Essential to be baptised to access primary and secondary education?

ollie103

Hi all,

I'm sure this topic has been covered elsewhere so pleas direct me to the forum to save us all time! Is it difficult to get a child who is not catholic (i.e. not baptised etc.) in to primary and secondary education in Ireland (and more accurately, in the Fingal area).

I have heard that Educate Together is a really good option for primary but what about secondary? Even if there are non-catholic shcools; is there a wide choice or are you dealing with only a handful? Or is it the case that a non-catholic can go to a catholic school (probably with a difficult entrance process and probably at the back of the 'queue'?).

Any views most accepted! Thanks

byhookorbycrook

Can't speak as to Fingal but most Catholic primary and secondary schools take a mixture of all religions and none. The baptism is sometimes used to whittle down numbers in oversubscribed Catholic primary schools, if it is in their enrolment policy. Our school is Catholic and in huge demand, but we don't use religion as a selection tool.

Each school has its own policy so you need to check with the individual schools.

huskerdu

We are in the same situation.

All schools have to have an enrolment policy with is available to anyone who wants it.

A lot (but not all ) Catholic schools have a "catholic first" enrollment policy.

It was no problem getting a primary school place in any of the local schools for my children.

However, secondary schools was a bit more difficult as most of the local schools are Catholic and over-subscribed. After a bit of a wait, my child has been accepted in a very good local Catholic secondary school. your decscription was fairlyh accurate "probably with a difficult entrance process and probably at the back of the 'queue'

You should find out about all the local schools, get their enrollment policies. Apply to any that you are interested in. You can go along to the open day, and ask how over subscribed they are.

Its can be stressful, but the more information you have and the more prepared you are, the easier it will be.

ollie103

Thanks for both replies - v helpful.

Moonbeam

From my experience it is more important to put their name down asap.

DylanII

The first batch of Educate together schools are opening in September 2014. So soon there will be an option for secondary schools too.

However, a lot of secondary schools don't request your baptismal cert. they will ask for your birth cert OR baptismal cert.

I went to a catholic primary and secondary school and there were non Catholics in my classes

It seems that about half actually were catholic - there was third level survey by campus.ie that shows only 52% of students said they were catholic (and many less probably were)

huskerdu

DylanII wrote: »

It seems that about half actually were catholic - there was third level survey by campus.ie that shows only 52% of students said they were catholic (and many less probably were)

But, how many of those who described themselves as non-Catholic were baptised as Catholic and went to Catholic schools and therefore were top of the list for admission to that school ahead of those who were not baptised.

I know loads of people who describe themselves as non-catholic or lapsed Catholic but still have their children christened in order to get into school, which has lead to a situation where there is very little appetite amount policians to change the situation

aisher

The secondary schools in Fingal don't discriminate on the basis of Religion but they all have different policies as regards when to enrol etc. You should phone the schools now as some of them enrol really early while others wait until 6th class.