Private schools in Dublin

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Gaules

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I have a 4,5 year old kid that joined the Infant Julior class back in Sept. The schools seemed good, but the 31 kids in the class and only teachers monitoring the place do not really look like the ideal school you want to have your kid on.

Anywway, as the months went by and the kid is quite happy to be there and socialize with his friends, I realized that the work done in school is quite poor, mainly due to the big size class (can you imagine tobe ina class daily with 31 kids of 4 & 5 years old??!), and we are considering a private school.

Private schools do not seem to be very popular in Ireland, and my questions in more about:

  • which ones are available (not unisex please!)
  • if they have a day long curriculum, or just 4/5 hours a day
  • what age is the best to get kids in
  • are they really good? is it worth to get kids into?
  • roughly price
thanks for any tips!
 
I was going to point you towards the Dept. of Education website ( http://www.education.ie ) but this is what's showing there at the moment...! :rolleyes:
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, [email protected] and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
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[Edit: It seems to be fixed now...]

Whereabouts are you living?
 
You might check out the [broken link removed] programme.

[Edited by DrMoriarty to include link]
 
Gaules said:
Private schools do not seem to be very popular in Ireland
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Actually this is incorrect and the vast majority of national primary schools are indeed private in that they are privately owned (usually by religious institutions) even if they are largely state funded. See :
Ownership of primary schools

Information

The vast majority of primary schools in Ireland are privately owned and supported by the different churches. The state pays the bulk of the building and running costs and a local contribution is made towards the running costs.

National schools are privately owned - in general by the relevant church authorities. In the case of Catholic schools, the owners are usually the diocesan trustees; the same is true for Church of Ireland schools. Other denominational schools usually have a board of trustees nominated by the church authorities. Multi-denominational schools are usually owned by a limited company or board of trustees.

Gaelscoileanna may be denominational and come under the same patronage as Catholic schools but some have their own limited company.
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Perhaps you mean some other form of private (fee paying?) school or something?
 
DrMoriarty - we do live in Castleknock - this seems to be quite relevant when to chose the correct school, since as I understand it, in Ireland private schools do not offer transportation...

I also checked previously the site you recommended: http://www.education.ie/ but there are over 300 schools under the private term!! ..

I just want to know the top 10 ones (not unisex!) that accept 4 / 5 years old kids, and in the D15 area...

Thanks TarfHead, but this as Clubman mentions doe s not seem to fir the bill..
 
  • Perhaps you mean some other form of private (fee paying?) school or something?
thats exactly it Clubman!
 
Educate Together schools are not fee paying either as far as I know. Are you sure that paying a fee will necessarily guarantee better teaching/education for your child?
 
Clubman, I am not definitely sure about that...what I am sure is that 31 five year old in a class, must not be much productive.

Also there are no extra activities like sports, so I was wondering more about a 1 stop shop for education and after school formation (sports, activities).

I pay at the moment 95 euros for the after school care wich is little bit more than useless RE sprots and activities (pick up from the school and home care).

Do you have any thoughts to help with this dilema, i.e. best education (school and formation) for your kids?
 
Gaules said:
Do you have any thoughts to help with this dilema, i.e. best education (school and formation) for your kids?
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Unfortunately not but I better learn before 2010! :) At the moment our plan is to try for the local Educate Together school and his name is down because our preference is for a school that is not owned/controlled by a religious institution. We expect to play an active role in our child's education ourselves and not expect the school alone to deal with this. Easy to say now - I'll let you know how it went in a couple of decades! :D
 
I went to a fee-paying school up to secondary level (stayed in same school but secondary wasn't fee-paying) - the primary school I went to is gone now and has become a very expensive estate of apartments, townhouses and duplex units. It was run by the Presentation order of nuns.

Perhaps it was just in the case of my school but looking back I certainly think that we were at quite a disadvantage. Despite the fees, there was very little money in the school and very few supplies for things like art classes, sports etc. There were no after-school activities - I'd say that would be quite unusual for a primary school but don't have kids so can't say I've looked into it. We did have elocution, singing and Irish dancing lessons a couple of years in a row but these were provided by parents - not sure if they were paid or not.

As far as I know the day to day running of a fee-paying school (which I also always just called private, never knew most schools are actually privately owned) would not differ from the day to day running of a non-fee-paying school. I think we used to have longer holidays though, usually three and a half months in summer.
 
Judging from what I see/hear of the few fee-paying primary schools near us, I suspect that the motivation of some parents who send their kids there has more to do with (a) simple snobbery — the assurance that the 'wrong sort' of people won't be able to afford to send their kids there, at €1,500/€2,000 per term, or (b) because — for the same reason — the class sizes tend to be far smaller.

The same principle may partly explain the current boom in popularity of the gaelscoileanna sector (all-Irish schools, Gaules — mais je suppose que ce n'est pas une option?). I hasten to add that there are plenty more parents who choose gaelscoileanna for perfectly legitimate reasons having to do with genuine pride in/love of the Teanga!

Small class sizes are certainly a Good Thing — and yes, 31 is verging on the ridiculous! — but it's far from being the only/most important factor. I can't help with whittling down the list of 300+ you mentioned, but if you do manage to arrive at a shortlist, you should try to visit the likeliest contenders and maybe chat to other approachable parents, before approaching the Principal directly? Or ask friends and neighbours how they find their kids' schools?
 
DrMoriarty said:
The same principle may partly explain the current boom in popularity of the gaelscoileanna sector (all-Irish schools, Gaule — mais je suppose que ce n'est pas une option?). I hasten to add that there are plenty more parents who choose gaelscoileanna for perfectly legitimate reasons having to do with genuine pride in/love of the Teanga!
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When was snobbery outlawed in Ireland? :confused: ;)
Small class sizes are certainly a Good Thing — and yes, 31 is verging on the ridiculous!
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That's what it was in my day and it didn't do us any harm...
 
Hi

Mount Sackville in Castleknock/Chapelizod used to run a primary school and probably still does - its a fee paying school - supposed to have good sports facilities - only caters for one half of the population (girls). I only know one guy who sent his daughters there and he couldn't speak highly enough of the place.

When I went to school at the time (only fifteen years ago since I left!!!) a large portion of the girls who went there left after fifth year and went to the Institute in Leeson Street for the LC, but that was probably just an unsubstantiated rumour caused by jealous kids who were sent to non fee paying schools.

Past30
 
Thanks DrMoriarty! - any tips on the ones in comutable distance from Castleknock? and you are correct the Gaule ones are not really an option!

what about Internaitonal schools?

Also 1.5 / 2 k per term is off course a cost, but adding small class type + extra class activities + not needing to pay the useless after school care sounds still quite attractive!
 
I'm afraid I don't know the Castleknock area at all, Gaules..!

Have you been living there long? Are you in an estate with lots of families? It might be a good way to get to know the neighbours — most people would be flattered if a 'pauvre étranger' approached them for advice on the local schools...

[P.S. Especially after we win the France/Ireland match this weekend...! ;)]
 
Past30Now said:
Hi

Mount Sackville in Castleknock/Chapelizod
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I'm not sure if they do primary education, but an acquaintance of mine is sending his 12 year old daughter there next year.

My first reaction was snobbery, but he reckons that the local school is full of immigrants and that the language barriers are slowing down lessons.
 
For what it's worth my parents chose to send me to fee-paying school after the local Ursuline school which my three older sisters were attending suddenly became a "comp" (shock, horror all round, there was a new lay principal and I think he was a bit of a hippy!) - the main reason against it being that it was going to become co-ed. The junior school closed down a few years later anyway and only the secondary is still open.
 
My niece went there and her brothers went to the local CBS and the local community school respectively and I can't see any great difference between them in terms of their education and school upbringing from those years. They all went to third level for what that's worth...
 
your heklp and comments has been fantastic, but I still do not have the core of my questions answered....would someone help please?

which ones are available (not unisex please!)
if they have a day long curriculum, or just 4/5 hours a day
what age is the best to get kids in
are they really good? is it worth to get kids into?
roughly price
 
Actually - I'm just wondering - are there, in fact, any private fee paying primary, as opposed to secondary, schools at all?

On the general issue of registering for primary schools I think the earlier the better and many people actually register their kids for their preferred school(s) immediately after birth!
 
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