Hello Parenting Forum,

Wondered if any of you could give be advice. I am Catholic, my family are Catholic and have been church attenders in my home town for years and I want my DD to attend the local Catholic School. HOWEVER my partner and I are unmarried, fairly new to Sheffield and when our baby was Christened at our local church in Sheffield, the priest wasn't particularly welcoming (I got the feeling he thought we were just getting her 'done' for the schools. He didn't even give us a certifite of baptism afterwards. As a result we started to attend a different church.

I am so worried the fact we are unmarried will affect DD's chances of attending a Catholic school. Will we have to get married before we start the application? Does anyone have any advice?

I would suggest that you speak to the school you would like your DD to attend and see if they have any criteria that needs to be fulfilled in order for your DD to attend.

The best thing to do is go and make an appointment with the headteacher and explain that you want to ask them some questions about your DD attending school and would like a visit to the school in order to see what it is like and to have a chat regarding the admission criteria.

HTH x

stop worrying, 3 of my four children went/are at catholic primary schools in sheffield and im divorced :), wasnt married ....now am to a non-catholic.

note: some priests are just grumpy lol.

you dont get a bapt. cert. at the baptism, you have to ring the church and order one. some charge some dont.

we just moved back to sheffield and my daughter had been at a non-catholic school and i wanted her to go to st. maries. we just rang st. toms church and got a copy, free. it arrived as a hand written note on headed paper, the school accepted it no probs :)

most importantly: the school will not ask if you are married. my daughter has a different surname to me, makes no diff.

please believe me you are worrying about nothing.

may i ask which school you have chosen?

my friend is a catholic single mum, never married, her kids both went to st thomas of canterbury and then on to All Saints. I don't think u need to worry :)

We got our eldest into Catholic primary school. We are not catholics but go to another church. Got a reference from our church leader to say we attend resonablie regularly and when had to give reasons for choosing school on application form put LOTS about wanting Church school.
There are plenty of non catholics at my daughters school, from many family backgrounds (married, divorced, etc).
All I can suggest is you contact the school you wanting and check with them. Good luck!!!

Thank you for your very reassuring replies. It comes as a relief that I won't have to arrange a wedding quite so soon! I'm going to apply to St Wilfrids and St Maries - don't have a preferance yet as haven't visited either school.

I was originally worried as a friend of a friend had their COE marriage blessed by the catholic church in order to 'help get their kids into school'. I have been also panicked (and angered) by news reports of parents playing the system to get their kids into catholic school and am worried that us genuine parents might get tarred with the same brush.

Just phoned St W's and the lady was quite haughty and er..."Schoolmarmish". (So much so that I got all my words mixed up and felt like I was 8 again!). She said that information about marial status was not known at application stage (although I expect her views were rather traditional by her tone of voice).

Yes St Wilfreds is far stricter than St Maries, or so i've heard!! Good luck with whatever school you choose anyway. I've applied for St Maries myself, fingers crossed my little girl will get in :) going to visit some time next week.

Yes St Wilfreds is far stricter than St Maries, or so i've heard!! Good luck with whatever school you choose anyway. I've applied for St Maries myself, fingers crossed my little girl will get in :) going to visit some time next week.

hi katy :)

correct about st wilfreds, they really are keen that you are church goers, whereas st maries just require a baptism cert. both lovely schools, all my little ones(katy^^^included) went to st maries and are all better people for the experience :)

good luck.

max

St Wils is a great school I am a childminder and all my children extremely enjoy it there. It is important that you attend church fairly regularly in order to get into the school...hence why parents are not given baptism certs until they continue to attend the church! I also went to st maries myself as a child...a good 15 years ago though so I have no idea what it is like now!

I have known people that have needed a Catholic church blessing before their children could attend St Wilfreds