Putting a catholic school down if not catholic?

[mum2bee]

I know it sounds strange, but there is like 1 school I like around my area, intake of 30 but they get around 200 applicants, there's another school which most of my family went to which is Catholic, its so nice but me nor my daughter got brought up catholic, what would happen if I put this as a choice? Could she still get in or could it mean having a better chance of getting the first school? X

 

[kerrie24]

Catholic schools take a certain number of non-catholics but (at least in my area) if you are not christened,baptised or whatever,they wont accept you.

 

[RachA]

You normally have to get the priest/minister/whatever to sign a form to say that you regularly attend the church.
Our local school prefers to accept committed Christians to Catholics that aren't involved and only attend church once in a blue moon.

One thing I would say, as a parent of a child who attends a Christian school because we are committed and wanted the Christian emphasis, if you aren't going to agree with the way the present Christianity then don't send your child to the school. I've heard parents complaining that there is too much Christian emphasis, they advocate sex within marriage etc etc but yet they chose to send their child to a very Christian school.

 

[Abigailly]

Our Catholic school has an order of acceptance.

Children that regularly attend the parish Chapel
Children who attend Mass elsewhere
Practicing Christians
Non practicing Catholics
Non practicing Christians
Other religions
Non religious.

However, remember if you are non Catholic your child is going to be brought up around God. She'll learn about Creationism over evolution etc.

 

[JASMAK]

What the pp said is what it here. I signed my daughter up for CS here, but we ended up not going....yet. Its 45 minutes away, and its private school here so $350/monthly PLUS uniforms (public schools do not wear uniforms here, just private). We might put her in next year. We are non practicing Catholic.

 

[joeyjo]

Our Catholic school has an order of acceptance.

Children that regularly attend the parish Chapel
Children who attend Mass elsewhere
Practicing Christians
Non practicing Catholics
Non practicing Christians
Other religions
Non religious.

However, remember if you are non Catholic your child is going to be brought up around God. She'll learn about Creationism over evolution etc.

WSS about admittance. It won't affect your other applications in England but it may also be oversubscribed.

I went to catholic school a fairly strict one, priests and nuns both taught. We learnt the bible stories of creation very much as a parable and were most definitely taught the theory of evolution.

Sex education was a little less mainstream - whoever thought teaching natural family planning / the rhythm method was a good idea! Condoms and the pill were mentioned in a 1 sentence side note

 

[discoclare]

You normally have to get the priest/minister/whatever to sign a form to say that you regularly attend the church.
Our local school prefers to accept committed Christians to Catholics that aren't involved and only attend church once in a blue moon.

One thing I would say, as a parent of a child who attends a Christian school because we are committed and wanted the Christian emphasis, if you aren't going to agree with the way the present Christianity then don't send your child to the school. I've heard parents complaining that there is too much Christian emphasis, they advocate sex within marriage etc etc but yet they chose to send their child to a very Christian school.

Where I live quite a lot of the Catholic schools require baptism but don't care about church attendance (at least 4 I can think of within a couple of miles of me). The SIF for my parish (heavily oversubscribed central London, OFSTED rated outstanding) Catholic school doesn't ask for any kind of priest reference for attendance, just the certificate of baptism.

OP you need to read the admissions criteria of the school you are interested in. We can all give you opinions on what our local Catholic school requires but it won't help you know what your school prioritises. My local Catholic school has not admitted any children who are not baptised Catholic for many years as they have so many of these applying that they don't make it to the next priority group (baptised other Christians). Last year they had over 250 applications for 30 places and over 90 were from baptised Catholic children.

I would also visit the school to see how religious it is etc and if that fits with your ethos. Our local Catholic school places quite a bit less religious emphasis on everyday school life than our two local C of E schools (though I appreciate that these two C of E are probably more religious than the average!). Each school can vary quite a lot and non-denominational "community" schools must also, by law, have a daily act of worship which should be broadly Christian based (though some choose to try and gloss over this as much as possible):
https://www.education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/schoolethos/a0064979/collective-worship

Also don't be frightened by a school having over 200 applicants for 30 places. Remember that will be any preference, not all first preference. The school down my street had over 300 applicants last year for reception! In London we have six preferences (not sure how many you have in Manchester) so most of the parents I know who are applying for state are applying to the same schools, though not necessarily in the same order. Your LEA may show on their website how places were allocated last year (they should show this for the community schools at least, but may show it for the VA schools as well depending on the LEA).

 

[JJKCB]

baptism is not actually required at all (but it increase the chance of getting in) my son goes to a catholic school... he not christened or baptized in any religion and their is no family link to the school

the school only takes 30 children and only 2 of different faith so we where lucky but its easily the best school in the area

if you dont apply you will never know

 

[Dragonfly]

Since my area only has catholic or a mixed school I had to send my son to a catholic school as it was closest also. They accepted him no bother and are great about it. There isnt much other places for non religion kids to go here as there is such a small number of them. They used to make you convert here and some schools didnt like the fact my son wasnt catholic when I inquired. Some had never had a non catholic pupil and didnt know what to do with him.

 

[LaDY]

We put a catholic school down even though we are not catholic...we did put it as out second choice...we didn't get it. However a family who live on the same street as us were catholic and put it down as a second choice and got a place...

Its a difficult one...as we are in the catchment...they certainly prioritise catholic children and i sometimes think it is dependent upon how many applicants they have

Goodluck x