School application for September 2024 intake

[Jbrown76]

I'm I right in thinking/understanding the following:

There is a faith school that requires parent OR child to attend church regularly for 2 years+ before making the application.

I'm a member of a different faith (Catholic) while the school I want to apply for is church of England. I'd be able to apply to this school because the Catholic church is part of the churches in England ? Is that correct and it would be on the basis that I had attended church as it says parent OR child?

The admissions policy includes a list of churches, I cannot see any RC churches listed. Helpfully it also states the last successful applicant for 2023 under criteria 3 lived 1.3 miles from the school and gained 25 points for Church attendance - weekly / fortnightly for between 1-2 years by the application date in October 2022.

There is an RC secondary in Lancaster that gives priority to Baptised RC pupils, second only to looked after Baptised RC pupils.

Catholic churches are on the list of "churches together members" see link https://cte.org.uk/about/whos-who/member-churches/
Yes you can apply on the grounds that you have attended church. Usually the vicar/priest/minister signs the application form to confirm this.
Unfortunately although C of E schools recognise other denominations equally, most Catholic schools prioritise Catholic families above those of different Christian backgrounds.

Yes, assuming you can prove your attendance with a member of your clergy co-signing your supplementary form.

I can't see the image very well, but does it actually mention "churches together"? Many policies do, but this one seems to list specific churches. I'm guessing that there is also a Catholic school in the area, so they see no need to include the the local Catholic church.

I assume that this page is part of the supplementary application form and that later pages include a section for your priest to sign to confirm your attendance.
Please make sure that you use the correct form for admission in September 2024.
The way I read it is that Churches Together is mentioned in the paragraph just below the table. The list of other churches are likely to be local churches that are not part of Churches together but still regularly send children to this school. This type of wording is fairly standard for C of E faith school admissions.

@PatriciaHolm is a poster who does know quite a bit about the school admissions process.

The name of the school is legible on the screenshot.

Btw, someone should have a word with its admissions officer about the failure to comply with the Admissions Code, as the 2024 entry admissions policy and SIF should have been on its website for te past 4 months.

But essentially (after 1: EHCP / LAC / PLAC and 2: Children of staff), criterion 3 in the 2023 policy awarda points for church attendance of parent / Sunday school attendance of child at any church in the Churches Together in England group, various other groupings both national and local, or a few other local churches which presumably aren't in any group, as @catndogslife has noted.

So as long as the church attended is somewhere on one of those lists, or one of the specifically named ones, then the applicant will be ranked under criterion 3, according to the points accrued.

(The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales is a member of Churches Together in England).

Points are also given for attending a CoE primary and for having at least one sibling at the school. Tie break for equal points is home - school distance.

Criterion 4 is 'other applicants' (those not filling in a SIF), ranked on distance, but the document goes on to give the allocation of places for the previous year, and no places were allocated under this criterion.

@MarchingFrogs The 2024 details are on the website, just not under admissions 🙄 - under Open Evening.

Still, it's better than the one I had a little while ago which had 2 separate and contradictory policies for the same year on the website...

Ah, didn't think to look there...

A few years back - a presenting officer very new to a school and its MAT, sent off to an appeal with paperwork containing an admissions policy which, as they launched into the school's case, sounded completely different from the one sent to the appeals coordinator for inclusion in the panel's and the parent's pack. Can't remember whether for the correct year, but fortunately, we established that the latter version was at least for the correct school.

(And the PO did get a certain amount of sympathy from the panel).