Private schools in Dublin

I know its on the Southside but St. Kiliians German School, Roebuck Rd., Clonskeagh can take your child right through their education, from Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary. It's a private fee paying school (but fees are not too steep). My children have and are attending there and I am very happy with the system. Very friendly school, with children getting involved in lots of after school activities, some we pay for, some are free. My daughter for instance, does Hockey and Art/Craft through French with a native French speaker as her after school activities, but there are plenty of others to choose from. She is still in primary but she is already been exposed to the French language. The school has merged with the French School so there is good opportunity for that. She also does some subjects through German. She has a good level of German which will be a great help when she starts Secondary. My sons completed their education there and last year the average points in the Leaving Cert was about 447. For anyone on the South side it is a good choice. They are multi-denominational, and open to both sexes.
They also have an after school care service.
 
Gaules said:
which ones are available (not unisex please!)
if they have a day long curriculum, or just 4/5 hours a day
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I'd only know schools around the south county Dublin area so can't help on the first question above.

The second question is one I answered above, sorry if it wasn't clear. I believe the school day is the same as in a non-fee paying school - not sure what exactly that is at the moment, when I went to school in the 80's it was 9.30 till about 1 until 1st class (age 6/7) and then it was 9 till 3.
 
Have you considered going to the other end of the spectrum. Some of the schools serving the disadvantaged in our country have classes of only 20 from junior infants up to second. They offer a the full broad primary school curriculum and ASFAIK many of them are now getting involved in after school supports. DES Social Inclusion personnel they will say that the schools working in these areas are way ahead of the rest in terms of teacher committment, openness and willingness to change. They certainly seem to be capable of capable of meeting all your educational aims and I am sure some of them are situated within reach of Castleknock
 
Salut Gaules,

1. which ones are available (not unisex please!)
Castleknock College is a private boys school in D15. I'm not sure if they have primary aswell though. But you could ring them to find out, and if they dont have a primary, ask which schools generally "feed" into it.


2. are they really good? is it worth to get kids into?
I went to both private and non-private schools, and in my opinion, it's worth going private.
In my public primary school, there were 45 people in my class, and 17 in my private secondary. Much more individual attention, both to stretch the brighter ones and to help any struggling kids. We also seemed to have more after-school opportunities, like horse-riding/ skiing/ music etc which my friends in public schools didnt have. The expectation was that you would go on to third level.

Best of luck.
 
Anybody know for sure whether or not there actually are any private fee-paying primary schools in Ireland? Part of the original query may be moot if there are not.
 
The closest primary schools that are private are the Steiner School in Rathgar and the Lycée Français in Foxrock, after this you are looking at the Headfort in Kells or Bray as your next nearest options. If you are worried about class size as I was why not try some of the more rural schools in your area or perhaps Church of Ireland as these do not seem to have the large classes you talk about. My children are in a school not too far from the meath/dublin border where there are in average 12-15 pupils per class. Their catchment area extends to Clonislla so with a D15 poscode you could qualify. Alas all these schools are unisex! Mount Sackville no longer run a primary school just the private girls secondary school.
 
The expectation was that you would go on to third level.
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This is far, far more a function of family background - respect for education, ambition, parental involvement and interest in their children.

Believe me, I've seen both sides, and have met fiercely ambitious, bright, yet extremely disadvantaged kids who went to 'working class' schools and go on to be hugely successful, both educationally and financially. Equally, I could rattle off a long, long list of absolute wasters who went through our 'best' private schools...
 
gauloise said:
The closest primary schools that are private
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As I said before the vast majority of primary schools are private(ly owned). If you mean private and fee-paying you might want to make that clear.
 
My apologies Club Man, the closest fee paying schools are the Steiner School in Rathgar and the Lycée Français in Foxrock, followed by Headfort in Kells.
 
ClubMan said:
Anybody know for sure whether or not there actually are any private fee-paying primary schools in Ireland? Part of the original query may be moot if there are not.
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St Killian's/Lycee Francais as mentioned above
St Joseph of Cluny, Killiney
CBC Monkstown
Willow Park (junior part of Blackrock College)

They're definitely out there.

Maybe if Gaules could specify whether it's a boy's or girl's school they're looking for people would be able to offer more accurate suggestions.

Gaules do you have your heart set on a single sex school? I have a hazy recollection of studies showing that girls do better in single sex schools but that the reason mooted for this was because they don't want to appear more clever than boys. If this is the case then I'd say it's likely this doesn't happen as much in primary as it might in secondary schools and so perhaps unisex primary school is a better idea. I went to an all girls' school and from a social point of view feel mixed schools are better - I had very few male friends or acquaintances all through school (friends' brothers and lads working for my dad were about it) and was quite intimidated when I started college.

Finally, have you also tried posting your question on rollercoaster.ie ? That's supposed to be a great source of information for parenting type questions.
 
OK - thanks Janet. Just wanted to make sure that this wasn't a wild goose chase
 
St Joseph of Cluny, Killiney primary school is closing down, not the secondary school though.
 
Anybody know for sure whether or not there actually are any private fee-paying primary schools in Ireland? Part of the original query may be moot if there are not
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Terenure College has a junior school from the age of 8.
 
For what it's worth, I went to a fee-paying private kindargarten, primary and post-primary school on the South side of Dublin and both from my own experience and from hearing my parents views in hindsight, I would be in favour of possibly non-fee paying primary but private(fee-paying) secondary school.
In general, the children who joined the secondary school from the local national school (which in fairness has a very good repn anyway) were academically more advanced than those of us in the private primary. The fact that I was personally not particularly disadvantaged in this regard is entirely to the credit of my education-obsessed (in a good way in hindsight -if not appreciated at the time ;o) )parents.
I do believe that there was a good strong expectation of 3rd level as the norm in the secondary school and while I accept that there are all levels of ambition, expectation etc in all schools and it may be non-PC to say so, but for my children, perceived snobbery or not, I have found that people still make judgements well into my career on where I lived,went to school, college, firm joined etc etc and on this basis I would be hoping to be able to send my children to private, fee-paying post-primary schools.
Re-iterating the first post, now that I've moved "over there!!!" (not my words but what was said to me by someone else) to D15 (can only afford a shoebox in old home location) I would be very interested to hear about good schools in the area. Are Castleknock College and Mt Sackville the only 2 private schools in the area.?
 
If you are prepared to travel via Lucan perhaps via the strawberry beds etc.. there is the Kings Hospital which is fee paying and mixed.
 
I have found that people still make judgements well into my career on where I lived,went to school, college, firm joined etc etc and on this basis I would be hoping to be able to send my children to private, fee-paying post-primary schools.
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You seem to be making the assumption that these judgements are positive...
 
Shakespeare said:
I have found that people still make judgements well into my career on where I lived,went to school, college, firm joined etc etc and on this basis I would be hoping to be able to send my children to private, fee-paying post-primary schools.
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Have to say that I have never experienced this myself. Well - obviously employers made decisions based on previous experience and education - but neither they nor anybody else that I have ever met has ever obviously been influenced (negatively or positively) by where I grew up, went to school etc. If they had I would have given them short shrift. With the exception of employers assessing candidates based on their education and work records/experiences, anybody who can't take another person as they come at face value and prejudges them (positively or negatively) purely on where they grew up or went to school etc. is obviously an idiot.
 
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