Would you/have you started going to church to get child into a good church school?!

[Bomper]

My ds should pass his 11+, but I am not 100% confident he will. The comprehensive schools in my area are pretty awful, except one, which is a C of E school. Lots of parents have now started to go to church in order to be able to apply, and I am being urged to do the same. Most of me thinks - 'this is my childs future, I will do whatever it takes', but a small part feels guilty. WWYD?

having been indoctrinated I can tell you there is a difference

Well yes, twinset, you can tell me all sorts of things - but then I am old enough to make up my own mind. A small child doesn't have a faith. The process by which a child acquires a faith - which just so happens to coincide with its parents, teachers', vicar's and school governors' faith - that process is called indoctrination. The words simply means the instilling of doctrine into a person.

I want my children to be educated about the myths and legends of Ancient Greece - especially the stories of Odysseus, which I loved as a child - but I'd back away nervously, and very fast, from any institution which tried to tell them each and every day that these stories were all true and to make them chant worship to Zeus. That, for me, is the difference.

My mother had us educated in private schools which were mostly not Catholic and I have done the same for my children. You can learn your religion at home perfectly adequately and anyway none of the church schools even in the private sector are anywhere near schools like St Paul's, Manchester Grammar etc. There's just nothing if you want schools int hat sort of leageu that is religious. The Catholic boarding schools are just so low down A level league tables and even religious state schools are no where near the very top 20 private schools so for me even these state church school parents cflcok to are far too academcially low grade it would be an unfairness to my children to force them in there. Even Blair's state Oratory school is no where near the academic level of the private schools the work colleagues of his wife would send their children.

So you're better off finding money not God if you want to do right by your children.

And if you have not the one and have no desire for the other, your children are royally screwed?...

don't think he's down there...

dh?
no he's at darts

I should have said He.

no really, dh thinks enough of himself , you don't have to

arf arf
Still waiting to find out what I do to get money for a posh school, seeing as i don't want God. Thanks.

You need more places like Brighton with lotteries so you're not choosing schools by ability to afford house prices then.

Sadly, I'm not at heart I really believe that one; would have been a good quote. God helps those that helps themselves always seemd truer than that quote - remember the lilies of the field, they neither toil nor spin.. or whatever and then everything is handed to them on a plate... mmm, doesn't quite work like that in practice.

Could they not to be fair remove all these silly school classifications - sports college, languages academy which mean nothing really, have just "schools" and then in the local area have a drawer for who gets in where?

Xenia i think you need to look into the situation in brighton a bit more before you say having a lottery is good.

It's fair, surely and should suit most socialists. It works there because of the geography. Wouldn't work in places with one school per area I suppose.

trouble is if you live in one of the poorer areas you grt the por performing school. fair........i don't think so.

thats how it is at the moment, if you live in a poorer area the likley hood of youhaving a school of any quality is low - hence whyt he house prices soar around schools witha good reputation in brighton.

with a lottery, in theory if a poorer area comes intot he catchment area of 2 schools within that area the lottery would give them a chance of going to a better school, one which they wouldnt be able to afford unless they had 300k worth of house

true but I am thinking of 2 areas. both "poor" one of which now is the catchment area for the most unpopular school . only one school in the catchment area so no lottery, no choice. I just thank the man upstairs that my dc's are in secondry as DS would not have gone to that school.

should have said 2 areas of brighton only have one school in the catchment are. these are the 2 poorest areas of brighton.

Some areas, usually more remote ones, only have one school so none of this applies and some have very very few badly off people and others very few with much money so it doesn't work that well either. In the US deep South they tried to get integration by busing whites and blacks to each other's areas. You could bus the poor to the areas of the rich and vice versa I suppose.

I agree wholeheartedly Xenia about the lunacy of introducing specialisms for all the state schools - it was introduced as a glamorous vote-winner, but wasn't properly organised/thought out (not to mention being a crap idea in the first place) - and the catchment area system is still in place! So everyone in my area who goes to state primary school, wants a state school education and isn't a religious nut goes to a Technology College!. It pisses me off royally.

Well in my (home)
area parents parents get a choice of science, performing arts, language and one other (should be named shite but I doubt thats the specialism it boasts about). Don't think it has much effect, bar attracting financial investments (which it does but mainly the performing arts school as they have good dance etc facilities).

Parents can instill excellent boundaries and moral education at home without once attending Church or joining an established religion. Firstly many, many people who follow Jesus don't like the Church or just simply can't go- some people have to nurse / look after sn kids / just work after all.

As an example, I just finished this years Ethics undergrad modules. Religion wasn't mentioned once, but moral responsibility etc was. And just a glance at the Humanist webiste will show that if one does reject religion, it doesn't mean rejecting all social responsibility- which ties abck to the parenting thing. Boundaries, morals etc- extremely important. Religion- a personal choice.

FWIW I did sit down with the boys and pray for that poor family who lost their 5 week old baby in a fire in bradford alst night, for those of us who believe its important; for those who don't its still achance to meditate on the extreme luck we have as a famuily and how grateful we have are to be together.

That sounds a lot better Peachyclair. Where I live we will be expected to send our children to the catchment area school, which is a huge concrete Technology College. It doesn't bother me as much as it might some people - I'm not really interested in being pushy academically and we can supplement the boys' other interests outside school - but politically I think it's a fucking disgrace.

I think its something to do with the area- (I mean, I just took an NVQ assessors in carnival skills at the local college LOL) and the value they put on diversity.

We have just the one comp here, from what I see its not good, despite taking from a range of over achieving schools (which is another thread entirly!!). Apart from the suicide bid there of a kid with AS (which after all ds1 has) the kids behave awfully. There's a school I help at in thre Valleys- much poorer intake- kids so much better behaved / respectfyul. Don't figure. (And neither school is religious).