I've name changed because there is likely to be a bit of identifying detail in this.
DS is a fantastic sportsman and athlete, and pretty much rubbish at everything else school related. He's currently in 1st year of my old secondary school. They are generally very helpful with him, but he is disruptive and is probably going to be asked to leave at the end of the summer term (meeting with the head in the next week or two to discuss). He has autism but isn't a usual presentation of it, he's very extrovert, loud, has a low boredom threshold, poor impulse control and is easily distracted. The ways in which is autism presents more typically are being very literal and not getting the gist of what's going on, which means he's quite often out of step or doing the wrong thing because he's misunderstood the instructions.
He did get into Newpark, which I know can be better for less academic kids, but we turned down the place as we felt that it wouldn't have enough structure for him and he would run wild. He needs quite a bit of supervision as his judgement about acceptable behaviour is really bad and (as I said above) he has very little impulse control. I doubt we would get a place in Newpark for next year anyway as they were hugely oversubscribed for first year.
Any thoughts? I don't mind about fee-paying or not, but I would like somewhere that will be offering PE for Leaving Cert (which is current school will be doing) if at all possible.
TIA
Craicnet
Any recommendations for a secondary school in South Dublin for a 'tricky' boy?
GrowlLikeMargeSimpson · 04/04/2018 16:15
Thanks for the suggestions.
St Andrew's is a bit awkward to get to from us, but I know a lot of people with DC there and I think it's quite similar to the school he's currently at. Same size, similar ethos and a rugby school too. DS isn't all the keen on rugby, he prefers football, which causes a bit of tension as he's very good at all sport including rugby but if a rugby match clashes with football he'll choose football every time. He's very tall for his age, the fastest in his year and very strong so he wins line outs and if he gets the ball he can run like the wind. His rugby coach keeps giving him lectures about 'letting the school down'. 
Clonkeen college is quite close, nearly walkable. I only know one person with a child there, but she rates it highly and her son is a bit tricky too (although not nearly as tricky as mine). It's probably one to shortlist, not least because they play soccer, he'd probably be good at gaelic football too. I don't know if they would have space going into second year, I could ask I suppose. Do you think that they would care that he's not Catholic?
I've just had a look at St Conleths, I hadn't heard of it before (I mostly know the protestant schools). I don't think it would be sporty enough, and the location would be a pain in the neck.
I was also thinking of Sandford, but I don't think that's sporty enough either, plus he'd have to get the LUAS and I don't really trust him to turn up at school under his own steam. Plus I know that they have to wear a blazer at all times, and he just wouldn't (clothing issues to do with the autism).
Wicklow Sudbury are having an open day on Monday UnaMagdalena, I'm thinking about going along to have a look. I would need to see it without DS as he would DEFINITELY want to go there if he thought it meant no more classroom lessons. 
I'm not sure about St Kilian's, I know that they will take them without German knowledge but he would have to do extra lessons to catch up and he's is really not a linguist at all. On the other hand I do speak German, but only well enough to help him at the start, I'm nowhere near fluent.
I think Benildus is pretty similar to the current school (although I suppose any private school with good facilities will be). A colleague of DH's has a son there who is two years older than DS and has been having similar but less severe problems to us. In fact, last summer the other child's mum was saying that she wished she had sent him to DS's school as she felt it would have been better for him.
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Just to let you all know that DS has left his school, but he made it all the way to the end of term and sat all of his exams. Well, more or less all the way to the end of term, once they'd finished classes and were doing revision in class time they suggested that he would be better off revising at home, so he had about four days at home then. At the end of term a lot of his teachers sought him out to wish him well, which was nice, but only the rugby coach seemed disappointed that he was leaving.
He has now been registered at Cabinteely CS, and he's very happy about it. All the staff so far have been kind and welcoming (not that the staff at the old school weren't kind). They do soccer and GAA instead of rugby and hockey, which will suit DS much better as he loves soccer and apparently one of the boys plays for Ireland on one of the youth teams (under 14 or under 16, something like that). So I'm hopeful that this will work, if not brilliantly, at least better.
He's also on the waiting list for Wicklow Sudbury, they are full and need to move to a larger venue before they can accept any more pupils. I will give regular school a chance to work first as I know that the low numbers and lack of sports at Sudbury wouldn't suit his extrovert, high-energy personality.
Forgot to say thanks for all your help and suggestions, and for refraining from telling me to just whip him into submission. 
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