Catholic/Christian Scools

Does anybody know if you don't get your child christened/baptised then Catholic/Christian schools will refuse them entry?

TIA

Nellbe, it might depend on the school, but I went to a Catholic primary & high school and had lots of friends there who weren't baptised.

I went to an Anglican school. They didn't care if you were Christian or not. They offered to make me an infidel but I declined :)

When I was at school, my primary class had 1 child that wasn't Catholic. High School was a bit different. They certainly have a pecking order, but if you're not baptised, then it doesn't mean you don't get to go there, you just won't get picked first.

When I went for the interview with the principal of the kids school (a catholic school) he told me that they have percentages to go by. X% must be catholic and then the rest of the student population can be made up of non catholic students. There is preference given to catholic students of course but there is no reason you should feel that you have to christen/baptise your child.

As for secondary schools ... I went to a Uniting Church private school and there was no need to be affiliated with the church (you wanna pay they are going to take you!!!) but of course all religious teachings follow the school denomination so if you are not comfortable with the teachings of a certain religion then I wouldn't send your child to that sort of school. I have found a very nice non denominational high school to send my kids to. It is co-ed, which is not quite what I was looking for, but the benifits of my kids going there far outweigh the co-ed nature of the school.

There are some great non-denominational schools out there that are private but you have to look for them!!!! Try the independant schools board in your state if it is really an issue.

Cheers

Hi - I wondered about this as well and also heard about the percentage thing. I went to in independent anglican high school and and was never asked if we were any faith.

My SIL had her four children baptisted all at once at ages about 2, 4, 8 and 10 years old and they're all going to go to some catholic high school and they're lucky if they go to church twice a year now.

The high schools near us are hidous. There is a catholic girls high school in the hills that i plan on looking into further.

barb.

I went to a catholic school and they let in non-baptised people. I even knew a girl who was Buddist there. The only thing you weren't allowed to do was if you were a different religion you couldnt pressure people into joining you religion. That happened once. 2 girls tried to make people turn Pagan!

My understanding is so long as you pay it doesnt really matter.


Keen

I went to catholic school , and there were kids there who werent even catholic and also werent baptised at all. My primary school let everyone in, no matter what faith or if they were baptised or not.

I also went to a catholic high school and they wouldnt let you in if you were not catholic or had not been baptised.
So i guess it depends on the school..?

I have honestly never heard of a school that doesn't except those non baptised or from a different denomination when it comes to catholic or christian schools. We lived in a highly jewish area and there were a few schools there that had only jewish kids, which I thought was understandable as religion (and language) is a big part of their education iykwim. But as far as I know they were one of the only religions that had a preference.

*hugs*
Cailin

I'm a teacher at a Catholic school and we have a variety of students with varying religious backgrounds. Preference is given to Catholic students but all parents are interviewed about their reasons for wanting their child to attend the school.

I don't think baptism makes any difference. My children go to Maranatha, where they ask that at least one of the parents be a Christian actively involved with a church, but baptism doesn't enter into it because there are different beliefs between the denominations.

Kerrie

My daughter attends a private Anglican school and they certainly have a diverse cultural student population. They attend an Anglican service once a fortnight but also receive information regarding other faiths which I find highly desirable! We are considering sending our son to a Catholic school so that he too can receive at least SOME spiritual education. The idea of religion begin totally avoided in the public system is one of the reasons we are avoiding it. My BIL is a public school teacher and they can't even mention Santa at Christmas which I believe is a real worry... they should be able to acknowledge every significant cultural event be it Christmas, Passover or whatever....

It depends on the school.

There are 3 or 4 Catholic primary schools near me, and I know at least one that requires not only the child, but both parents be baptised or they'll not allow the child to enrol.

Most of them however will give preference but still take children who aren't Catholic/Christian.

I'm really not sure about schools to send our bub to, will probably look at it more when he gets older, as the schools can change a lot in 4-5 years.

Ooo... I never even thought of this, Nell!
I'll have to find out if Christian College here in Geelong takes kids that haven't been baptised. I guess they do.... I have a few friends that went and I would be surprised if they were baptised.

My MIL is a principal at a catholic primary school.
She said that they allow the majority of places are taken with practicing catholics, then they allow a couple of places to non catholics.This all alters if the number of catholic children are down then they allow the other children in.
With secondary school they take siblings then Catholics and then a limited few positions are allocated to non catholics.
Bec

we are greek orthodox and my son goes to a catholic school. They accepted him and us with out any hesitation and pointed out that George wont be able to do the catholic comunion etc as he has already done the greek orthodox one however all the other religious bits he can do and loves them btw hehe which is great. I would never send my kids to a public school ever again and the catholic school george goes to is very advanced and from every aspect you can think of is much better off than a public. The class sizes are smaller, the whole school only has 200 kids in it, this makes it easier for the teachers to get to know the children on a one on one basis. George went to a public school which has 1,000 children enrolled and unfortunatly he got bullied big time so we changed in may mid way through grade prep, and have never looked back.

They dont knock you back. But the normal procedure of acceptance into a catholic school is baptised catholics get second rank , 1st is siblings.

This is how my boys school does it anyway. With seconday catholic it mainly goes by feeder, baptised etc etc

the preference for our catholic school (it is very popular and has a waiting list) is
any child that has siblings at the school
a catholic child living within the parish
a catholic child not living within the parish
a non catholic child living within the parish
a non catholic child living outside of the parish
beckles