# Cost of private school, anyone know what Gonzaga costs?



## thedaras

Hi, would anyone know how much it costs to send a child to Gonzaga?

I have the prospectus ,but it doesn't say how much the fees are.

Ive goggled it and cant find any information relating to the fees.

In the prospectus it says we will be informed of the fees at a meeting .
Thanks


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## Towger

*Re: cost of private school,anyone know what gonzaga costs?*

You know what they say, if you have to ask you cant afford it  At a guess I dont think you will get much change out of 4.5k these days.


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## Complainer

*Re: cost of private school,anyone know what gonzaga costs?*



Towger said:


> At a guess I dont think you will get much change out of 4.5k these days.


Per term or per annum?



thedaras said:


> Hi, would anyone know how much it costs to send a child to Gonzaga?
> 
> I have the prospectus ,but it doesn't say how much the fees are.
> 
> Ive goggled it and cant find any information relating to the fees.
> 
> In the prospectus it says we will be informed of the fees at a meeting .
> Thanks


Maybe just give them a ring? If they aren't able to give that simple piece of information over the phone, do you really want to be dealing with that kind of snobbery for the next six years?


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## huskerdu

*Re: cost of private school,anyone know what gonzaga costs?*

I just searched for the words gonzaga and fees on www.irishtimes.com and found an article from 2007, which stated that the fees were at that time 4155 per annum.

The Irish times publishes a list of the fees from all fee paying schools every year, 
A bit of a search of their website might find that.


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## Chocks away

€5030 according to yesterday's Times.


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## dusmythb

As private schools go, Gonzaga is up there with the best. I did'nt go there myself but I know a few friends who are past pupils and the feed back is excellent. If it's a private school you're after you wont do much better than Gonzaga.

(PS..I have absolutely no affiliation to the school)


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## Hans

My daughters friend goes to privite grind school and there are many Gonzago pupils doing grinds in her school at weekends I would like to think if I was paying that much money for their education already I wouldn't have to get extra grinds for them.


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## Complainer

dusmythb said:


> As private schools go, Gonzaga is up there with the best.


Best at what? Seriously, how are you measuring the success of a school?


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## dusmythb

Complainer said:


> Best at what? Seriously, how are you measuring the success of a school?


 
Presumably the same way you might measure the success of a school...ie the high results achieved by pupils


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## Yeager

High results are more than achievable without going to a pretentious school.


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## doubledeb

If the kids aren't very bright some people are under the illusion that paying for it will give them brains.  If the kids are intelligent in the first place then high results can be achieved, private or not.


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## thedaras

Obviously their parents are not very bright either if thats what they think...
Anyone I know who pays for the child to go to a private school ,is mainly doing it for the milieu.


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## Complainer

dusmythb said:


> Presumably the same way you might measure the success of a school...ie the high results achieved by pupils


That measures little about the school. It measures plenty about the ability of parents to pay for grinds. the ability of parents to pay for PC/broadband, the ability of parents to pay for pre-schooling etc.


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## thedaras

Yeager said:


> High results are more than achievable without going to a pretentious school.



Its so easy to generalize, the logical conclusion could be drawn that all fee paying schools are pretentious! Thats just silly.

If someone were to say all non feeing schools are skanger schools wouldn't that be a generalization..


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## thedaras

I cant imagine someone from a working class area feeling very comfortable in gonzaga,nor could I imagine someone from Foxrock/Blackrock being very comfortable in say Tallaght national school.

Most parents try to keep their kids in the same milieu as the one they live in.
I think its a lot about this.It makes sense.

Results speak for themselves,In the area I live in the facts are that the non fee paying schools have very little to offer in terms of after school activitys,not great transition years, fewer subject choices, and a lot more of the kids from the fee paying schools go on to third level.
Naturally there is always an element no matter where the school is or how its funded.
I know from personal experience the difference between the two.And if I had the choice it would be for a fee paying school.


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## thedaras

I would also like to add, that private schools are not all about points.
There are lots of parents who choose these schools for their facility's,ie;Gym, Pool, Hockey pitches, Tennis, Basketball, debating teams, Horse riding,Music.etc.
If they have a child who is not preforming academically this is a good choice.
I know of a kid who was in no way academic, but was amazing at art.She was sent to a local non fee paying school.
She didn't get into art in that school!.This was because a lot of the other kids wanted to do art.Even though she was brilliant at art,they couldn't facilitate her..
Realistically there are drawbacks on both sides ,its not as black and white as some would like to think.


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## Padraigb

Let's be honest: some people send their children to fee-paying schools in order to separate them from the riff-raff.


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## mercman

Let's even be more honest. Some parents forsake quite a lot to give their children the best education and upbringing they can afford. Simple as that.

Gonzaga is a good school, but there are others as good: St Michaels College, Ailesbury Road, is a brilliant school; Blackrock College is good, St.Andrews is a good Co-ed school. The High School was acknowledged last year as been top of the league for education -- obviously changed since I was there.


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## Complainer

mercman said:


> The High School was acknowledged last year as been top of the league for education



What is this 'league for education' that you speak of?


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## thedaras

The Irish schools in south Dublin, stillorgan, Booterstown,  are both excellent schools and are non fee paying.

They are at the top of the league on most occasions.

Once again there are only certain type of parents who choose to have the kids educated through Irish.

And they choose these schools because of the environment,ie; Irish speaking.
I believe most parents choose their kids schools based on this criteria.

People who don't want to send their children to private schools still have to make a decision as to which one you would choose to send your child too!

Would they choose the one with the worst facility's?

Would they choose the one where there are people similar to their child?

Would they choose the one that gives the child more options?

Would they choose the one they believe to have a better environment?

Would they choose the one with the worst reputation?

Would they choose the one with kids who are very different to their child?

Would they choose the one with the least facility?

Would they choose the one with the best reputation?

Would they choose the one that restricted their childs options?

People have choices and they choose according to their standands and values.

People choose what they believe to be in the best interest of the child.
Parents do all they can for their children,and if that means that they send them to a school that they ,and their children are happy in ,who are we to argue?

The point of this was to show that even if a parent doesn't send their child to a private school ,they do make decisions as to how suitable that school is!


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## Purple

There's a massive amount of inverted snobbery and small minded generalisation going on in this thread. Jealousy, insecurity and resentment are not attractive character traits.

Complainer, you live in the leafy South Dublin suburbs, the Dundrum area I think. There are plenty of good schools, both private and public where you live. The economic apartheid of living in a wealthy area keeps the riff raff away from your local public schools so you can be as egalitarian as you like. there are plenty of public schools where kids have fights with chains and knives, not fists and feet, where drugs are a problem and kids got bullied for working. If parents work hard and do without in order to give them what they consider to be a better chance in life (not just results but peer-group and attitude) then it's the height of ignorance and arrogance to look down on them for it.  

Now I know you won’t read the above as you have placed me on your banned list because you don’t like people who challenge your views so its’ just food for thought for other posters.


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## mercman

Complainer said:


> What is this 'league for education' that you speak of?



It is here [broken link removed]

I don't compile these reports -- just read them. Although I am a past pupil, I wouldn't send my dog cat or anything else near the place. When I was there they showed their true beliefs of been totally and utterly Anti-Semitic but as they say Do your own research.
[broken link removed]​


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## Deiseblue

I quite agree that all parents have a right to pay for their children to attend Private Schools if they so wish .

I do think however that the Goverment Funding over and  above the average for public schools for private schools should be ended , I believe Blackrock College received €4 million last year,


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## thedaras

Well If those same parents you speak of decided to put their kids in the non fee pay school, I'm sure that would cause even more problems.


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## Complainer

mercman said:


> It is here [broken link removed]
> 
> I don't compile these reports -- just read them. Although I am a past pupil, I wouldn't send my dog cat or anything else near the place. When I was there they showed their true beliefs of been totally and utterly Anti-Semitic but as they say Do your own research.


Ah I see now. You mean the league of those who go to university (which is a different question entirely). I can't find a copy of the full research, so I can only go on what is published in the Times, but it doesn't impress me.

It gives high scores to the UCD/TCD, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to see a Dublin bias in the results. [broken link removed] shows the flaws in the research.


> So in 2008, a student getting 290 points and gaining access to say  Psychiatric Nurisng in Trinity would get more kudos for their school in  this ranking than say a student getting 560 points and getting into  medicine in NUIG.





> Schools with alot of boarders tend to send alot of their students to  universities in other countries. You therefore end up with the peculiar  phenomenon that you get extra points for a pupil going to TCD but lose  points if a student makes it to Harvard or Cambridge.





> So a school which sends say 50% of its students to Maynooth for example,  and one that sends 33% to Trinity are the same?



And even ignoring these flaws, why is sending people to 3rd level the only measure of success used. If a school produces a brilliant plumber, or a brilliant pilot, or a brilliant chef, none of these will be considered to be successful based on these tables.

I wouldn't recommend that anyone choose a school based on whether it is public or private. Look at the school - all aspects of the school. I'm not ruling out the local private school for us (if my equity SSIA accounts recover enough to support these), but I'm not ruling out the local public schools either. 

A good friend of mine in Mt Merrion was curious as to why most of his well-heeled neighbours send their kids way up the road to Blackrock, when Oatlands CBS has an excellent reputation, and attracts (generally less well-heeled boys) from all over the southside.


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## thedaras

Some may choose to  work in mcdonalds or be a pilot ,but the point is that by going to uni you at the very least have given yourself both options.

Oatlands has an excellent rep? Really? Not from what I hear.

The reality is that people with the funds to do so,will send their kids to where others have the same funds,values/principles/standards,that makes sense.

Have a guess as to why people send their kids further afield ,when Oatlands is on their doorstep?


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## Armada

Somewhat related story here ..

[broken link removed]


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