Catholic primary school admission criteria Post Reply

[mamum]

Hello,

I wonder if anyone can help me. I have read the admission criteria for the Holy Ghost RC school in Balham (and similar other faith schools) and they all roughly state, in order of priority;
1) cared for children
2) siblings
3) regular attendance at school parish church
4) regular attendance at other parish church
etc etc

but reading the numbers each year for the admissions, the admissions never get further then those that are in regular attendance in the parish church.

This is all fine, we are catholics, and attend when we are at home. However what interests me, is the subset of this criteria? Does everyone who attends regularly get into the school? Or would that still be far too many people? In which case how it is then decided? Does it always come down to distance? or length of time in parish? or something else, or all of the above?

Would someone be able to clarify this, as its a very grey area, when you look into the schools priority listings within those that attend regularly. Maybe someone has had experience of this?
thanks

[annamike]

Hi! criteria at HG are very strict. You need to put your name down everytime you go to the service on Sunday and they check reguarly if you are there. They give preference to families who go to church regularly and have siblings in the school. This year 22 out of 30 places available were attributed to church-goers (every sunday) who had other kids at the school. Other 8 places were given to church-goes according to the distance from school. Not easy to get in but I think it's worth trying. I visited the school and it's amazing. Nothing worse than any independent school I have visited in the area.
Hope it helps.

[workingmum62]

Hello there,

We do not have a child at Holy Ghost yet, but hope ours will attend in the future. So this is only my understanding of the system from chatting to others, if any one knows differently do say!

In addition to the LA forms you need to get the priest to sign a supplementary application form (http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/site/files ... y-form.pdf). On this form, the priest can choose one of 3 options to tick:
- weekly attendance at Mass
- less than weekly attendance at Mass
- unknown attendance at Mass
There is also the option for the priest to add if there are reasons why Mass attendance should be considered equivalent to weekly.

The priest decides which box to tick based on your attendance record for the previous 3 years. Please note, unlike most other catholic churches this is done by reference to an official roll, not just on whether the priest has seen you every week! So from 3 years before you want to get the priest's reference you need to "sign" the attendance register. You have to get the priest to sign your form by the December before your child starts the school, this means that in reality you need to start signing in almost 4 years before your child is due to start school! The register closes during school holidays to allow for people going away – I’m not sure the exact weeks but if anyone out there knows I would love to know!

As you've said the priority then goes to children who have siblings at school BUT you still need to have a good mass attendance (not sure if this needs to be weekly or can be less than weekly).

Then as I understand it priority goes to those who have the weekly attendance box ticked by the priest by distance from the school if this category is still over-subscribed and in the last few years there have been children in this category who haven’t got places.

I think there is a grey area because I'm not sure what constitutes “weekly attendance” is it literally every week? And if you’ve missed one or two weeks do you get dropped down to cat 5? I have some recollection of hearing that you needed a 95% plus attendance record over the 3 years (not counting times when the register is closed) to get the priest to put weekly attendance. If like us you don’t have children yet at school and so aren’t tied to school holidays to go away you’ll agree this is a pain!! However, we get round it by going to the 6pm Sunday evening service when we get back from wherever we are. The other piece of advice we’ve been given is to get involved in the community, helping out at parish events, doing readings, etc. as I think you’re more likely to sway the priest if he knows you!!

If anyone who has got their child into the school recently has anything to add (or correct) I’d be really interested in hearing from you too...

[mamum]

Hi

Thanks AnnaMike and workingmum2 - your posts were really helpful. I have heard great things about the school - so we will try to get in.
However I now think we wont probably stand much of a chance, especially when there were only 8 non sibling places. We do attend weekly - well when we are here - but like working mum2 we arent tied to school holidays, so prefer to take our hols and weekends away during school terms - so there will inevitably be some weeks that we cant go, but i suppose that cant be helped.
However, I think another query is that we will have only been in the parish just under 3 years by the time we apply, and we didnt know about the signings initially. So we wont have the full 3 years quota of signings. How does it work for people who have moved into the area less then 3/4years previously?
thanks

[annamike]

I have the same problem. We started to attend only last year when we moved to the aread and we will be less than 3 years when we need our reference letter. However, Father Stephen knows that as we started as soon as we moved in order to have our second son baptism there. Plus, I think they introduced the formal signing only a 10 months ago or so... I can't remember signing any paper when we first went.. but I might be wrong.

[TupeloHoney]

Wow. This is really terrifying! We're moving to Earlsfield in the next month or two and our plan was to get our (now 2YO) child into HG, but it sounds like we've already missed the boat with the mass register, and probably won't live close enough anyway...

Does anyone have any experience of other local catholic primaries? Are any on a par with Holy Ghost?

TH

[workingmum62]

The form askes when you moved to the parish and I think if you moved within the 3 years they take this into account.

I think the last person to be offered a place in April for entry in Sept 2011 was about 500m from the school (walking distance, etc.), so you basically need to be on a neighbouring road.

[juliantenniscoach]

if you work on the principal that HG has the catchment area of a postage stamp, one form entry plus sibling priority then don't be too optimistic.

[grigorjoy]

I have a Catholic friend who had regularly attended church in her area before moving to Balham and approaching Fr Stephen about joining HG parish. She was basically told not to bother trying to get her son (then a recent newborn) in because most of the places were already allocated. On hearing that, I didn't see a point in wasting my time attending church every week. I'm obviously not a devout practising Catholic but do like attending every now and again; however Fr Stephen's words were so off-putting and made me reaffirm my belief that Churches are a con. Short of giving significant monetary donations and scrubbing the floors to his £2m house in the square, I'm not sure what else you can do to 'sway his opinion' in favour of you over the other parisioners, especially with the surplus of babies in the area. Call me cynical. May have better luck at St Anslem's which I hear is also very good if you live in the Tooting Bec area.

[andyobrien]

I live in East Sheen, has anyone got any insight into whether they take attendance at St.Mary Magdalene's in Mortlake?

I go irregularly and so am worried we are not part of the in crowd

[BalhamMumWorkingFT]

I am a Practicing Catholic in the Holy Ghost Parish and agree the school is great.

In regards to "applying", please consider your faith first. Holy Ghost gives your child a strong Catholic education. If you aren't Catholic or feel strongly about your faith there are many other outstanding state schools in and around Balham. It is excellent to support your local school, that is how they get better and better.

If you are Catholic and support your parish as you can, the application won't be an issue. Father Stephan has open evenings posted in the weekly bulletin and will see you if you have questions or want to get more involved in the parish.

Good Luck, we too are waiting for a school place in Wandsworth.

[skeraf]

Well said BalhamMumWorkingFT!

[CathTwentyTwo]

In my opinion Fr Stephen is enough to put even the most devout Catholic off going to church.

[flyer]

Not sure exactly where HG school is, so can't vouch for the proximity, but St. Bedes in Clapham Park is an excellent Catholic infant school. Having lots of school experience, I would always say view schools yourself and don't take reputation into account. We had a negative experience with a school that was meant to be amazing....

[Cloud]

I have started another thread on a similar topic (re: St Anselms, Tooting) but if anyone knows how close you need to live to St Anselms to get in, I'd appreciate any advice! (We're looking to move anyway so might as well try and move to the 'catchment area' if we can, although if it is too strict it may well price us out...) We attend mass weekly so that's not a problem, I don't think. Thanks!