Re-locating to South Dublin with young family

damurt said:
Hello,
Schools will be a major factor, need boys and girls or mixed and worried that we don't have their names down! We have family in Clonskeagh.

Where would you recommend we start our search and look into schools?
Thanks in advance.
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It is worth noting that for a lot ( and maybe all) National schools you cant put your children's name down without an address, as the decision on whether they get in, is based partly on catchment area.

All schools have to have a written enrollment policy, which you can ask for, of it is not readily available on the website. for a lot of primary schools, the policy is something like this

1) Siblings of current students
2) children in the catchment area
3) All others

Therefore, once you are in the catchment area, it does not matter to your application if the name was on the list 3 years or 1 year. This is only an example, I would recommend that you contact some schools in the area you are considering and get the enrollment policy.
 
ali said:
You could buy well in any of those areas for €600,000 a little more if you would like period house in Terenure.
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True, but you'd get more bang for your buck in Templeogue or Harold's Cross, particularly in Harold's Cross if you want an older house with character. These can be expensive in Rathfarnham and Terenure and most of the houses in Templeogue would date from the 1970s onwards.
 
I am the original poster back again after some procrastination and mulling over next steps! We're undertaking step 1 of our reconnaissance trip at Easter and will scope areas and schools out a bit more. Now we're thinking we might rent for a while and test the waters before buying, but will need to choose right area so we stick with same schools! What do people think of Dun Laoghaire as a family area and what are good co-ed schools? Some nice houses on the market for what seems to be better value than Blackrock, Rathgar etc, but what do I know! Bad for airport though?

For the moment we're going to focus on Blackrock, Monkstown, Rathgar, Booterstown and try and figure out best combination of location / school. Very nervous about making the move home to Ireland after 15 years away in the current economic environment (even though we are lucky to have secure job situations), but it's now or never I think! Any further advice appreciated and does anyone know of a "homefinder" service (not usual estate agent route) for helping with re-location and school advice. Thanks all.
 
DunLaoghaire is really mixed and as far from the airport as you could find within Co Dublin. You need to do the commute to the IFSC and the airport at rush hour as part of your recon. Personally, there is absolutely no way I'd live that far out if I needed to use the airport frequently. What about Malahide? 10 mins from the airport, on the Dart into the IFSC, good schools and great amenities.

Of the places you've mentioned Rathgar is the only one reasonably close to town. And it is as expensive as you'll find. You will get very little house or garden for 800k even now.

I don't know why you're worried about CoI schools. They're few enough, without exception small and heavily over subscribed. No-one will make your kids go there
 
Carysfort NS at the bottom of Carysfort Ave, Blackrock is co-ed good primary school. Loads of houses available to rent, why buy when you are so unsure of where to live. My husband goes from Blackrock to airport for 6.30 UK flight twice a week via port tunnel and gets to airport in under 30 mins. Good dart and bus service to IFSC, the rock rd is a bit of a nightmare by car after 8am.
 
I'm back again with more questions! We're now realising that we had better think ahead to what secondary schools we want, and so which nationals feed into these. So any areas where ideally co ed nationals (we have 2 girls and a boy) would give us a good chance of getting into good, non fee paying, secondaries that could be single sex. Is there a magic location that would be good for Muckross and Benildus for example? Schools aside our preferred areas are Blackrock, Bootersrown, Rathgar. Thanks!
 
damurt said:
Is there a magic location that would be good for Muckross and Benildus for example?
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Both these schools are on the green Luas line, so anywhere on the Luas line would be good. Muckross take a lot of kids from the schools in Dundrum and Ballinteer (and probably elsewhere too). Benildus take lots of kids from Holy Cross, St Attractas, Our Lady's Balinteer.
 

Things have changed greatly in recent years, non fee paying schools such as Muckross and Benildus are much harder to get into. My daughter was down for Muckross when 4 years old, but not a hope of a place now 7 years later.

Traditionally many on the list would not accept a place opting instead for fee paying, this is no longer the case.

Similarly, I believe many fee paying schools might have waiting lists, but places are not been taken, and are readily available.

One non fee paying school not mentioned is Oatlands, Mount Merrion, which is a two minute walk from Stillorgan Shopping Centre. Two separate schools primary and secondary in the same grounds, traditionally only boys, but 2/3 years ago the primary started taking girls who will continue on into the senior school making both co-ed.

Might be worth a look.


http://www.oatlands.net/page01.html

http://www.mountmerrionparish.ie/pages/sch_rel.htm
 
Any chance damurt is still around? Looking to make the same expat move with family to Dublin and looking for their settling-in on the Southside feedback one-year on.
 
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