SUMMARY OF RESPONSES FROM SCHOOLS
50 definitive replies received (34 Forms)
Design and Use of Form
YES NO
Should the form be
(a) sent to the priest by the school 7 18
(b) brought to the priest by the parent 30 5 Comments made
"otherwise too great a burden is placed
on priests, especially if forms go missing
"Shouldn't priest have a stock of them?
Should the priest be:
(a) encouraged to interview the parents? 16 6 Comments made:
"Meet rather than interview".
"Unless parish priest is new he should know them".
"Should be at Priests discretion".
(b) discouraged from interviewing 2 12
the parents?
(c ) or should it be left to the 27 6
priest's discretion?
Could the design of part B of the Form B
be improved to make it more objective? 16 10
If Yes, how? By stating levels of practice
Distinguish between regular / occasional and infrequent Mass attendance
Perhaps pp could add a few notes or comments to clarify his responses
Are they on the parish register?
Inclusion of sibling details
Point of form to check if family are (a) Catholic, (b) practising. Form should ask these questions.
Q4 is a nonsense: I support ALL applicants, decisions are made on objective criteria
Should priests keep the opportunity, in
exceptional cases, to support an application
where there is no practice? 32 5
If No, why not? There should be some guidance clearly set out
on the form to enable clergy to say something
about length of association and special needs circumstances
RC parent may not be living with child so need their home address if different
Child may go when with RC parent only
Another question should be / are there compassionate/ pastoral reasons for accepting this child?
Could not think of a likely case for this
Catholic students have a right by virtue of their baptism.
The school can have a significant part to play in the possibility of return to practice
The decision needs to be made by a corporate body with supporting evidence
Every priest will have a different view on what is exceptional
Yes, but there must be guidelinesas to the circumstances for such support
Add Q: are there compassionate / pastoral reasons for accepting this child
Should:
(a) the priest inform the parents of the outcome of the 24 12 Comments made like "Yes for
reference (returning Part B to the school via the parents)? transparency". "Just to confirm Catholicity".
(b) the school inform the parents of the outcome 15 15 Comments made:
of the Priest returns Part B of the form directly "We need to guard against falsification of
to the school? the reference". "Especially in the cases of
unsuccessful application which has resulted
from irregular/no practice."
Guidance to be given to Priests.
Should there be more guidance on the operation of
Priest's Reference Forms which is specifically
directed at priests? 30 5
In particular, should priests be given more detailed
guidance on the following aspects of the process:
how the forms should be used by schools? 27 5
how best to maximise the pastoral potential of the  25 8
information on Part A of the Form?
filling in part B of the Form? 30 5
the definition of 'practising Catholic'
to be applied for the purposes of
school admissions? 33 4
circumstances in which they might use
an opportunity to support an application Comments made:
where there is no practice? 35 4 "while stating clearly there is no practice".
"Whatever enables consistency between priests, especially in definition of practice, is to be encouraged".
"Particularly when a school is seriously over-subscribed and the reference is the only objective way to
divide applicants - Priests need to understand the effect of giving all a practising or weekly attendance reference".
"at the priest's discretion."
any other aspects of the process? "This was a fairly simple process - this seems to be overly complicating the issue.  The process seems to be very
subjective in contradiction to the joint guidance."
A training day on admissions (or even a forum for discussion of issues) at diocesan level would be greatly appreciated
by heads and governors.
Parents should be given as much support as possible.  This is an opportuinity to reintegrate some parents back
into the parish commuinity.
All schools within a deanery giving out the same messages.
"Compassion".
Bullet points showing the admissions process from start to finish