St. Patricks Primary School, Stafford - your thoughts....

My daughter spent her first 5 yrs of schooling at St Patricks after moving from a small village in derbyshire where she spent the first 6 mths of her school life being bullied by the pupils and belittled by some of the teachers...........we are not catholic but i put her in that school purely for the values of respect etc they teach. She really enjoyed it and they do involve parents in the events ect. The mistake i made was moving to stone when she was 10............that was a nighmare, full of tarty kids that all look and think the same with boys hanging off their arms (and that was at 10!).
We moved out asap.We moved back to stafford, shes in senior school now where some of her friends from st patricks went.....and she seems happy, im proud to say shes a polite caring kid, as are her st patricks friends.
So i do recommend it

Do you have to be a Catholic to get a place?

70-plus said:

Do you have to be a Catholic to get a place?

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I understand that 'faith schools' are allowed to retain up to 50% of places for those pupils from backgrounds 'actively involved' with the relevant faith.

So, no.

All three of my children went to this school and all were happy, level headed and well educated when they left. It has always had a friendly 'family' feel to it, with plenty of parent input. I wouldn't hesitate to send any child there and I am very grateful for the start in life that mine were afforded

Two of my friends send their children to St Patrick's and are both very happy with the education and caring ethos of the school

Our child is there now and we are very happy with the school.There is just one class per year whereas I think John Wheeldon has three.

They have also just had a new extension built so the reception class and class 1 are new buildings now. Understandably they do teach more about religion than non-faith schools but are also quite strict which I think is a good thing.

Here is their website http://www.stpatricksstafford.com/

You could check their ofsted report but to be honest I would say what people say on here may be more useful.

I went there!
If I had children I would want them to go there too. Not something I would say for my secondary school. It was a caring, nurturing, safe and very moral environment. There is a contemporary bit of education-speak called 'Every Child Matters'. At that school they believed that long before anyone had thought of making it an Ofsted tick-box. They brought out the talents of their pupils and taught us to respect the different skills of our classmates. We were expected to be kind to others and accepting of people who were different. At nine or ten, the teachers there had already identified the aptitude that would eventually lead to my future career and provided boundless encouragement.
Possibly as a result of that lovely primary school, it came as a hell of a shock to move to a secondary school where none of those values appeared to prevail. I spent the next few years largely succeeding in a mission to achieve total invisibility.
I am sure that your child will be happy, confident and fulfilled at St Patrick's. And I am sure you will love the nativity plays in the little school hall, the sports day on the field behind the church and the sense of family that is such a lovely part of the school.

I also went there, and on reflection it wasn't bad, but this was over 15 years ago now.

Most of the memories I have of the place are fond and those that aren't were probably my fault anyways

RowanDraper said:

I also went there, and on reflection it wasn't bad, but this was over 15 years ago now.

Most of the memories I have of the place are fond and those that aren't were probably my fault anyways

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With all these revelations coming from the London Mayoral Election candidates, it's only a matter of time before you have to publish your school reports..

I don't think I have any of them from Primary School ... Not sure who that's a mercy on.

'Faith' and eductaion shouldn't be mixed!

By all means teach children about all of the different religions but it is wrong to brainwash kids with just one of them.

Hetairoi said:

'Faith' and eductaion shouldn't be mixed!

By all means teach children about all of the different religions but it is wrong to brainwash kids with just one of them.

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Agreed.

I managed to blag my way out of a lot of RE by being a 'heretic' in most of my schools.

I also look forward to the furore when the first state-funded atheist school is proposed.

They are taught about different religions in detail and this goes back to my school days also in N.Ireland when we went to different faith services. If you walk around a Catholic school and look at the walls and see the kids work then you'll see the work they undertake in terms of understanding and accepting different religions. They are not brainwashed, far from it, such a strong word which really just smells of ignorance. At the end of day if you want your kids to be educated with diluted, lack of culture and values then send them to a normal non faith school that is funded 100% by the government rather than to the faith schools that are in part funded by the congregation that attend the affiliated places of worship. Why are the faith schools so popular with those of no faith? Because they are the best and they want their children to have some morality, decency, be more balanced and to understand why they have eggs at Easter and presents at Christmas sorry crimbo (not offend some people).

Hetairoi said:

'Faith' and eductaion shouldn't be mixed!

By all means teach children about all of the different religions but it is wrong to brainwash kids with just one of them.

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If you believe what your teachers say then we are all brainwashed surely? Whist at a 'normal' school I had to do RE, which was 99.9% Christian and certainly in middle school run by a devout Christian who was extremely intolerent of other religions. I do remember when a new lad joined who was Sikh he was excused from RE lessons, I can only assume this was because they couldn't try to force Christianity on him but they could us. Luckily it just reinforced my stereotype that all religious people are mental and would murder us all if the big sky pixie* told them to.


* Sky Pixie © MyCult Religious Derision Ltd.

My son goes there atm and he really likes it, He's been there since reception and has really blossomed. I dont like the religious stuff much either but he seems to ignore most of it anyway so its all good

The religious thing was never that much of an issue for me...although one of my best friends did become a nun. We had one particular teacher who was a very staunch Catholic who took a determined approach to incorporating the bible into most lessons. I remember one art lesson in which we were tasked with drawing St Peter and St Paul out fishing for souls.

The priest used to come in and talk to each class about as frequently as the nit nurse. He made a big impression on me because he used something I now suspect to have been a Vick Inhaler Stick. At the time I'd never seen anything like it and as the class had only recently been taught of the perils of sticking pencils up our noses, we all watched with a horrified fascination.

We made our first confessions (I took a torch into the confessional, a gift from Santa. At least he made his presents felt) first communions and took confirmation. Really, they were just fun events and excuses to get dressed up. I do think, though, that the positive influence of a religious education - the emphasis on children being kinder, more thoughtful, was all to the good. And yes, I do have the guilt thing. All the time. But my parents found that very useful.