How do they assess 'regular church attendance' for church school admissions?

[legacy]

OK, I know the debate about parents suddenly 'finding God' just in time to get their DC into the fab church school has been debated ad nauseum...(and I don't want to re-start it).

Mine is a genuine question. I was thinking about this in the context of our local church school which takes in c. 300 children each year.

The admissions bumpf states that a parent of the child must be:

• a regular attendee at church worship(defined as more frequently than fortnightly) and not including social events

and

• get a reference signed by the vicar/priest/minister to say that the individual is 'known' to the church.

In practice though, how does this work. The local church is quite active and has several services and several hundred participants.

How is a vicar meant to 'keep tabs' on attendance?
Also it would be perfectly possible to go every week, but lurk at the back and never become 'known'?

P.S. before I get flamed, we are not heading down this route, but I'm just interested as I have a friend who is doing this, and is religious about the 'more frequently than fortnightly' thing.

well the vicar may not see them, but the stewards/warden/welcomers/those doing the collection etc will .

me - well I'm sat at the front playing the organ every Sunday so they can't miss me

Well, at our church, which has a smallish congregation, the vicar does seem to know who's there every week and who comes for Christmas and Easter. I sometimes thinks he spends the sermon doing a headcount! I have, though, heard of schools which expect you to collect an order of service every week and get it signed, and churches which keep a register.

FAQ - wonder if playing the organ counts as worship?

Is there an official church register or something? I'm sure my friend said she had joined the register, and made a reasonably significant donation .

I should jolly well hope so - worship can be done in many ways - including through music!

and I don't know about other churches - but if it's CoE - and it's communion service - yes there's a head count - how do you think the vicar knows how many wafers to put in

And even non-communion services head counts are usually done........when the collection is taken.

I think these criteria are laid down especially for those people who suddenly "find God" a year before their PFB goes to school.

If you were a commited member of a parish, you would go regularly, involve yourself in the life of the church and, therefore, become known to the minister. I would say that if you are having to count how often you go to church, then you're really only doing it to get into the school.

Just my opinion of course

get a yr's supply of donation envelopes. put a chq in each one...

There's an electoral roll, which is a record of people entitled to vote at the annual parish meeting. But I was when I heard of churches taking a register. I don't know how widespread that is.

But a head count doesn't tell them who is there - just how many...?

At the church near me the verger brings out a register for all the parents to sign each week!
I went to catholic schools and we didn't count how often we went to mass, the priest knew us because the whole family went 52 sundays, christmas day, good friday etc etc. If we were on holiday, guide camp etc we found the church and went to it. Simply didn't occur to us not to go.
So when people say how are they supposed to know how often you go, i think that if you are actually practising the religion and not just aiming for the minimum for schools purposes, you will be there every sunday.
Because for practising christians, worship is what sundays are for.

If you saw the same 200 people every single sunday for years on end then you'd get to know who they are too.

it used to be easy to spot miss me when i was the only non white face at my church.

not a church register - the electoral roll (presuming it's CoE - don't know much about the other denominations).

Joining the electoral roll means you can vote at the annual AGM for PCC members/wardens etc.

However, you can be on the roll and attend church once a year.

Donation - ahh they probably had their stewardship "campaign" and she thought putting some money in the pot would boost her chances LOL

x post with Tommy who put what I was trying to say much more efficiently!

no legacy it doesn't tell you "who" - but those taking the collection/helping with communioin will know the faces that are there regularly, and which ones aren't

(they're cleverer than you think these church people you know )

thank you flibbertygibbet - was just about to post "great minds think alike"

FAQ - yes, I realise that they would recognise the faces every week, but I just feel that they may not necessarily know everyones name, so when a form comes from the school asking "Is Legacy'sFriend known to you?" there's not going to a be a passport photo attached to it, is there!

Our local church has about 5 different services of worship throughout the week, and a selection of regular and visiting preachers, so I just can't see how the vicar can genuinely judge the attendance, unless, as people say, it's someone very well known to the church?

Does this mean that school-obsessed mothers are throwing themselves in front of the vicar and saying "Hello, I'm Samantha Jones" all the time?

no that's the point - the vicar will speak to the stewards/the wardens etc - so even if the vicar hasn't been there there will be a "common" denominator who is bound to know of the person in question.

and tbh if they've been attending that regularly and someone in the church (above mentioned people) didn't know the persons name then I'd be asking serious questions about how the "church" welcomes new people.

Ok if there is a family going to church all the time, the priest may have baptised the parents and then the children, first communions, etc etc. In our case, my gran was really dedicated, my dad was an altar boy in the 30's, we were all baptised there...

So our names would be all over the church registers.

In fact I checked with my mum recently. When she put us down for the catholic school she didn't have to get a reference from the priest because there wasn't all this rush to get your children in the faith schools like there is now. So only practising catholics applied for places and we saw all our friends at church every week - cos shock horror we didn't stop going to church when my older sister got a place at the primary school (like a lot round here do then rely on the sibling priority to get the rest of the kids in!)

My aunty cleaned the church, her husband was one of the men who did the collections.

How could the priest not have known who me and my cousins were!

lololol at samantha jones

At our school, the parent has to give the form to the vicar, get it signed and then return it with the application. So if the vicar says 'have we met?', that probably means they're not a regular attender!

At our church, I used to think the priests wouldn't have had a clue who I was, but over the years, they did. They see you at communion, they see you after you leave mass, they see you at the baptism of your children and your friends children. They see you at the autumn/spring/christmas fair etc. They see you at coffee after mass. Then there are all the things you can volunteer for - neighbourhood masses, reading, doing the flowers, faith courses etc.

When I took my forms to be filled in, they knew exactly who I was (but then my kids were often very disruptive and were easily noticed!)I don't think I'd ever spoken to the priest, but he had made a point of looking out for parents of children with kids the 'right age'.