Qualifying to get into a church school

inkie

Each church school will have it's own admission criteria. Our DDs both go to a church school (one starts seniors next month, again a church school) It is a joint catholic/c.e school. now, I am a minister and you would have thought that we would be pretty high up,given the commitment that we give to church. We were category 4 out of 7 -but managed to get a place, and we had to send a letter of support from a minister - which I got my boss (bishop) to complete.
I have personally been asked to do letters of support before, but will only do them if the family actually attend worship and are active members of the church (I would not include parent and toddlers etc as active church membership or attendance).

squashy

My kids go to a Catholic Primary. They are happy to take any baptised catholics from in or out of the parish without any particular "service history" if you like. This is purely due to the fact that the number of catholics in the area is falling and so they don't need to be as tight with the rules. The school obviously prioritizes RC children but must also accept non-catholics IF a place is available. I think there are currently around 10% non catholics there, there are even some muslim children at the school whos parents are willing to turn a blind eye to the fact the school has a religious life because the school performs extremely well in the league tables.

plane_boy2000

I think all schools vary. You would need to get hold of the prospectus and it will tell you the requirements in there. My local Catholic primary is always very oversubscribed, but has a very strict policy including letter from the priest to confirm your belief and regular attendance, although we are having a new methodist church built oposite our house and there first priority for admission is distance from school which is great for us.

buxtonrabbitgreen

The only primary school available for my children was the Cof E. My children were not christened, and we are not church goers. The school was preety poor educationally in my opinion. So make sure, if you have a choice of schools that it is the best one.

gtone28

We went to church every week when we were getting married. My daughter got to the secondary level and one of the church wardens (church of England) approached us and said because we were active members of the parish she could go to a very good girls school in Liverpool run by the church. We decided not to because it was too far for her to travel.

poe.tuesday

buxtonrabbitgreen wrote: »

The only primary school available for my children was the Cof E. My children were not christened, and we are not church goers. The school was preety poor educationally in my opinion. So make sure, if you have a choice of schools that it is the best one.

same with us, when we moved to the area we presently live in the only schools were church of england school, this september term our children are going to a new school, it's not a church aided school, the main reason for this has nothing to do with their old schoool being a religious school, it was due to bullying and poor management, however, having had dealings with the diocee and the bishop of winchester regarding issues at their old school I can certainly say that I am glad that their new school is not church aided, I have never meet such and ungodly bunch of people in my life who turn a blind eye to bullying, even when 20% of the children have left due to bullying the school and the church of england sat back and did nothing, swept all our and other parents issues under that carpet, just like they do everything else

Some schools and good, others are bad, regligion I don't believe plays a part of this however if you are in a bad school then don't look for the church to help as in my case, they did nothing

ixwood

I think twice about it myself, but then I'm not religious. Think it's all a scam.
And with small children,it's basically brainwashing.

Do you really want them educated with a religious "twist"? I think personally it's disgraceful that some state schools are allowed to teach creationism in science. Just cos someone has put some cash in.

Christmasshopper

Check if the school has a website. If it has you will probably find the admissions criteria on there.
If not you will be able to obtain it from the school or the Local Authority who deal with school admissions.

rjm2k1

Why not let the poor kid make his own mind up rather than being brainwashed by a school?

Bun

Whether it's brainwashing or not, some prefer church schools due to their discipline etc, and anyway, that wasn't what the OP asked.

In answer to the question that she did ask, in our area (Bournemouth) if you go to the council website it has a section on school admissions, and this lists all the schools in the area. It has a list of the religious (or non-community schools) and it has the exact criteria for each school, and you can also contact them direct. This is probably your best bet.

Basically children in care with that religion etc are taken first, then those that go to a particular church for a specific length of time, etc etc.