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| spirifer |
Primary school league tables: Faith schools dominate national rankings - Almost two-thirds of the 329 primaries with "perfect" results were Anglican, Roman Catholic or Jewish schools.
There is so much criticism of religion in general, not least from the good people of IC. Yet faith schools consistently out-perform more secular schools.
So, why is this? And - committed atheists - would you give your children a religious education for the sake of their academic prospects?
| 3 Apr 09, 9:52 PM proccie UK(HP), 6 yrs   |
Most of then are very selective, if not in who they take in then in who they will keep. I believe faith should be kept out of (state) education. Zen S&M: The sound of one hand smacking. | |
| 3 Apr 09, 9:58 PM spirifer UK, 6 yrs |
Selective in what way? My daughter attends a faith school - the only selection criteria is that the family actually practises the religion. The school's reception entry is multi-cultural and multi-ethnic, with many reception children speaking English as a second language. Yet by the league table stage, the school is in the top ten in the borough. The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation - Pierre Trudeau | |
| 3 Apr 09, 10:17 PM Conan_The_Librarian UK(S), 3 yrs |
It is a perculiar quirk of British history, going back to Victorian era educational reform, that we still reserve a special place for religion in education. This insidious link should of been severed decades ago. Other nations manage to produce excellent primary level education without feeling the necessity of drumming religious mumbo-jumbo into impresional minds at the same time. Its odd that the religions concentrate on educating children and not adults. If their commitment to education were genuine you would think that they would be eager to fund degree level study just as keenly as they support study at primary level. Could it possibly be that its much easier to keep up the fiction that religion is 'true' in a class of 6 year olds than it is in a lecture theatre of 18 year olds? Here comes a whizz-bang, and I think you know what I'm talking about, woof! | |
| 3 Apr 09, 10:19 PM CookieMonster UK, 6 yrs |
Maybe you should turn the question around to why are non-faith schools so bad? Maybe its because they face greater exposure to council meddling as faith schools do enjoy a greater degree of autonamy. Also it could be linked in a more circular way. Academic attainment is linked to family structure, family structure of more faith based people is of a more traditional form. I agree with Proccie, Faith schools should be dumped. See Northern Ireland for details. | |
| 3 Apr 09, 10:19 PM scarlettsamm UK(BL), 6 yrs |
my daughter attends a faith school it was our second choice- out first choice[non faith school] was over subscribed... although second choice it was a very close second choice. in my expierience - families who send children to faith schools - tend to be also interested in the childs personal/pastoral//social/moral/spiritual developement as well as the accademic- Faith school parents in my expierience tend to be more involved in the childs education, and more supportive and interested in whats actually going on in both school, and the childs school activities. and Lady Stardust sang her songs, of..... Edited 3 Apr 09, 10:20 PM by scarlettsamm | |
| 3 Apr 09, 10:20 PM DaniJo UK(HR), 5 yrs |
Call me naive, but until I was of an age to take an interest in the wider world, I was unaware of anything <other> than a "faith school" at the primary level. I would still hazard a guess that many many schools are at least loosely under that umbrella term. | |
| 3 Apr 09, 10:36 PM boy050505 UK, 7 yrs |
Is the school entry oversubscribed? If so, there must have been a selection process, what criteria were used. No catchment area or sibling first rule? It has been known for children to be baptised into a faith by parents in order to get their child into a best in borough school. Is the school governor run i.e. opted out, most faith schools are. This tends to mean that the wishes of the parents are more influential in the schools management. Life is not a munch. | |
| 3 Apr 09, 10:49 PM goodghirl UK, 8 yrs |
my son attends a faith school and again the only criteria was that we as a family were members of that faith. again it is one of the top 5 schools in the area and feeds into the 2nd best school in the area also a faith secondary school the top school in the tables is a fee paying school. edited to add I've moved a few times and have noticed when looking for schools that faith schools are in general higher up the league tables but also on inspection have a better community within the school Edited 3 Apr 09, 10:50 PM by goodghirl | |
| 3 Apr 09, 11:48 PM Tenderdom2 4 yrs |
That's another assumption about cause-and-effect I'm afraid. The fact that kids who go to faith schools do better than those that don't doesn't prove that religious teaching/indoctrination improves educational standards. It's the old "people with smaller feet are worse readers than those with big feet" type of syllogism. (Which is true but doesn't mean that bigger feet have some kind of hidden literary talent. They just tend to be attached to adults who've already been to school.) Here's another good one: people who live together before marriage are more likely to get divorced than those that don't. The conclusion drawn being that living together before marriage makes that marriage more unstable. Duhhh. Nowt to do with the fact that people who consider marriage sacred are less likely to live together before marriage, and are also less likely to divorce. Obviously. Or: kids from parents who divorce do less well than those from parents who stay together. So obviously it's the divorce that damages the kids.... not all the fighting and general horribliness that lead up to the divorce. Ooops sorry probably sounding a bit obnoxious here. But I do get tired of the mis-interpretation of statistical facts that gets bandied about. Whatever it is, I'm against it! - Rufus T. Firefly | |
| 4 Apr 09, 3:50 AM Doghouse_Reilly UK(MK), 6 yrs |
They probably all cheat. The dirty feckers. Anybody who says truth is stranger than fiction has never seen tentacle porn. |
