certificate of religious practice - diocesan policy not to sign

[Denferdoodle]

Stumped.

We'd love DS to go to wonderful Jewish school nearby, which wholly embraces kids from other faiths....provided they can get a certificate of religious practice from place of worship.

No probs I thought, DS is regularly practising roman catholic, known to priest etc. BUT apparently, intro'd last year is a brand spanking new diocesan policy that prevents any clergy from signing any such certificate or giving any sort of reference. They can only give copy baptism certificates, but since I managed to keep ours in safe place all these years doesn't help a bit.

I told the admissions lady this at the school - who tells me, in a nice way admittedly, that they can't consider application without this specific signed CRP. She tells me that loads of parents have sent in signed forms - so they'll be either non-catholics or not entirely truthful.

I'd say they are automatically excluding local catholics by this - surely they can't do this. As I say...stumped.

Help please dear MN?? I've only got a week to get this sorted now.

I think there are two separate issues here. The first is whether the catholic diocese is being completely honest in having this policy. By this I mean do any catholic schools in the LA / Diocese expect a secondary information form for admission purposes. If any are asking for a priest's signature etc that they are baptised or attend church then the Diocese should not have this ban on signing forms. Which Diocese are we talking about?
The second issue is whether the jewish school is aware of the Diocese ban -everything you say in your posts would say the answer is yes. If so the jewish school as its own admission authority is in theory breaking the law as it is in effect blocking a section of the community from attending the school, which is clearly a school that is purporting to offer education to all religions.
Either way the answer is to contact the school adjudicator because they are both issues relating to school admission criteria. Your problem is that they will never ever make a decision in the next week as to whether the school is breaking the rules or not and / or the Diocese is being unreasonable with its ban.
Could I suggest that you contact the school as well and ask in writing that your application for a place be considered without the form because of this blanket ban and say that you are trying to resolve the issue via the school adjudicators office and would hope to have a suitable letter well before any actual decisions are made about school admissions.

This is not the case for all Catholics. We live in the archdiocese of Southwark and have had our reference signed, no problems. I would think this is discrimination as it is not happening to all Catholics. Don't you need a reference for the Catholic Secondary school?

Of course, Jewish schools in North London can fill entirely with Jewish children. In other parts of the country there are Jewish schools that once served a large Jewish community which has since moved on. Therefore, although they give priority to Jewish children, they will have spare capacity to be opened to people of other faiths or none.

I am not sure where OP lives, but I know in Liverpool

1 There are Jewish schools that are open to the wider community
2 Nothing beyond a Catholic baptism certificate is needed for priority for Catholic schools.

I think that following admission's advice would be the best way forward for OP.

Thanks all, bit of an update.

This school does indeed admit the Jewish children first, but from what I have seen from past statistics its only about 30% of the places. The next category is all faiths, provided you can demonstrate religious practice via this specific form.

I've spoken to LEA and diocese office and heard some encouraging noises - the catholic policy is not changing but there's a possible admissions code issue in the way the school policy is applied.

Admission - thanks for your advice, I'm doing this.

Think I've a bit of a fight, but its one I'll take on.