Muslim Families Sending Children to Catholic Schools [UK]

BBC ^ | 12/1/16 | Sean Coughlan

[marshmallow]

More than 26,000 Muslim pupils are enrolled in Catholic schools in England and Wales.

For the first time an annual census of Catholic schools has collected information on the number of pupils from other religions.

The biggest group of non-Catholic pupils are from other Christian denominations - but almost a tenth are from Muslim families.

The government has plans to encourage more Catholic free schools to open.

This analysis shows that, overall, nearly a third of the more than 850,000 pupils within the Catholic school system are not Catholic - a total of almost 290,000.

Changing populations

This can reflect local demographic changes and migration - with Catholic schools serving areas with a declining number of Catholic families.

The Muslim pupils are the biggest non-Christian group, apart from the 63,000 who are from non-religious families.

Finnuala Nelis, head of St Patrick's Catholic Voluntary Academy in Sheffield, is in charge of a school where about half the pupils are not Catholics.

She says there have been changes in the local population - and that the school is now popular with parents who choose a Catholic school, even though they are not Catholics.

This includes Christians from a number of African churches and also Muslim pupils.

She says there are Muslim pupils who regularly attend their local mosques, but who will go to Catholic religious services at school.

[mikeIII]

What proportion of these are male?

[naturalman1975]

Does “free school” in the British education system mean exactly that — free of cost?

Yes. 'Free schools' became part of the education system in England and Wales in 2010. They can, in some ways, be considered similar to charter schools in the US (where those exist). In England and Wales, they are taxpayer funded - one of six different types of tax payer funded school. The system allows 'faith schools' to be funded - in a technical sense, all schools could be considered faith schools (all schools are supposed to include an 'act of worship' at assemblies but it's well known that many schools no longer follow that rule) with the state religion - Church of England - being the default, but other faiths can start schools on the same terms.

[terycarl]

if the Catholic teachers are worth anything, they will be able to instill in these lost souls, the meaning of Christianity. They need to force nothing, presentation alone should do the trick....

[crusadersoldier]

It’s happening in the US as well. My daughters previous Catholic school had about a dozen muslim families.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Thousands and thousands of Muslims are converting to Christianity. It is an insult to God to say that Muslims are "incurable."

True, they desperately need to be born again. They desperately a Savior That's exactly why Jesus came.

For us, too.

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