Half of families at C of I schools are not Protestant

Less than half of the families whose children attend Church of Ireland schools are Protestant, research has found.

The survey of 2,143 families from most of the 175 Church of Ireland primary schools found that 22.5% of parents were Catholic, 20% came from an unspecified Christian background, and 7.4% of families said they belonged to no religion. Families from the main Protestant groupings make up 38%, with another 6% being from other Protestant groups including Pentecostalists and smaller churches.

The findings show academic standards, along with the atmosphere, care and individual attention given to pupils, were more important than faith issues when parents decided to send their children to a Protestant school.