Does anyone know of any non Catholics getting into St Ambrose? Im not sure if Church of England comes before other faiths or no faith at all? I heard that it did but now it no longer matters. We are no denomination but live a 5 minute walk from the school so it would be really handy. Also how much does the religion take over the school? Are prayers etc compulsory or optional?

Have a look at the school's website.
It should have admissions criteria, mission statement and ethos of the school set out. You can also get a feel of the school from the website, although it is only one facet.

Religion is, obviously, a big part of Faith schools, I work in a Catholic Primary and we have children of many ( and no particular) faiths. Mass and Christian assemblies are a regular part of the school year and prayers are said at the beginning and end of the day. We also have close links with both Catholic churches in the town and the priests are governors.

I would make enquiries, maybe visit and see whether you feel ( as with any other school)that this is the right school for your child.

OP, it says on the Trafford transfer booklet that you should ask the school about how it allocated places last year. So get in touch and ask whether it ever gets far enough down its over-subscription criteria to reach children who don't practice any Christian religion (the bottom of its list).

Many faith schools are over-subscribed even for children who meet the faith criteria but some aren't so best to find out now so you get a realistic idea of your prospects.

You would appear to be in the last category, 'other boys':

Oversubscription Criteria
If the number of applicants achieving the required standard for entry exceeds the Published
Admissions Number, then the following over-subscription criteria will apply in the following order to
decide which pupils to admit.
1. Baptised Roman Catholic boys who are designated ‘looked after children’ or all previously
looked after children1
.
2. Baptised Roman Catholic boys who have a brother attending the school.
3. Baptised Roman Catholic boys who live in a nominated Local Pastoral Areas.
4. Baptised Roman Catholic boys.
5. Other Boys who are designated ‘looked after children’ or all previously looked after children.
6. Baptised Christian boys who have a brother attending the school.
7. Other Baptised Christian boys whose application is supported by a letter from a minister of
Christian religion.
8. Other boys whose application is supported by a minister of Christian religion.
9. Other boys

Are you a 'believer' who has never actually signed up for a particular church, or atheist? How does your DS feel about having religion as a major part of school life? If he isn't in any kind of church school at the moment, it is likely to be a bit of a culture shock. Does the geographical convenience outweigh this?

_________________
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Thanks, we will of course visit the school at some point and I will ask him how he feels about it, I will perhaps only consider it if he passes the exam and not the agsb one, I'm sure we will get a feel of the place anyway, if he is in other boys category does this mean boys of other faiths as well such as Jewish, muslim, we are aethiests

As someone who went to a church middle school myself and having had a DD goes to a church primary school (despite it actually being quite multicultural) I think there is likely to quite an emphasis on religion at any church school. We are not a religious family. After 6 years at primary DD was definitely fed up of the weekly trips to the church next door etc. On the plus side for her, at least they also got taught about other religions, which is more than I got, until I went to a secular secondary.

It will be worth going and talking to them, particular children of different faiths or no faith to see how much religion will be a part of the school life.

"Any other" means anyone not falling within the 8 categories above. These categories all seem to relate to Christian faith (apart from 5 - looked after children), so I think that "any other" will include all non-Christian faiths and those of no faith.

Call the school and ask which over-subscription level they've reach in each of the last five or so years. That will give you an understanding of (a) whether you stand a chance of a place and (b) if you did get in, how religious all the other children would be.

For what its worth - we visited in 2015 – my son was due to sit the exam later that year (Sept 2015). We were in Category 7. I was told that in only 1 of the previous 4 years had they got down as low as Category 7. However, in 2015, all the boys in my son’s class who were Category 7 were offered places and I believe the same applied in 2016 (for boys who have just started). I don’t know if that means they went down as far as points 8 or 9. My son’s friends who attend now (and their parents) are very impressed – as I was on the open day. If you live so close by, it is definitely worth taking the exam and see what happens.

How does your son regard the Faith component of the school?

My son isn't there, but he and all his friends were at a faith school anyway (C of E rather than Catholic though) so his friends that are there are no doubt fairly used to some religious input.