Moving to Dublin with 2 Teenagers - advice please!

[jennymalaysia]

Hi there amazing mumsnetters. We have finally taken the plunge. We are escaping the Brexit craziness and moving back to the best city in the world. Dublin! My 12 year old is sorted. Blackrock first year 2020. My 14 year old daughter is more of a problem. We will be living in Monkstown. She really wants a mixed school. She will be going into transition year. I am worried about her making friends. So think a school that has turnover would be good. St Andrews first choice but seems nigh on impossible to get into. I'm trying for Conleths which may have some space. Is conleths a good school for the situation? She wants to be a doctor and actually probably has a chance given her determination and smarts. Want to give her the best chance. Advice please. Thanks so much jenny

You should ask for your thread to be moved to Craicnet.

In the meantime, how about Newpark Comprehensive for your DD?
Good school, great area. My cousins' DCs all went there, loved it, got the results they wanted for CAO purposes, and are all very solvent .
www.newparkschool.ie/enrolment

Also St Kilian's (German school), in Clonskeagh.
However, she would need to have a pretty good grasp of German for entry in Transition year. If she has no German, could she start now on intensive German classes and continue through T year? Maybe this would result in an acceptable level of fluency..

St Andrews is quite niche in that it is CoI.

Another coed school is The High School in Rathgar - again, maybe hard to get into as CoI, and CoI families often prefer CoI schools, causing pressure on places.

Sandford Park School, Ranelagh, might suit. It is non-denominational.

John Scottus School is very small but coed.
www.johnscottus.ie/secondary/secondary-admission/

From the site:
Where a Class is not full, acceptance of the application is given shortly after registration form is received. Where a Class is full, all applications are given provisional acceptance. In October each year, confirmation of places for the following September are sent out...

Decisions on successful candidates are based on the following priority criteria:

Children coming up from John Scottus Primary School
Children of staff members
Brothers and sisters of existing pupils
Children of past pupils
Ethos considerations: that the parents state that they are in support the ethos of the school
First come, first served.

You might be stuck with an all-girls situation, though even then you are looking at difficulty securing a place. You might find you are in the 'also ran' position when it comes to your standing on admissions priorities. You may be lucky in that your DD will be in Transition year. Sometimes parents use this year to switch a student to another school for the LC, so spots might open up unexpectedly.

You need to start applying ASAP for every single school that might be remotely suitable, including all-girls schools

While it's all-girls, it might be really, really handy to get your DD into Sion Hill - a school run from Monkstown in two different directions could be a nightmare.

www.sionhillcollege.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Admissions-Policy1.pdf

Scroll to section 8.

I am sure you are in the same boat as many others seeking places because of leaving the UK.

Again, I can't overemphasise the importance of starting the process ASAP and also not being hung up on co-ed schools.

You may need to explain to your DD that she may need to take what she is offered. University is co-ed and she ill only have three years to cool her engines, with plenty of opportunities for hob-nobbing with boys outside of school in those years.

www.rathdownschool.ie/Class-Ages/

Rathdown School appears to have experienced some UK transfers.

Hi @jennymalaysia,

As suggested, we're going to move this thread over to our Craicnet topic - we think that's a better place for it than Site Stuff.

Best of luck with the move.

Dear mathsanxiety. Thanks so much for your great advice. I will kick off investigations of the schools u suggest. Though will probably scratch the German school as my dd is keen on Spanish and Latin and has no German at all. And the highschool as I think it is a bit of a commute from Monkstown. Do u know of Conleths?

Hi jennymalaysia, it’s an unfortunate aspect of south country Dublin schools that most of them are single sex. I would get your daughter to focus on the bigger picture and try and get her interested in a school that can meet her academic and non academic requirements (other than the mix) - particularly if she is smart and ambitious. It’s not the end of the world to go to a single sex school, particularly if most of your contemporaries are doing the same as there are other opportunities to mix with the other sex (esp if she is in any way sporty). Moving as a teenager is hard so I think staying local with a school will pay dividends. There’s really no point in living in Monkstown and sending her to rathgar as her new friends won’t live close by. I recommend a trip over and line up visits to as many schools as possible - rathdown, holy child, newpark, conloths, to get an idea of what they all offer. There is also st Gerard’s in Bray which is mixed and your kids are old enough to make their way there themselves. It’s an excellent private school. Most pupils would be Wicklow but some south Dublin (killiney to Monkstown) and there would be the benefit of them both being at the same school. Try not to make the single sex schooling a defining aspect. I think it can be hugely positive (although haven’t fully made my mind up) and at the worst, not that really big a deal if you can ensure they have a lively and varied time outside of school hours. Good luck. Monkstown is a super spot to be moving to!!

The High School would be too much of a commute.
Mixed sex really limits your options.
What about fee paying? Holy Child, Clooney (not sure of proper name) Loreto Dalkey, Loreto on the Green. Mount Anville .
If she's smart and can achieve the points then she'll need to prioritize being in a school that has the potential to send her to university, not being in a mixed school

Thanks so much junespoon and paddy pants. DD I think is against girls schools as she is in a top top girls school in the UK. Only the smartest girls get in. And it creates an atmosphere of competitiveness which is not super healthy and has made DD very anxious. She has been scarred by the experience I think. She has a place in loreto dalkey. Which I loved. I'm also hoping she may get a place in conleths. Which Ive heard really good things about. I find it really hard to figure out what is the best school academically and pastorally. She wants to be a doctor and we want to encourage that but we also Want her to be happy. surely all the private schools in south Dublin give kids the opportunity to do well???? St gerard would be great but they basically laughed when I called about a place.... So did st Andrews. It is such a big decision. DD is otherwise happy here in the UK . Has lovely friends etc. BUT next year is very high pressured here with the GCSE cycle. And I don't want to put her through that. And we want ds to go to blackrock from 1st year. We have lots of friends in Ireland. My hubby is a dubliner and we lived in Dublin when the kids were very young. We have a have a house in Monkstown and family there as well. I wish there was some way of finding out which of the schools are the best academically. Sorry for rambling! Just want to make the right decision for dd.

To be honest there’s probably not that much in it between them all academically. If she’s a smart girl with a good work ethic then she will do well in whichever school. It’s more about the different atmospheres. I’m afraid I don’t know anything about Conleths but Loreto Dalkey has a lovely reputation. There was actually a schools rating by results in one of the papers recently. I will see if I can dig around on internet to find it for you.

Hi OP, I'm local to Monkstown with 4 dc in secondary or just finished. They were/are in different schools for different reasons so I have a bit of experience, although it's very subjective!

Briefly, Newpark is outstanding for music and drama, and while they send a good cohort to Trinity every year, including medicine, it's not a school that suits everyone. From the sound of your dd current school, I think Newpark would be a bit of a culture shock, but she might absolutely love it.

Andrew's is a great school, similar ethos to Newpark, in fact I know people with dc in both who say the only difference is the fees. It would have parents with more academic expectations of their dc, and so is more pressurised but that's true of all fee paying schools. It ticks so many of your boxes that I'd be on the to them phone every week in case a place opens up.

Conleths is a lovely school, started taking girls a few years ago, previously only took them for 5th and 6th year. It wouldn't be the academic pressure cooker, but if your dd is self motivated she doesn't need that. The one thing I'd say about it is that it's a small building with children from 4 years to 18/19 and it can feel very intense and a bit claustrophobic! Definitely worth a look around though, your dd might love it, the location is lovely and pastoral care is v good.

A popular option if your dc is focused on points would be TY/5th year in say Newpark or conleths, then 6th year at the Institute on Leeson St which is laser focused on points. That could work well for your dd.

All girls fee paying, say Alex and Mount Anville would be v similar to your dd current school, lots of stress and anxiety in those corridors. Rathdown is very nice, less pressure, good arts, nice girls, lots of foreign boarders. Lots of ex pats, definitely worth a visit if they have a place. Loreto Dalkey is nice too, lovely location, nice girls, not so much of a pressure cooker. If you have a place there I think your dd would find it quite different to her current school, and she would have the option of the institute for 6th year, The institute do TY/5th as well, but I don't think it would be ideal, friends would be dispersed all over the city, and the focus is different, less sport/art etc.

She's lucky to be coming in to TY, it's a great year and will be a really good opportunity to make friends, have some fun and try new subjects/experiences. TY programmes vary a lot from school to school so look into that when you're making your choice.

It's hard to get too specific here, too much identifying information, but please feel free to PM me, I'd be delighted to go into more detail if it would be helpful 😊

Dear chartreuse I don't know how to PM but I do have a couple of questions. Do u know how to? Sorry. Quite inexperienced at mumsnet thank you so much jenny

Agree with the advice to look at the Institute if DD is sure about medicine.

Loreto Dalkey is a great school, and Holy Child Killiney too. Wonderful locations for both, nice communities for you and DD alike. Ditto Rathdown.

Maybe contact Muckross Park (Donnybrook) - very academic, enrollment 700ish.

stconleths.ie/admissions/
Conleth's is very focused on academics, quite international, and might well give your DD the results she wants for medicine.

Having looked at the TY tab photos in the link, I thought I should check whether the school was actually coed.
But no, there's a separate tab 'Girls at St Conleth's', which I find really, really odd too.

Girls were first admitted in 1974 and it only took 40 years before one was elected School Captain.

Art and Music are considered especially interesting for girls. Maybe I'm reading too much into that particular piece of blurb.

Otoh, there is the option to take all three lab sciences at LC level.

Maybe the girls in a boys' school thing means there is more encouragement of STEM, ambition/ interest in chess, coding, etc. are not considered weird.

I dunno...
The video in the 'Girls at Conleths' link is very interesting imo.

Maybe they present the coed thing - which they present as the presence of girls in a boys' school imo - as such a Big Deal and something that needs pondering and a good deal of navel gazing because private coed schools are such a rarity in Dublin.

Definitely worth calling to see if they might have a place for your DD and definitely worth thorough consideration.

Hi @jennymalaysia, I'm on the app now and I can't see how to do it, but you definitely can from the main site. I'm in and out today so I might not get back to you until this evening!

@mathanxiety when I was doing my LC in the late 80s a few girls left my all girls school to go to Conleths where they were viewed as a bit of an oddity, albeit a welcome one. There were only a handful of girls in 5th and 6th year. They only started taking girls into first year during the recession, otherwise they would have sunk. Sand ford park did the same. That's a great school, mixed too but to awkward to get to from Monkstown I think. Around that time they also started taking in junior and senior infants, previously they started at first class. It boggles my mind how they fit so many children from babies to 6 footers into that small space. They are totally landlocked, tiny yard and are lucky to be able to do PE in Herbert park. I know a few pupils who say it can be overwhelming at times.

@jennymalaysia managed to pm you from the main site, haven't a clue how do it from the app. Hopefully you'll see it in your emails, and Mumsnet.com if you sign in

Wrt Conleths, I got the impression when they talked about foreign students that they are seen as 'school pets' to some degree too. There's a happy medium between resentment of forriners and seeing people as 'Hungarian Oliver' or 'Those Cheerful Argentinians'.

The tone of the blurb about student life/school culture is very Famous Five imo - jolly hockey sticks types describing the outsiders.

The strangeness jumps out at me because I went to a coed school wayyyy back in the late 70s-early 80s (a community school) and even though my year was the first mixed sex intake - it had been all girls previously - the school wasn't a bit precious about the presence of boys or what they brought to the table, and equal numbers of boy and girl prefects were chosen when we got to 6th year. We all just got on with it.

I thought of the Institute of Education too. For those self motivated students who are focused on getting the points they need for the course they want. Though I know of five girls who didn't get what they wanted after doing 5th and 6th years in the Institute.
If Andrews and Gerards are definitely out ( don't give up hope - family situations change and places can become available ) would you, as someone else suggested upthread, consider Loreto Dalkey for transition year with the possibility of the Institute for 5th and 6th years ?

The reason there is a separate page for girls in Conleths is because while girls have attended 5th and 6th year for 40 years+, they only opened the rest of the school to girls 4 years ago and so they are emphasising their attractiveness to girls to try and make the ratio as close to 50:50 as they can.

Conleth’s is a lovely school but is quite small. If your daughter is academic she will do well and is likely to be happy there. The downside of the small school is that if sport is important to her, the small pupil numbers means it can’t really compete with some of the larger schools in leagues etc. The flip side of this is that nearly all students get a place on the teams, not just the sportiest ones.

If you are considering John Scottus just be aware it has a very particular ethos. Do your research and decide if you are comfortable with it before enrolling.

Also Conleth’s attracts a proportion of foreign students as it is located in the embassy belt. They are welcomed and treated like any other student - I personally have never seen them viewed as ‘pets’.

Thank you so much. You are all incredibly helpful. I did think about the Institute but I am most keen for dd to make friends and settle into Ireland. She has lots of friends in the UK and has always been very sociable so she should be okay but I was afraid the institute would not be conducive to making friends. I would be nervous about moving her after TY as she will only have had a year to meet friends. I was thinking Conleths would be good as it is small so she would be less likely to get lost in the crowd. I like St Andrews as I know it attracts international students so people would be more used to welcoming new people and making friends but I am worried as it is too big. I loved loreto dalkey as I don't think they have much movement of girls so I was worried the girls would be less likely to welcome new people. However, loreto dalkey is very close to Monkstown so she would be more likely to make friends in the neighbourhood. Dd is very sporty. Netball and lacrosse though and I'm not sure those sports are done at all anyways in Dublin. As you can tell I am not sure!! Trying to balance her happiness with helping her get into med school. Not easy!!

Wesley College does netball and lacrosse, and is co-ed. Not very convenient for Monkstown though! You’re right...it’s not easy!

The Institute is a place where you can make friends - it's not all noses to the grindstone.

Students travel all over Dublin to private schools - leading schools attract students from all over. Loreto on the Green has students from many miles away, same goes for Belvedere, Gonzaga, Mount Anville, etc. Anywhere in hailing distance of the Dart or Luas is accessible from many points.

www.schooldays.ie/sch/loreto-abbey-secondary-school-rollnumber-60130C/college-progression
University destinations for Loreto Dalkey students over the past few years.

I wouldn't worry about academics.