I am currently having the same problem - lucky for me I won't have to worry about the issue for quite some time (we're not even TTC just yet). I live in a large regional NSW town which is dominated by the Catholic Church. 80% of the private schools are Catholic, the rest being Lutheran, Anglican and Christian. I was not raised with any religion, I have not been baptised and I do not follow any particular religion. My DH was raised a Catholic, baptised and Catholic and went through 13 years of Catholic School - only to come out of it a NON CATHOLIC. He has said from day 1 that he would not put his children through the Catholic School system - nor any religious system for that matter. I fully embraced this as I went to a public school and my family are big believers in the public school system.

We built a house last year in a beautiful new suburb in our ever expanding community and without sounding like a snob - it's a very well-to-do area. Our "zoned" public school (which is our closest even though it's 10km away) is in a very bad suburb and sits on one of the worst streets in town (in terms of violence, drugs etc) and the suburb in which the school is located is mostly community housing. I refuse to send my child to this school. There are no ifs or buts on this one - I will not have my child attend that school - I will not have my children in that area of town!

So here is the dilemma - do I send my child to a religious school despite our family not being religious - or do I send my child to the dodgy public school? As some of you ladies have mentioned above - having my child sing songs about jesus would make me really uncomfortable - yet the Catholic school is a fantastic school in all other respects.

My hope is that before I really have to worry - another public school will be built within our zone as our new suburb is expanding even further. I suppose we still have about 6-8 years before we have to worry! But it is on my mind!

Sorry if that was long winded!