Would you question this with school?

[Gacapa]

My kids go to Catholic primary school. It's a really lovely school and don't really have any problems.

Anyway, a couple of months ago some signs appeared on the outside above the school classroom doors, where the children enter and exit. These are saints (painting and name). Reasonable quality. Look well made etc.

So there are eight of them: nursery, Reception and years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. It's a small one form entry. So each class - eight in all - have been given a saint. For Instance Y5 is St Aidan.

Now, my issue: of the eight saints, only one is female. And it's got my back up.

Do I take it on the chin with "well, what would you expect in a Catholic institution?" or do I ask for reasonable discussion on who made the decisions and why? I certainly didn't get asked for any input and neither did the kids.

My concerns: why wasn't there a balance?

Prepared to take it on the chin: what do you expect from Catholicism?
Would I just become "that mum"?

Am I making too big a deal?

I don't see why you can't ask about it. It's not like there's a shortage of female saints. It could be they had a reason that made sense and they didn't think about the gender balance.

I guess it won't change for this year, but they could reassess for next year. Unless they change each term.

Which saints have they chosen?

A lot of female Catholic saints are martyrs (most saints are, but there are more male ones that aren't) are they possibly chosen for what they represent/why they are a saint?

I think you could certainly point out the imbalance, and ask the decision-making behind the choices.

There are an awful lot of female saints. Tbf I would be downright shocked if St Cecilia wasn't above the music room.

My friend had this with her school - all year groups are named after an author. Every single class was named after a male author - Dahl, Shakespeare etc. Not a single fucking woman. My friend won’t complain and but I’m tempted to and my children don’t even go there!

Do I take it on the chin with "well, what would you expect in a Catholic institution?"

Yes. There are so many things wrong with Catholicism and faith schools this is small beer.