminated against for the first section of their working life, as prospective employers will assume they are Catholic from the school name. Even in today's world and I can't imagine that will go away completely in 18yrs time.

Just things to consider other than the look of the building.

This is a point.

Which area is it in, OP? Can you say?

So you're basing this decision on how the buildings look?? That's downright strange.

And no its not usual to send non Caholics to a Catholic school

Yes, I feel Glasgow is very different to ‘any’ catholic school across the UK.

Hopefully all posters have realised that this is Scotsnet and are posting appropriately.

My family member lives next door to a family of a differing religion to themselves ( and football team!). They have never spoken to each other in 40 years of living there ( not right I know).

My recent experience in catholic schools was of institutional racism and homophobia, with a curriculum virtually absent of teaching about any other religions.
This is why I suggested above, that you check out in detail, something that matches your own beliefs and values.

What do you want for your child @naemates?

I went to a catholic high school in Glasgow. I had been at a non catholic primary (we moved from the countryside around secondary time). I was raised catholic, had lots of catholic and Muslim friends at school. I can't specifically remember anyone who was non denominational, I'm quite sure some friends with catholic families would have described themselves as atheists though. Someone once called me a bible basher (lol, I'd never heard the term before) but she was one of my worst bullies. I think your kids would be fine! Religions are interesting things to learn about whether or not you believe in them. There were a couple of eh... very out of touch visitors to the school promoting their own weird little world of strict belief but not even the religious people would have taken them seriously imo. But it did happen.

I agree with the sectarian post, I have family in Glasgow and there are still issues with religion intolerance.

Some Catholic schools will not accept non practising Catholics and some will. You need to get some more information before you apply. As a pp also mentioned, do their values align with yours? You need to do some more homework I think OP.

Can you just choose the school if you're not catholic? I'm in a neighbouring council and you can't here.

Council admissions say 'You can choose to send your child to your catchment area non-denominational or denominational school if they are baptised Roman Catholic. A copy RC baptismal certificate must be provided.'

It stems from the catholic schools being in high demand as they perform much better than the non doms for some reason.

I'm an atheist and went to a Catholic school. I loved the school and my friends but I hated going to mass - but that was a small price to pay. My nephew is At a Catholic school now. He likes it. He is also an atheist.

I'm just outside glasgow and I know many non catholics chose to send their kids to the catholic school due to catchment reasons. Certainly not unheard of.

It will really depends on the school. My own experience was that it wasn't unusual for Muslim or Buddhist children to also attend, but the majority of other children were Catholic.

I'm terms of curriculum, you should expect mass days, religious lessons, prayers in class etc so definitely look into whether the diversity and equality policies and overall values align with yours.

Don't underestimate what posters say about a sectarian divide either. I didn't really notice it within the school but it's easy to say that when you're part of the majority.

Finally, have you checked what the linked seconds schools are like?

Things have definitely changed, at a catholic school in the 80s/90s most/ nearly all children would be Catholic or from Catholic families, however it is much more mixed now.
My experience in my LA is that baptismal certificates are only mandatory for access to one oversubscribed high school.
The Scottish system is very different to England, preferred catchment school is pretty much guaranteed - it’s either the non denominational or Catholic (where this exists), there is no overlapping catchments with multiple choices for parents.
Historically Catholic schools have proved successful for educational outcomes vs like for like non denominational for the same catchment. I suspect this may be less so nowadays, given many of the assumed factors, such as greater parental input via church/ school links is less influential given declining church attendance/ participation.

Thank you for all of your views, huge variation!

I have to get out of the way that yes, obviously, I have more research to do and no I'm not going to choose by the look of the buildings, but as I said I'm ahead of myself, by a couple of years. I’ve only just realised that catholic school could even be an option for us so I wanted to know if it was a real option or one of those 'we can't say we discriminate against non catholics for legal reasons but obviously don't send your kids here' situations.

In my real life, I've only found one colleague who went to catholic school, he's gay and had a hard time and that's off putting to hear of course. Most of the people who went to non denominational schools in Glasgow or thereabouts say their friends at the nearby religious schools had better resources, but of course the grass is also always greener.

The council website is about as helpful as you'd expect from a council website, it says to enter your postcode to find your catchment school then gives me both as catchment schools with no further info on how they or I decide.

Too much to think about at this hour, but that you all for your input

Check the school's website online for their admission criteria ,if it requires extra forms (like baptism certificates) and whether it's oversubscribed or not.

If not terribly oversubscribed and they take anyone then it's an option.

The other thing to consider is whether you'd be happy with your child learning about God as fact, having Jesus /God and his teachings as part of his daily learning, school ethos etc., attend mass , learn more about Christianity than other religions and so on. Or whether you're completely against it so he'll have to miss out of a significant proportion of school life and community.

There are loads of non Catholics attend Catholic schools. Notre Dame in Glasgow when it was all girls had lots of Muslim girls
for example.

OP mine went to ND schools (we are not Catholic) but if we’d preferred the RC schools they’d have gone there. I’d just have opted them out of first communion etc. Mine are bigger now but when they were enrolling at school the info was you could enrol them at either the RC or ND school.

I wouldn’t base it on how the school looks though