Time to abolish single faith schools

[Albion my Albion]

I attended a christian school and now I am a scientologist who won't be told by the church of scientology how to behave.

 

[The Large One]

I don't get the joke?

To many, football is THE religion.

 

[surlyseagull]

Fairness? Why shouldn't every child have equal opportunity to go to that school?

The system is exploited to ridiculous lengths of non-religious parents dragging their kids to church for the previous 6 to 12 months so that they get a place ahead of another child.

Especially primary school kids, why should a kid age 4 or 5 have their choice of school determined by their parents faith?

A state school should be a state school with access for all. I don't believe in Grammars for the same reason. Each child should have equal opportunity to choose their school.

Exactly this .
Parents drag their kids to church for a set period ,get a letter from the local vicar etc and then when they are accepted into said school their religious beliefs become non existent .
It is just another way for parents to brag that their kids don't go to a run of the mill school but to a school they believe sounds more acceptable in society ,a bit like the new craze of free schools.

 

[oneillco]

Spot on. There's no place in 21st century Britain for organised indoctrination of children. Education should be secular and faith, if it's wanted, can be taught outside school.

There seems to be a lot of misconception about faith schools; personally I'm agnostic but my kids went to Cardinal Newman Catholic school, Hove. Quite a large proportion of the other kids weren't Catholic and their integrated happy classes included muslims, coptics, hindus and CofE, and certainly there was/is a wider mix of ethnicity than you will probably find at any other school in Sussex. Of course they were exposed to Catholic values but I never felt they were indoctrinated, and now as young adults they know about religion but aren't religious.

 

[Normal Rob]

you don't want to make any child feel guilty for attending a Catholic school - that's the last thing they need.

 

[ringmerseagulltoo]

In that case it is not a Single Faith School, it is a school sponsored by a particular faith. To me, a single faith school is one which excludes, or strongly discourages other faiths and I do think that is wrong. To receive a licence to operate as a school, the curriculum should include comparative religion.

 

[Uter]

My situation is that we live in Hove where most of the primary schools have admissions policies based on distance, apart from our nearest which is a faith school and is thus free to set their own criteria. This they chose to do and it was (and still is) based primarily on the regularity of church attendance of the parent(s) of that faith for the year prior to submitting the application.

At the time we had to make a choice for our eldest daughter there was a shortage of places in Hove. The council publishes the furthest distance that a pupil who was accepted for each school lives. It was apparent that we didn't live near enough to any other primary school in Hove to stand a realistic chance of being offered a place. Had my wife not happened to belong to the faith of our nearest primary we faced ending up being allocated a school a long way from where we live. My wife doesn't drive and I am away for work a lot. It would have been a very inconvenient had this happened.

I have no particular issue with faith schools, but when they accept public funding I don't think they should be allowed to set an admissions policy that penalises parents who don't share that faith. It seems wrong to me that this is allowed.

 

[BigGully]

There seems to be a lot of misconception about faith schools; personally I'm agnostic but my kids went to Cardinal Newman Catholic school, Hove. Quite a large proportion of the other kids weren't Catholic and their integrated happy classes included muslims, coptics, hindus and CofE, and certainly there was/is a wider mix of ethnicity than you will probably find at any other school in Sussex. Of course they were exposed to Catholic values but I never felt they were indoctrinated, and now as young adults they know about religion but aren't religious.

Just seems a shame that you and your children were defining other pupils by their religion that in itself isnt truly intergration is it ?

 

[Honky Tonx]

When a School thinks that it is right for Girls to sit at the back of the class room, that is if the class rooms are mixed in the first place, and that it that Male student should not shake hands with a Female teacher and visa versa, is this acceptable in British society?
I hope that this question is not considered by some to be offensive or divisive.

 

[PeterOut]

When a School thinks that it is right for Girls to sit at the back of the class room, that is if the class rooms are mixed in the first place, and that it that Male student should not shake hands with a Female teacher and visa versa, is this acceptable in British society?
I hope that this question is not considered by some to be offensive or divisive.

This (or something very similar) was certainly acceptable when I was growing up in Brighton. There were girls-only schools, and boys-only schools.Never saw it first hand, but I imagine that at least 50% of the girls at Margaret Hardy sat at the back of the classroom.
I am certain that I never once shook hands with a female teacher while I was at Secondary school, either.

(I used to dream of doing much more than shaking hands with my French teacher, but she was gorgeous, and I was just a teenager.)

 

[Wrong-Direction]

My religious eduction teacher believed the matrix was real and had floor to ceiling posters on neo, there's ya evidence!

Sent from my SM-A310F using Tapatalk

 

[Mattywerewolf]

Religious faith should have no part in our education system. If parents want their children to have a faith then it should be taught by them not the schools.

While your at it can you get their parents to teach them basic respect for teachers....

 

[Triggaaar]

To many, football is THE religion.

Right, but I'm not going mad am I - football does actually exist?

 

[m20gull]

In the National Curriculum, RE includes the basics of all the major faiths, I believe.

I was told today that you can require your children not to be taught RE, e.g. if you are a Jehovah's Witness and do not want your children exposed to other faiths.

 

[Buzzer]

Did that CoE school only allow Christians in? My kids go to a CoE, but children of all faiths go, as well as atheists.

I didn't know of any atheists, the subject never really came up although I'm sure a lot of parents were. There were other faiths too, the school had quite a few Catholics and two Hindu girls. I don't think the Catholic families even noticed the difference given that most of the Brighton CoE churches have their roots in the Oxford Movement and so it's all High Church Anglican. I've no idea how the Hindus were catered for but the girls were very happy there and took part in the Nativity and Easter services.

I may be off the mark here but IMO there was a greater mix of children at my children's school (St Martins CE) than nearby Elm Grove Primary which is much bigger but gives the impression of being predominantly middle-class esp with the gentrification of Hanover. As well as Elm Grove where we live, a lot of the children at St Martins come from Bevendean, Coldean, Hollingdean and even Moulsecoomb. This difference is v.noticeable when you see the parents of the children at the Childrens' Parade.

Fairlight School is another v.small school near to both and it feels to me that Fairlight is more like St Martins with this wider mix. [MENTION=13230]Psychobilly freakout[/MENTION] has kids there so he can confirm or deny that.

 

[Triggaaar]

I didn't know of any atheists, the subject never really came up although I'm sure a lot of parents were. There were other faiths too, the school had quite a few Catholics and two Hindu girls.

So does that count as a single faith school, as it doesn't match what I'd think of as single faith. In which case, I'm not sure why you're disagreeing with the OP.

 

[Insel affe]

I didn't know of any atheists, the subject never really came up although I'm sure a lot of parents were. There were other faiths too, the school had quite a few Catholics and two Hindu girls. I don't think the Catholic families even noticed the difference given that most of the Brighton CoE churches have their roots in the Oxford Movement and so it's all High Church Anglican. I've no idea how the Hindus were catered for but the girls were very happy there and took part in the Nativity and Easter services.

I may be off the mark here but IMO there was a greater mix of children at my children's school (St Martins CE) than nearby Elm Grove Primary which is much bigger but gives the impression of being predominantly middle-class esp with the gentrification of Hanover. As well as Elm Grove where we live, a lot of the children at St Martins come from Bevendean, Coldean, Hollingdean and even Moulsecoomb. This difference is v.noticeable when you see the parents of the children at the Childrens' Parade.

Fairlight School is another v.small school near to both and it feels to me that Fairlight is more like St Martins with this wider mix. [MENTION=13230]Psychobilly freakout[/MENTION] has kids there so he can confirm or deny that.

Jebus, I hope I don't have more kids than just the one, that would take some explaing to the wife.
Yes fairlights is and they are proud of the most ethnically diverse school in Brighton and defiantly Hove.

We had the choice of Elm grove, St Martins and Fairlights and it came down to the simple facts on selection Elm Grove is for middle class champagne socialists but not in my back yard and we don't actually want anyone holding back our children, however I must say it did not seem religious when we went to open day at all, I don't think they mentioned it.
I just hated the pretence.

Sorry Buzzer might upset you here, St Martins we never in stepped inside the place due to the fact my grandfather was a high Anglican vicar in sackville road Hove, and I just saw through religion at a young age it was not for me.

Fairlights has such a mix of faiths, and they skim over all religions for the children, I've had questions about Jebus, and Elvis which ones better etc, etc, The main point in life is you need your child to mix and understand different cultures and faiths something I was never given and initially I formed the wrong impression then generalised people and thought horrible things, you grow up, understand and move on...

Now my little one, by putting her in a mixed school she can make those choices a lot earlier than I could which is moving forward, far better than going to a safe upper middle class school far away from those children from challenging backgrounds that can't afford to get in the catchment areas I'd say.... Still there parents will pretend there right on and inclusive but little Johnny needs the best start.....

You need your child to make there own choices, not being told at a young age...

If you are told at young age, you go either of two ways...

1: you follow like a sheep, and let your mind be corrupted
2: you think.... Well that's bollox, I'm going out tonight and I love life, people & freedom of thought and nothing holds me back.

Probably off topic there, it's nearly 1pm and I've still got jet lag from Sunday

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Maybe the question should be what's the benefit of single faith schools?

 

[pastafarian]

Maybe the question should be what's the benefit of single faith schools?

Maybe all the questions are wrong.
Maybe we should approach it from a different angle with different thinking.
Instead of banning single faith schools, maybe all schools that want to be religious can only be multi faith

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Maybe all the questions are wrong.
Maybe we should approach it from a different angle with different thinking.
Instead of banning single faith schools, maybe all schools that want to be religious can only be multi faith

Fair point