Do I need to get my kids baptised to get them into a private school?

[Workingmummaof2]

Hi, I live in Perth and have two daughters - 2yo and 8months. I heard that it's really competitive to gain entry into private schools here. Being from the east coast I didn't realise how difficult it may be and in fact I've been told by other mums that I should already by making enrollments for both of them! :confused:

I'm contemplating whether I should get them baptised to increase their likelihood of getting into a good school, but would rather let religion be something they choose whether or not to follow for themselves once they're old enough to understand. Neither my husband or I attend church anymore but we did have some private schooling and grew up being instilled with Christian values, so I know singing a few hymns and praying won't do them any harm.

Just wondering if any of you could offer any advice or share your experiences on the matter, whether you're from Perth or anywhere else in Aus? My thanks in advance for your advice

[Elijahs Mum]

Im not in Perth but here in Sydney to automatically get into a Catholic School you need to be baptized ( they do take a percentage of non Catholics but there are no guarantees) but in private schools as long as you pay the fees they don't care! ( we had Catholics, Jews, Muslims and atheists at our Church of England school!)

[OJandMe]

do they believe in being baptised into that faith?

Unless they make the choice themselves, I wouldn't be baptising them into a faith just because of a school.... That kind of goes against the whole idea of having a personal faith.

Would you convert to Hinduism if the best school in your area was a hindu school? Or an Orthodox Jewish school?

As far as I know you can still attend private schools without being part of that faith.

[BlissedOut]

It depends entirely on your motivations, if you're serious about helping them making what is a sacred covenant to many people, then yeah, go for it, but if it's just to get them into a school then I think that's really disrespectful.

Many private schools take people who aren't baptised or of their faith.

[MsTruth]

I know with Catholic Schools that baptised children are given preference to non baptised.

I am not sure about the Christian based private schools in Perth, check out their websites.

[Kimberleygal1]

Ds1 goes to a catholic school where there is a waiting list and those that are baptised are given first priority over those who aren't. Ds1 was baptised anyway but because we are RC, if he wants to take a different path when he is older he can, at the moment though he seems to be quite interested and comes home reciting the prayer and asking a million questions which is great. I don't believe people that aren't catholic should baptise their children just to get them into a school but if you do happen to get your non baptised child into a catholic school you need to accept that your child will have prayer sessions etc and learn about the faith at school.

[Cluky79]

If you want to get into a Christian or Catholic school in Melbourne then yep the child needs to be baptised. We also need to enroll children in to Christian schools pretty much from birth to ensure a spot however with the catholic schools you just need to enroll the year before they are due to start.

I'm baptised but however I do not attend church, I do believe though. We will be getting DS baptised as soon as we have some spare cash and he will be attending a christian (DSD goes to one) or a Catholic school (he will be baptised Catholic)

I suppose the at the end of the day you just need to be happy with the decisions hun.

[Wise Enough]

Do they check or just ask the parents if the child is baptised?

[babycake]

Do they check or just ask the parents if the child is baptised?

You have to supply the baptismal certificate.

[Witwicky]

I wouldn't and I think it's odd to do so.

I am not baptised and attended a private Catholic high school. My suggestion would be to enrol anyway, as they do take a portion of students who are not baptised, or look into non-denominational private schools.

[MsTruth]

You are at the bottom of the list if not baptised so if it is a popular school you will not get in if not baptised.

Honestly I would baptise to get into a good school - as my child education would outweigh any screams of hypocracy etc (btw no one would know if you did this unless you told them).

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[Wise Enough]

I thought about doing it for schools too. But then I heard the church talk about gay marriage and I realised I wanted my DD to have no part of that.

[Mummato4]

Maybe look for private schools that are not religious based ? I went to private catholic school and spent up to half a day a week wasting my educational time on religious studies, mass etc etc

[Maybelline]

I went to Iona in perth..I wasn't baptised...

[MsTruth]

I went to Iona in perth..I wasn't baptised...

You do not have to be baptised, my son is going to a Catholic school and is not baptised yet, but it does make it harder if there are a lot of people applying to go who are baptised.

I went to a Catholic School and really religion did not take up that much time and they are open to discussion as I was often involved in debates about religious issues. I never felt like I was being forced to believe one thing over another. in primary school the sacraments were fun because all my friends were doing the same thing and in high school I only attended mass a couple of times a year with religion class once or twice a week for half an hour each time.

[Sonja]

Hi

I am in Perth and have 3 kids. We have their names down at private schools here (none catholic pigs would have to fly before we went that route) and none of my kids are baptized nor will they be. We moved here 18 months ago and were told the same story about horrendous waiting lists but there are a lot of movement on those lists as people move here, put their kids down and then move back east. Also a lot of private schools here will give special circumstances if you have moved from interstate as they acknowledge so many people here do that.

To my mind, and I'm not sure whether you're talking about primary as well as secondary (we'll only go private from year 6) it's far more beneficial to get involved in the school community and be seen as someone who is supporitve of schools. DD1 attends the local state primary school and I'm active on the p&c and get involved in lots of things at the school and come interview time at the high schools I'll be making them aware of that.

And in relation to private schools, my understanding (and I haven't confirmed this with the edu dept) is that it is a condition of their gov't funding that the school takes a proportion of kids that are non-denominational (it may be as high as 20%). It's not something they widely publicize but I know quite a few parents who reminded the school about this and we're able to get in.

I don't know where you are but I'm north and we have fabulous state schools all around us if in the event we don't get the girls into the private school we've selected. Feel free to pm me you want any more information.

[missie_mack]

In my area being baptised isn't enough to guarantee you a position. You need to be an active member of the church community for catholic school.

And no I wouldn't baptise a child simply to get them into a school. I think it sends the wrong message.

[BaronessM]

I'm an unbaptised heathen, and attended Anglican girls school for 12 long years. Didn't like it at the time, but feelI had a good all-round education. my partner is also unbaptised, and went to private Christian school here in Melb.

[mum2one99]

the problem in perth is the private co ed schools are mostly catholic. there are a few that arent, and some excellent single sex schools, but co ed private schools are very limited.
catholic schools not only require baptism certificate but priest reference letter stating u r active in the church etc. (the ones i have checked out anyway).
whilst they might take non catholic stidents you are fifth in priority and all these schools have long waiting lists

[Nemmi]

You didn't need to when I went to primary school but I went to a small catholic school

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[KatiesMum]

the problem in perth is the private co ed schools are mostly catholic. there are a few that arent, and some excellent single sex schools, but co ed private schools are very limited.
catholic schools not only require baptism certificate but priest reference letter stating u r active in the church etc. (the ones i have checked out anyway).
whilst they might take non catholic stidents you are fifth in priority and all these schools have long waiting lists

yep - my DD goes to a catholic primary school - and to get in we had to show her baptism certificate and a priest reference (which wasnt hard to get ... we dont attend church, but had got married at that church and DD was baptised there, so he gave us one without any issues)

As for what is involved - in primary school, it is actually quite involved. Religion is fairly ingrained in everything they do, from Kindy onwards. Stories and reading involves learning about God and Jesus, they have hymn singing and religious education ... its not just a subject they do once or twice a week, its part of the way they learn.

In grade 1 they also had a whole thing recently where they had to bring in photos of their christening ... they were celebrating it as part of a project at school.

I wouldnt really advise attending a catholic primary school unless you were prepared to accept religion as part of it. High School may be different .... but certainly attending a catholic primary school will aid your cause in getting accepted into a catholic high school.

And as far as I'm aware - they dont actually take that much notice of past association or involvement in the previous schools. Its not something that would assist you in gaining admission.

[Sonja]

Mum2one99 I've no idea where you are but we have about half a dozen great private schools around us that aren't catholic. I'm just north of Scarborough. I personally don't think catholic schools are all you have to consider and like I said the state schools around us are excellent

[Aaliyahsmummy]

For the schools I have looked at they expect parents to be practicing, and require a church reference for automatic acceptance.Won't be happening for us, so I got her name down at my top 2 choices before she was 1.

[Hollywood]

I went to a baptist grammar school in Melbourne and wasn't baptised. In fact my parents aren't religious AT ALL.

[mum2one99]

Sonya - apart from st marks and st Stephens what have I missed for co ed private schools near scarbs? (Not being argumentative, just hoping u might solve my problem lol!!!)
Katies mum - ur post is making me think twice about even trying fir Catholic school admission. I went to a religious school but it was pocketed up into religious ed for 1-2 hrs a week and maybe a prayer at assembly. For a non religious person Catholic primary sounds OTT

[missie_mack]

Katiesmum is spot on. My DS goes to anglican school (despite us being Catholics and FWIW they never asked about baptism or anything) and even writing involves religion. I remember my DS coming home chanting little songs about drawing letters and numbers 'Across the sky and down from heaven, that is how we draw a seven' Sure it is harmless but it is just a simple example of how religion is brought into unrelated subjects. I can't imagine they teach kids how to write numbers like this in a public school lol. Also you need to consider that most Catholic schools involve sacrements during class lessons. So if you are umming and ahhing about baptism you need to consider how you feel about them receiving reconciliation, communion and confirmation. I am not sure if it is fair for a child to go through all the prep for these things and miss out on the event at the end that all their friends go through...

[Sonja]

Sorry i including single sex schools in my remarks. We're hoping our girls will go to St mary's (it's close to us). St Stephens is excellent though and we'd be really happy there too.

[mum2one99]

Darn it, I was hoping there was some others. Oh well, my kids might be getting some religious education then (assuming they even accept us heathens!) .

[sweetpeamummy]

We are SOR and our children attend a K-12 Uniting College and they are not baptised. I would never baptise my children just to be accepted into a school. They accept my children for who they are or they can't have them.

[sandy_1902]

my son goes the a christian school and is not baptized or anything

[Workingmummaof2]

My thanks to everyone for your constructive input - you've all given me some food for thought / helped to put things into perspective.

Wow, 587 views and 29 replies in 48 hours - clearly this is an emotive subject regardless which end of the faith spectrum you may sit and there seems to be many others out there who are asking themselves the same question about how to tackle the important decision about educating their kids. I guess it just shows that these decisions - like everything else in parenting - is about trying to achieve a good balance and making sacrifices while staying true to oneself.
Just wish there was more info out there for us all than that awful My School website, grrr... Many thanx again :wave: