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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Catholic secondary schools -how do you get in?

111 replies

allok · 19/10/2009 16:43

OK, my ds is only 3.5 but we're applying for schools at the moment.

I'd like the option of ds to go to a catholic secondary should he not get into grammar school. dh is catholic and I'm not a christian. DS not baptised as I strongly feel that we should do itwhen he says he's ready and he's had no tuition from his catholic side as yet. But in any case I reckon he'd be between 6-9 years old before he gets it.

I though that secondary catholic schools want baptised kids and that's all - but I'm now really worried as lots of catholic kids at ds's nursery are applying for catholic infant/junior school in preparation of getting their little ones into catholic secondary school.

I was planning to sending ds to the infant/junior opposite my house which has the best reputation in our area.

What should I be doing? Does a kid need ot have gone to a catholic junior school in order to be considered by a catholic senior school?

OP posts:
ZephirineDrouhin · 21/12/2009 15:33

Yes I support Catholic schools but I believe they should use the same criteria for admissions as community schools.

Which part of that are you finding hard to understand?

zanzibarmum · 21/12/2009 15:59

Thought so. You want Catholic schools which don't favour Catholics in admissions. So for you, Catholic schools would typically have a lot fewer than 20 per cent of Catholics on the roll. No doubt, too, you do not favour Catholic schools appointing a Catholic to be headteacer.

ZephirineDrouhin · 21/12/2009 16:14

Well they would probably have a few more than that wouldn't they, as presumably more Catholics would apply.

There are plenty of Catholic schools that do take non-Catholic children. I went to one myself. No reason why they all can't do it.

Regarding the headteacher, they should obviously just appoint the best person for the job.

djjc · 21/12/2009 16:33

zephirinedrouhin, well said, i totally agree with you. the admissions policy creates total discrimination and segregation. non catholic schools are not permitted to discriminate in this way and catholic children would be admitted and treated in exactly the same way as the next child. i wonder if zanzibarmum and her dedicated followers would have quite the same views if it were their children being discriminated against? and how does she feel about the fact that her catholic school is probably full of children whose parents have lied to gain entry because of the prejudice? are those people excused as they have been baptised?

Tortington · 21/12/2009 16:44

god will get the liars!

we do let in some heathens i;m sure

amidaiwish · 21/12/2009 17:25

another perspective:
my dcs go to a catholic primary in richmond borough.
there is NO catholic secondary in the borough.
every other primary school has a linked secondary. we do not.
we either have to try our luck and go out of borough to a secondary school (making sure we do enough in the parish to meet the criteria for these increasingly oversubscribed schools) or we go private. (paying for tutors to get through the exam) that is the choice.
fair?
no.

so you get us back in the end don't worry.

ZephirineDrouhin · 21/12/2009 18:05

amidaiwish, are you saying that your children are excluded from some of the schools in your borough because they are Catholic? Because unless you are, it's really not comparable.

Goblinchild · 21/12/2009 18:10

Do you think if the Catholic schools had an open admissions policy, they'd stop being best of breed in the locality and scoring mega high on pastoral and discipline?
Then people would have to look at what they do next.

amidaiwish · 21/12/2009 18:16

zephirine, no i am saying they are excluded because we did not go to the associated primary school. because we chose a catholic one. oh and btw my nearest primary school is a fantastic CofE one, no chance of getting in, we can't suddenly change allegiance. no other "state" primary in catchment. we would have had to go private like many others in my borough.

Teddington secondary school is at the top of my road. brilliant school. my children will not get in as they did not go to the linked primaries.

amidaiwish · 21/12/2009 18:16

the point i am trying to make is that it is not all one way.

TillyMintSpy · 21/12/2009 18:18

I haven't read the whole thread, and I'm not Catholic, but I know that if you want to get your girl into one of the "top" Catholic girls schools (as a friend does),

you have to get your child babptised BEFORE they are 3 months old!

Hope it's not too late

ZephirineDrouhin · 21/12/2009 18:39

Oh you're in that part of SW London, amidaiwish - it is admittedly very different from my part of SW London . I often work there and know it well.

So it sounds like faith school admissions are not serving you well either. Would it not have been better all round if you could have just used your local ("fantastic") primary and gone on to the local secondary?

amidaiwish · 21/12/2009 19:40

but i can't go to the local "fantastic" primary as we are not CofE.

we are out of catchment for the nearest non denominational one

ZephirineDrouhin · 21/12/2009 19:47

Do you mean that your beliefs as a Catholic would prevent you from sending your child to a C of E school, even though you can take communion in a C of E church etc? That's quite hardcore. I was brought up a Catholic and went to a convent from 11, but my parents had no problem whatsoever with my going to a C of E primary. And I truly don't remember learning anything there that was later contradicted by the nuns.

ZephirineDrouhin · 21/12/2009 20:02

And if there are no non-denominational schools in your catchment, where does that leave the non-Christians in your area? Your situation sounds like a very good argument for overhauling faith school admissions.

amidaiwish · 21/12/2009 20:02

i wouldn't get into the CofE primary.
priority is given to practicing members of the parish. so oversubscribed that the priest takes a register.

amidaiwish · 21/12/2009 20:03

and yes no non denominational school in the catchment.
everyone goes to either the catholic or the CofE (clued up enough to get going to church from what i can see) or private.

amidaiwish · 21/12/2009 20:04

there are hundreds in richmond borough who do not even get a primary school place and are forced out of borough/private/home ed.

the nearest non denom school to me has an intake boundary of 0.7 miles. we are about 1.2miles from it.

LynetteScavo · 21/12/2009 20:04

Tilly, out of curiosity....which school is that? [nosey]

This thread is the first time I'd heard of Criteria stating the child should have been Baptised before they are one.

Zephirine, you say "Regarding the headteacher, they should obviously just appoint the best person for the job."

Surely what ever faith the school, the best person for the job will always be of that faith.

I know of a Quaker school which employed a non Quaker head, and as a result the school (from what I've heard) lost it's Quaker ethos to a large extent.

For the record, I don't agree in religious state schools, but do think religious indpendant schools should give priority to children of that faith.

ZephirineDrouhin · 21/12/2009 20:09

"i wouldn't get into the CofE primary.
priority is given to practicing members of the parish. so oversubscribed that the priest takes a register."

Well that's the whole point isn't it? It doesn't need to be like this.

ZephirineDrouhin · 21/12/2009 20:13

Lynette, I have no interest whatsoever in how faith schools choose their headteachers - I only mentioned it because someone asked me the question.

Independent schools can do what they like (or what they can afford to do). But state schools shouldn't be able to discriminate according to what the children's parents do on a Sunday morning.

TillyMintSpy · 21/12/2009 21:04

Lynette, it's Coloma in Croydon - apparently very over-subscribed!

LynetteScavo · 21/12/2009 21:26

Thanks Tilly - I'm nowhere near Croyden, so can relax.

Zephirine - or on a Friday or Saturday.

zanzibarmum · 22/12/2009 16:22

djjc - good question. As I have said elsewhere I don't condone people who cheat admissions' systems whether by lying about where they live or feigning a faith that they don't have. The admisssions code makes it easier for people to lie their way into faith schools but still this group of people are the minority (mostly MNs it seems). And just as the people who lie over where they live are a minority I would not throw out one of the foundations of UK education system for 150 years with the bathwater. Nonethless, you raise an important point and I favour shifting the balance back to the admissions' authorities and away from a putative national admissions system that is being fostered by statutory admisssions code and which the venal can exploit in both the community and VA sector (not of all which are faith schools)

qumquat · 30/12/2009 18:02

Not all Catholic Schools are oversubscribed, I work in a Catholic School (not a Catholic!) that takes all comers, it really depends on catchment and other schools in the area. But the OP seems to have scarpered long ago, wise woman!

I have very mixed feelings about faith schools myself, despite working in one and loving it. I have worked in community schools with equally high standards of pastoral care and discipline, I don't see that as coming from the fact it's a faith school at all.