I really want to put my kids into a private school starting in prep. The schools in our area that we like are Catholic. We are not religious in the slightest. when looking at enrollment criteria they all say Baptisted or can demonstrate a religious family. Is there anyway around this so we can send the kids to one of these school?
7 Replies
They take a percentage of kids that are not religious. Go have a meeting with the schools.
You really need to baptise your child to be guaranteed accepted, as the really good private schools will pick and choose and its a huge factor, being a catholic school also it is very religious so your child will be sitting through mass and liturgy and learning the bible stories ect as religion is a subject probably not a good idea to send them if your not religious and don't want that for your child?
I would suggest not sending them if you are not religious and don't want your children been religious? They are forced to sit down and pray for 30 mins in the morning and say prays out loud etc and can be very hard for kids who don't do this at home and don't really understand the concept. They also have to do a lot of extra study towards the religion and bible and have to sit through mass...
I went to a Catholic high school (year 7-12). I am not religious, neither is my family. There was certainly a strong religious element, as you'd expect, there was mass, religious celebrations etc, but the fundamental ideals are Christian, so essentially being a good person. We would start off the day with a single prayer...maybe a minute.
Every school will have different expectations, and different delivery of the required syllabus. As previously mentioned, meet with the schools. It can be a really positive way to start introducing your children to the idea of different opinions and views.
Just out of curiosity, why do you want to send your children to a Catholic school if your family is not religious at all? The reason i ask is because your children will have to participate in mass, learn about Jesus and also have homework and projects based on stories of the Bible. Is your family looking into becoming Catholic or is it purely due to wanting to send your kids to a Catholic school?
Your best option will be to go and have a meeting with the school/s as some Catholic private schools have a closed enrolment policy where only practicing Catholics can enrol and admitted. In this case, you will have to prove in your application that you are part of a Church or Parish. This may mean you need to get a letter from your Parish Priest or at least a signature to state that your family are members of that Church. On the other hand, other Catholic schools are just Catholic but not private. These are own by the government. Which means that they are required to take a small percentage of kids who are not Catholics.
I teach in a private Christian school with a close enrolment policy. My niece and nephew go to a Catholic school however, they are not practicing Catholics nor does my sister and her husband teach or know anything about the Bible. Overtime her kids get a project or homework for religion she is on the phone to me asking "what the heck does that mean in the Bible? i have no idea what they're going on about". So, you may want to consider these things.
We got our kids baptised to attend school.
My husband attended a Catholic school, and the preist was will to let us have 'surrogate'god parents, but our neighbours are catholic, so they are our god parents.
Otherise I would have had to be baptised, which is no drama as I wanted them to attend this particular school
After going through the process of finding a school I would strongly urge you to go and speak to the principals of your preferred schools first. We didn't want her to go to our catchment primary school, it's big and rough; and the other public schools in our area were too full to consider us. So we thought any private school that we could afford, and that was within reasonable distance, was surely the best thing for our daughter. I had heard good things about a fairly new Catholic school nearby so rang and asked for a tour. They wouldn't show us around unless we submitted an application, which cost $50. I was a bit confused because how did I know whether I wanted to apply if I hadn't seen the school, seen a class in action, met a teacher or the principal, or had a chance to ask some questions? So after a bit of deliberation we decided to go ahead with the application anyway, as we thought it would be worth it if we liked the school. So we made an appointment. The principal interviewed us first, and one of the first things she mentioned was that we weren't Catholic. I said that's right, and I'm aware you take non-Catholic enrolments. She was a bit mystified as to why we wanted a Catholic education when we're not Catholic. She then went on to ask more questions about our parenting, my kids spiritual upbringing, etc. She was absolutely horrified when she learned that I hadn't told my daughter about the story of the nativity. She had just turned 4!!! She barely knew anything about Christmas at that age, as she was only 3 the previous Christmas and was a bit young to really understand much about it. Including Santa - we just never made a big deal out of it. So I sat there through the interview and felt judged on many levels, and felt that unless I was on the same page as the Catholic education system, this wasn't going to work. It's different to the regular public education, there is a religious slant on a huge amount of the work they will be doing every day. My daughter is at a private school that has an affiliation with the Anglican and Uniting churches, and it is worth every extra cent that we pay above the cost of a Catholic education, when we're not Catholic. My advice is to go check them all out first. Ask parents whose kids go there, ask parents whose kids have been there and now go elsewhere. Hang out in school car parks if you have to! Just because it's private doesn't make it a suitable school for your child.