Options for opting out of religion in primary schools in Killarney

68Murph68

I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me on what are the best options in terms of primary schools around Killarney for parents who think that religion has no place in the educational system?

Given all of the schools have a nominally Catholic ethos which is the one where this Catholic ethos is played-down/ignored the most? Given there are a relatively decent number of non-nationals around Killarney I would assume that pretty much all the schools would have children who aren't involved in the religious education element. How is thus managed by the schools/teachers?

The plan would obviously be to withdraw the children from religious instruction as much as possible. Has anyone any experiences of this in the various schools around Killarney and how they dealt with this? How did the school/individual teachers treat this?

Some schools seem to have masses on a regular basis/ have a fair bit of a religious element or at least they did back in my day. IS this still the case?

The Gaelscoileanna arent really an option as we've pretty much zero interest in the Irish language. However if anyone has any experience of what their deal is with religion let us know.

Obviously any other experiences on the primary schools around Killarney would be appreciated as well.

Quaderno

Although I cannot provide much help I just wanted to let you know that I am with you on that one. The only "honest" answer to that problem would probably be something like an educate together school, which sadly does not exist in Killarney yet. There is one in Tralee and another one is planned for Kenmare, but that doesn't get you anywhere right now. Good luck for your child(ren), I hope you will find a good way for them to start their schooling career with an open mind.

carchaeologist

I like the thinking behind all this. It's about time such fairy stories were removed from schools.
Keep us posted on any developments.

robindch

68Murph68 wrote: »

I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me on what are the best options in terms of primary schools around Killarney for parents who think that religion has no place in the educational system?

As above, I don't believe there's any ET school in Killarney, so if you want an education for your children free from religion, you're going to have to go in and have a chat with the head of whatever school your kids get into and explain your wishes to them.

There are a few things you need to be aware of: some schools push the kids of non-religious parents to the end of the application queue, so you may need to keep your views quiet until you receive a letter confirming a place. Also, some schools also require proof of baptism and some even require proof, even if it's just anecdotal, of mass attendance. Other schools are less neurotic about it and will accept the suspiciously-recently converted -- protestant-controlled schools seem to do this more often than catholic-controlled ones. Most of the discretion on whether to allow in the child of non-religious parents is down to the school board and the policies they choose to adopt, and these policies may or may not be public, and they may or may not be adhered to in any case. So it can be quite difficult to predict ahead of time what decision they might make if they know your views.

Also -- and I'm trying, unsuccessfully, not to sound like a paranoid conspiracist here -- do be aware that some schools will promise to keep your kids out of religion, and then renege on their promise anyway as happened last year in Leitrim - a case which caused such bad feeling locally, that the family concerned had to leave town. Another family from Wicklow said publicly that they were going to bring a Supreme Court case against the religious indoctrination of their child at the local RCC-controlled school; so far as I'm aware, they never took the case, possibly because of the desperately bad feeling their case had caused locally, or perhaps because their house burned down shortly after they'd made the announcement about the case on the Late Late Show.

For more info and suggestions, do drop over to the atheism and agnosticism forum where the topic of religious control of schools does pop up from time to time:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=614

BTW, I was educated in Killarney in the 1970's -- the Mercy Convent, the Old Mon, the New Mon and finally, Ballycasheen. I'd like to think that things have changed, but I rather suspect they haven't. On the other hand, well, Bishop Casey was the man who gave me my first communion and helped make me the catholic I am today

health_warning

We live in Tralee. We have the option of sending our kiddo to the Educate Together school - or at least we will when they are old enough - still a baby at the moment.

I hear anecdotally that the school isn’t very good though. I haven’t visited the school yet, and do plan to, so I hope this isn’t true. I’d love to hear from a parent that does send their kid(s) to this school.

The thought of my little one reciting morning prayers in any faith angers me to my core. In saying that, I went through that particular mill and I’m a vehemently non-religious person.