Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

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Those of you who have your kids enrolled in Non muslim schools , please share your experience . Where I live we dont have Islamic schools. So my ootion is to send kid to Catholic schools . How is that going to impact on his day to day life ? do the kids get forced to pray as per Christian belief , in school or is the focus solely on providing the regular education .

Pro’s and con’s would help greatly , please share your thought and help this lost soul out :slight_smile:

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

I know a few families who have their kids in private Catholic schools (and Episcopal schools) and yes, they do have to attend chapel and prayer as part of the curriculum. Friends I know who have been through Catholic school themselves, or have their children in now, don't really have a problem with the prayer part as they have a good Islamic base at home, send their kids to Sunday School & Quran classes at the masjid. If anything, I think the diversity at Catholic schools would help to provide a well rounded education and environment.

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Back in seventies and eighties, in Pakistan, families used to take pride in sending their kids to convent schools, mainly because of the discipline and other values kids would learn. I think those kids came out fine

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We have close primary catholic school. But I'm not sending my kids there. I didn't like the attitude of the administrator when she saw me (I was wearing abaya). I teach Sunday school myself and I see this in the kids, Islam has become ritualistic , Sunday school can only do so much. Being open to churxh visits is one thing but I cringe at the prayer my child would be reciting on a daily basis that has shirk a part of it. Trinity. I'm all for respecting other religions but knowingly or unknowingly I do not want to utter words of shirk myself or have my kids say it.

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

automne, you voiced what is exactly my concern too.. Its not the mixing with other religions bit that is worrying me but uttering the words and belief that is shirk is hurting my soul already .. I dont know what options I have ..

Can we not request at the school to relax the kid on the prayer part? or is that too far fetched a wish and wont happen?

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

^My childhood Qur'an teacher used to send her two kids to a Catholic school.. they weren't required to take part in prayers..

I'm sure there are many other schools here which would be fine with it..

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

Thanks Deeba, I will definitely ask around in the schools of choice , if its possible for my kid not to take part in the prayer.

Any other Pros and Cons of this schooling system for muslim kids ?

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Cb, I do think catholic schools are more conservative. No homosexuality acceptance and other things. But the area I live in they are very adamant on saying prayers and church visits with kids required to take part in Christmas as a religious holiday. I would be inclined to it if these things weren't mandatory. And even though parents argue that if Islam is alive and thriving at home words of shirk uttered will have no effect I beg to differ , every word we utter has an effect on us.

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

Her reasons for sending her kids there were the much higher levels of discipline, less tolerance for bad behaviour and they were also much stricter (even compared to private schools) in regards to things such as school uniform.. Short skirts were not allowed, no high heels or platforms and only minimal jewellery could be worn.. They also had this rule about males and females needing to be a certain distance away from each other (but I doubt that was actually enforced).. There was no public kissing or sitting on laps or anything like that beween the girls and boys..

As well as obviously being more in line with Islamic morals their academic results were much better than the local high schools..

I think there might be quite a bit of difference between US catholic schools and those here in the UK..

(I went to private schools where we were meant to be in church for special services at Xmas and Easter but as Muslims we could be excused with a note from our parents.. Whilst technically they weren't 'religious' schools they leaned a bit in that direction)

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

Sorry, just realised you meant primary, not secondary :smack:

So much for my schooling lol

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

its ok Deeba, I just took out the most awesome school in my city following the ofsted ratings and spent the weekend happy knowing that I found the school i will send my son to , and then , when I looked at the school website , I realized it was a high secondary school :teary1: going to do the research all over again now !

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

CB, you should join netmums and ask for recommendations for Primary schools in your area.

I didn’t get the chance to write about Primary schools in my other thread, but my own opinion is that at this level, it doesn’t matter too much. Regardless of where your child goes to school for 5-11, you as a parent will have to supplement a lot. What you provide at home will have far more impact than school, from my experience. The most important thing is a good environment with caring teachers and generally well behaved children. I’m sure they will host open days, so you should look into attending those. You will be restricted by postcode anyway, so have a look at which schools are within your catchment area and then rank them by preference. This is what you will have to do eventually anyway, before the allocation of places.

Find your local council webpage for applying for a primary school place and familiarise yourself with the process.
e.g. Apply for Reception and Secondary Year 7 - Liverpool City Council and Get help - Liverpool City Council (the word docu on this page).

I do know other faiths who have gone to Christian schools for secondary education, but none at Primary level… I think for a young child that would be quite confusing.

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

My niece and nephew go to catholic private school and they are doing great over there. And they don't need to participate in the prayers.
also why don't you try Steiner schools if you are in UK. my cousin's daughter goes to one and she is extremely satisfied. They even let her and another Muslim boy offer their Zuhur prayers in the corner of a class room.

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Don't do it. My brother and sisters all went to catholic schools. Now they are Sufi and Maliki..:)

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

Gudia, thanks for the recommendation, will look into it.

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

Hmmmmm, I' was born/raised in the US, so I'm not sure if my experience will count for anything or be similar...but I wanted to chime in:

I was sent to Catholic school from grade 1 until 12 (2 different schools, 1-8 as elementary and 9-12 high school). There weren't any Islamic schools closeby, and my parents were more comfortable with sending us to Catholic rather than public school, for the same reasons as listed above: better academics, better structure (aka strict).

There was mass every couple of weeks, and of course on the holidays. I had to attend, but then again I don't recall ever not wanting to attend.......I rather looked forward to it because it broke the monotony of being in the classroom....lol.

I did have to learn the history of Jesus Christ and all the prayers and the rituals, there's no way around that. But when it came to actually performing rituals I (and others who weren't Muslim) were allowed to opt out.

During morning prayers, we weren't required to say anything out loud so there was no issue there. I did however perform the Pledge of Allegience.

I was the only desi/Muslim in all my years until grade 8, and in all honesty I can say I was never made to feel bad or feel left out bc I wasn't Catholic/Christian. In fact, the only time my religion was ever emphasized was when I answered several questions correctly and my teacher said to the class "see? she's not even Christian and she knows this, what's wrong with the rest of you?" (something to that effect. Not saying that was the best thing he did....but....eh)

When I got to high school, the focus was more on a well rounded education and after grade 9, the religious education was more about morality and mercy and social justice.....things that are present in every religion. In freshman year, it was mostly a rehash of the stuff learned in elementary/middle school, aka the history and life etc. Sophomore and junior year theology class focused on morality and decision making, and social justice respectively. So while it was still Catholic religion, many of the things we learned (aka how to make decisions, etc) could be applied to pretty much any faith. Senior year, we had several electives, including women in religion (all religions), marriage, etc; death and dying (again in all religions).

Compare that to Sunday/summer Islamic school I was sent to, which was an unprofessional, dysfunctional, disorganized, misogynistic mess.

FWIW, I can still remember 2 of the Catholic prayers, and I've never commit shirk, nor had an identity crisis. I'm Muslim Alhumdulillah :)

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

Well it's still true in Pakistan today but they taught Islamic studies too as part of the curriculum.

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Re: Catholic Primary schools for muslim kids

I sent my daughter to a Christian pre school, it was open to all faiths and wasn't too Christian if you know what I mean. Some of the other Christian schools I asked had more strict rules requiring participation etc.

Why don't you try for public schools or grammer schools?

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Around my area there are private catholic schools. Catholic schools in general are known to excel academically when compared with state schools. Statistically students leaving catholic schools in the UK have a university matriculation rate of above 80% which is well above the national average of just over 60. So from a purely academic perspective catholic schools trump state schools. I always thought that the kind of environment catholic schools present is actually more compatible with desi/Muslim lifestyles since both are relatively conservative compared to mainstream British society.