There's a new school opening in Dublin that keeps popping up on my Facebook feed

[BlackAmericanoNoSugar]

My DS has just started secondary and we are happy with it so not considering a different school, but I was wondering if anyone was considering the new one (Nord Anglia International School). It does seem hugely expensive compared to other private schools, especially considering that it doesn't have much of a campus. It's in Sandyford so tucked in among office buildings and blocks of apartments, I can't see how they could have much in the way of PE facilities (pitches for rugby/hockey/football/cricket or tennis courts). But I can see that the International Baccalaureat could be appealing to families that are on the move between countries regularly, or who expect their DC to go to university outside of Ireland.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that DS doesn't find out that Irish won't be compulsory there, he's desperate to give that up.

My dd went to a school from that group in the US. It was really good. Expensive but you could see where the money was going - lots of facilities, very good staff ratios etc. Unlike her current international school 😡

Actually, I had a look at the map on their website and it's not quite where I thought it would be. It's adjoining Westwood gym in Leopardstown racecourse, so I wonder if they might use their tennis and sports facilities. Still no football or rugby pitch though, I know rugby isn't necessarily all that popular everywhere but most countries play a lot of football (thinking of international students). The campus generally looks a lot nicer than I had imagined, lots of trees, which will hopefully baffle the noise from the motorway about 70m away.

I don't know much about it but a colleague was noseying around and got the impression they don't particularly want locals as students, mainly targeting the diplomatic/transient high level banker-tech types.

I'm sure there's a gap in the market for that kind of thing, especially with quite a few multi-national companies wanting to keep an office within the EU and also in an English speaking country.

We are both types of family, local (I grew up here) and multi-national, multi-heritage, transient, banker-tech types (although for the time being the family stays here and DH travels) and I've often thought how tricky it must be for families that move here. For so many of the schools you need to be the right religion and/or a parent who is a past pupil to be high enough up the entry list to get in. Plus every country has a different curriculum so it's rough on kids who have to keep changing every 3 or 4 years. Having a chain of schools all doing the International Bacc must be a relief.