Parishes and entitlement to school places

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elainem

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My friend and her hubby bought a house last summer on Northside of Dublin. Daughter started school in local school. Son is still going across town to where they used to live, and near where father still works. Because of the inconvenience, and the fact that the little boy, aged 7, wants to make friends locally, and the fact that my friend suffers with MS and can't drive and tries easily walking, they want to move to local school, down the road. They bought the house to be in the same parish as this boys school. However, two of the neighbourhood boys have been bullying - generally slagging off my friend's son - not nice stuff, slagging his mum because she has to use one crutch, spitting at my friend's son, excluding him from games etc. My friend's husband has talked to neighbours to no avail, and the whole issue seems to have actually escalated since he talked to the parents. My friend was promised a place at the local school after Christmas for her son. In early Oct they had three places left. However, a week ago my friends husband went to the school to mention his concerns that he hoped the 'bullying' by the local kids/neighbours' children wouldn't extend into the school, and asked the school what would they do about it if it did. Two days ago they got letter saying there was now no place for my friend's child in the local parish school after Xmas. They are obviously very upset about this. Question is - Are they not entitled to take children from within the parish - in fact the school is about 10 doors away from their house? Is there any other way of sorting this out for my friend and her husband? Any advice appreciated.
 
Ask the school for their admissions policy, probably on their website. This will tell you how they allocate places
 
Hi! tosh100, just looked at the school's website - a very good idea - they just say that they allocate places to children primarily from the parish - nothing about sibling policy etc. On this basis my friend's son should be able to get in - he is in the parish, right on the school's doorstep, but now they are saying they have no place for him. So what next? Thanks for your reply.
 
Book an appointment to talk to the head and then bring it to the governing body. But there is not a lot of information here to understand exactly what happened and if anything else was at play. Also, ask for the full policy and read it through if the website does not contain the full version.

I am not sure what the point was of raising an issue about behaviour when the child is not even at the school. Pretty much all schools have an anti bullying policy, at least on paper. In practice some are better than others.
 
Were they formally offered a place at the school ? If so they should ensure all correspondance is done in writing asking for an explaination as to why the offer was taken back. Following on from the written correspondance,they can decide what they will do. If they do have a meeting, they should write back in to confirm the details of the meeting.

Even without a formal offer, they should write and ask specifically, what are the admittance policies (even if they have seen documents)

I would suggest they do not mention, in their letter to the school, anything about the bullying or the meeting they had, to begin with. I am purely speculating here, but I would suggest the principal of the school was not too happy about a parent of a child who is not yet a student is arriving on their doorstep and asking questions. I would guess they were thinking this is going to be a problem. As said, many schools do have bullying policis, but many of them extend no further than paper.

On saying that, while they might get their son in there, do they really want to be caught up in a school that avoids such issues, cope with the fact the bullies are already in school there (I assume from posting) and deal with a principal who may feel like you got one over on them if they do get their son on there. Most principals are wonderful, but some like to go on power trips !!

Is there any other school in the area that might be somewhat local?

I really hope they can work this out as there is nothing worse than a kid having ongoing issues at school, so they need to make thought out decisions.
 
elainem said:
On this basis my friend's son should be able to get in - he is in the parish, right on the school's doorstep, but now they are saying they have no place for him.
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It depends on their numbers. If they are at or over (as in many schools) their limit of the number of pupils for the number of teachers, they may not be taking in any more students, regardless of where they live.

Is this a parish school, or an independent (Educate Together or similar) school? It would be very unusual for a parish school NOT to give priority to children of the religion of the parish.
 
My daughter will be starting school on Sept 2010. The school is in the next parish albeit only 3 miles from our home. We have no connection with this school other than it has a good reputation and we intend to live near it when the time is right ... we want to sell our house and move but the economic reality is that that won't happen for a few years.

Anyway, we purposely started going to Mass in that parish so that we could become acquainted with the local PP so that our daughter will be on their radar. I casually mentioned to the priest about our ambition for our daughter to attend this school as the local church still has a role to play in schooling although I would prefer otherwise. We are regular Mass-goers anyway so it's not such a big deal where we go.


Perhaps your friend should talk to the Parish Priest?
 
Complainer said:
What does the enrollment policy for the school in question say?
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Child must live in the parish or if child has a sibling already in the school or if parent is a past student.

Seems to be same rules for other schools.
 
Hillsalt said:
Child must live in the parish or if child has a sibling already in the school or if parent is a past student.

Seems to be same rules for other schools.
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Nothing about the children being Catholic?

Is this policy what happens in practice, or are the places allocated to those (as your story implies) who get close to the PP?
 
Complainer said:
Nothing about the children being Catholic?

Is this policy what happens in practice, or are the places allocated to those (as your story implies) who get close to the PP?
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Correct. Being a Catholic is not a requirement nor should it be.

Also, my daughter has not been guaranteed a place in the school yet. Kids who live in the Parish and/or have siblings in the school are considered first. I understand that after that, they will consider offspring of past students. Then, subject to numbers, they will consider kids who don't comply with the aforementioned criteria.

Decision time is not until the new year. We have also applied to a newly opened school in our own parish.
 
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It may very well be the case that the school has no spaces. If this is the case ask to be included in the waiting list and ask what number you are on it. Ring and check if there is any movement in the waiting list.
 
Hi! Thanks to everyone for replies. Parents did not have a copy of school enrollment, but a next door neighbour whose son started in Sept had one. Apparently, it states that catholic children of the parish get first call, then siblings of children already in the school, and then children from outside the parish. The child is Catholic and is making his Communion this year. His mum was previously an RE teacher before getting sick. The next nearest school with a place is 10-15 mins walk - its a small COI school.
 
elainem said:
Hi! Thanks to everyone for replies. Parents did not have a copy of school enrollment, but a next door neighbour whose son started in Sept had one. Apparently, it states that catholic children of the parish get first call, then siblings of children already in the school, and then children from outside the parish. The child is Catholic and is making his Communion this year. His mum was previously an RE teacher before getting sick. The next nearest school with a place is 10-15 mins walk - its a small COI school.
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Under the Equal Status Acts, she is entitled to a 'reasonable accomodation' to accomodate her disability. Whether getting her son into the school would be considered to be a 'reasonable accomodation', I don't know. She could check this out with the Equality Authority and look for any precedents on the website of the Equality Tribunal.

It might well get people's backs up if she chooses to play this card, so she needs to be prepared for the battle if she does go down this road.
 
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