Moving primary age children from London to Ireland (or vice versa!)

[16freckles]

Hi, I'm just looking for some advice/ guidance from anyone who has moved children from the UK to Ireland at primary level or vice versa.
So to summarize our situation - I am Irish, my husband (who is main breadwinner) is from UK. We are currently living in London with 3 DC aged 7 (year 2), 6 (year 1) and 2. For a long time we have discussed moving out of London for space (the usual) and I have always had a desire to have at least part of their upbringing in Ireland to be close to family etc. However, my husbands work will most likely always be London based and this is the complication. Any move to Ireland would have to be tentative with a view to returning if he found that the level of travel required became too frequent/exhausting. The hope would be to find work that would allow for travel every other week although of course this can't always be guaranteed.

We have secured a place in a lovely little primary school in Ireland for the DC for September and the school has just sent me booklists. It looks as though academically they will be a good year ahead (perhaps this is because they start school earlier in the UK). That's fine going over as it gives them a chance to pick up Irish and settle in without any academic pressure. My concern now is that if we do have to reverse the move in a year or two they may be academically behind when moving back into the UK system and struggle (especially a concern as if we did have to move back we'd be straight into secondary entrance exams for the eldest)... or perhaps it balances out a bit later on? Has anyone done this and how did the DC manage?

I'll be very grateful for any experiences you can share..

What book lists did they send you? Never had this before. We moved from London to NI, which I know is different but schools here are way ahead than London schools. So much my dc hasn't done yet- I'm getting a tutor over the summer to help them catch up.

The booklists are sent out in all schools this week (I ordered ours online)
What about covid restrictions - that would be my main concern.
School wise they will be fine. Your dc could watch cartoons in Irish and online apps. (TG4)

NI system is very different to ROI.

The aims of the Irish curriculum are very different, as I understand it, so you're not comparing like with like. I know someone who did what you're planning and it has worked out well though going all round for her and her husband at times. I think your temperaments will come into play as to have it will go with the travel. In her case 5 years on he got a job her (IRL) and they don't know themselves. And yes, booklist are always sent out at this point of the year. Irish wise, they will catch up quickly at that age and may get some extra lessons to speed this up.

I dont know anything about the ROI schooling system, but:
What subjects are you concerned about?
I wouldnt worry about the English, as I cant imagine they wont learn the basics of that, and there is absolutely no need to be able to grammatically pick apart sentances the way the English system does - although if you are looking at secondary exams (do you mean private /Grammar - we just applied on nearest schools and got a place on distance) I guess that might be needed.
So maths is the only other thing you might want to keep an eye on.
We did a summer of CGP books (English and maths) following an international move, and have been fine. Yes, their English history is lacking, but they aced the topic on deserts. There have also been comments for both kids about how well rounded they are. At primary I dont think it matters exactly what you study, just that you are exposed to the different subjects.
Hope the move goes well.

I would say also say you'll have a good idea how it's going long before secondary. I have to LOL at English history might be lacking, it certainly plays a large part in Irish history lessons but funny, I don't think the same is true in English schools!

HeyGirl it was my kids English history that was lacking following an international move. It wasnt a reference to what was taught in Ireland.

Ah yes, I understand, my mistake.

@Roodicus21

What book lists did they send you? Never had this before. We moved from London to NI, which I know is different but schools here are way ahead than London schools. So much my dc hasn't done yet- I'm getting a tutor over the summer to help them catch up.

Hi Roodicus, In ROI primary age children get a list of books to buy at the beginning of each school year. I'm guessing NI is the same as England and do not use text books?

In the case of the particular school we are moving to in ROI we are required to buy English and Maths workbooks and the text books are rented from the school for the year. I looked through the English and Maths workbooks and my DC have already covered the material so it seems like they'll be doing a year of revision when we move over to Eire.

Thanks @Nuggetnugget I'm not overly worried about them picking up Irish - they are so young that I don't think their peers would be that far ahead. I'm more worried about them being behind if we have to move back to UK for secondary and they struggle at school entrance exams...

Hi @DancesWithDaffodils, did you move DC from ROI to UK or somewhere else for secondary? What are the CGP books you mentioned?
To answer your question, yes we would ideally be hoping to move them to a Grammer or Private seconday if back in UK so clearly quite pressurized entrance process and hence not wanting to disadvantage them in any way. That is why I'm keen to hear from anyone who has moved their children from ROI to UK. It appears in the very early years the UK moves faster but maybe this balances out a bit later in primary school? (I'm hoping )

The Irish system isn't as pressured as the English so there would be gaps for you to fill in when they return, yes. It doesn't impact their actual educational outcomes but we're not teaching fronted adverbials etc and the kids manage fine. But if you were looking to put them in grammar schools etc when you're back you'd probably need to have a good tutor on hand for catch up.

CGP books

No, not from Ireland. Sorry, thought I'd said that. Elsewhere in the world.

Would agree with @SionnachRua having taught in both systems. You would likely need a tutor to start the prep process for the 11+ or entrance exams for private.

Thanks for the advice! It seems like it would be fairer to only move home if we could be more sure that we can stay and make it work..

Thanks again!

Just seen this thread.

We made the move this year. DDs Yr4 & Yr 2 in the UK plus a 3yo Dd turning 4 in a few weeks was due to start school in the UK in September. They are definitely a year ahead here. My 7yo DD was having one on one help in the UK to keep up with her class mates but is way ahead of her class mates in the ROI. My 9yo has been put up a year, which is great in many ways but also makes her the smallest which goes against her in sports which she’s passionate about.

An upside for me is that my 3yo won’t need to start school a matter of days after turning 4 now as the school won’t take her for another year. The downside is that if we do go back she will be behind her peers. I’m not too worried about the older 2 if we do go back as long as I could get them back into the same school because it’s got an excellent support system for struggling children.

What I love about our ROI school is the laid backness of it all though, far less rigid than uk schools.

As far as commuting goes. DH got the job last year, the plan was for him to commute between the UK and ROI but with covid it was completely unrealistic with quarantines, isolations and extra costs of pcr tests not to mention extra rent on top of our mortgage. If it was just one thing we could have dealt with it but it all got a bit much. Plus DH officially wfh meant he was literally on his own the entire time her was in the ROI until he was able to come home. In the end we all moved over to be together. My only reluctance was after almost a year of lockdowns and isolation I wasn’t keen to drag the DDs away from their friends and school during lockdown as at least in the uk we knew people.

It worked out ok though as they were able to start school 2 days after our quarantine ended.

Although we love the ROI (all my family are Irish) we would definitely move back to the UK if we could. Everything here is so ridiculously expensive rent here is 5 times our mortgage, groceries are easily 3 times what we would pay in the uk, school books, Drs bills… We would also struggle buying where we’ve moved to unless I got a job but with school and preschool times it’s just nit realistic for me to do that as everything would just go into after school clubs.

At the moment we are enjoying our first ROI summer, I’m getting to go to places I’ve heard about my whole life and tick a few bucket list places off. We will reassess next year whether it’s worth the move back, financially it’s a no brainier, but we will need to assess lifestyle. I always thought an Irish lifestyle would be better and think in many ways it would, but we didn’t live a major city in the uk and had a lot open to us where we were so lifestyle opportunities would be just as good for us there as here.

Thank you @Bid876 that's very interesting..
I have to say I am worried that the DD's will be so far ahead in ROI that they'll just be bored (they've both been doing great in their school in London). In the ROI school, I don't get the impression that there will be a huge amount of differentiated direction or work for more able kids and I think if they are sitting through a year of lessons where they are essentially not learning much it'll be a pretty demotivating for them...

Do you know if the curriculum in UK and ROI level out at some point or does UK stay ahead the whole way up?

Hi,
Just following up. Were any teachers out there who have experience of both UK and Irish curriculum able to say if the two systems even out at some point in the primary years? Any insight on this would so appreciated 🙏
We moved from UK to Ireland in September and as feared my children are at least an academic year ahead. Despite reassurances from teachers that there’d be differentiated work there simply hasn’t. I don’t blame the teachers as without the classroom supports Uk teachers have it must be very hard to do. Unfortunately that doesn’t help my kids though who are sitting totally unchallenged.. by the way I’m not boasting about how bright my kids are - they are clearly surrounded by equally capable kids in their class - the problem is they’ve done the work and I believe it’s not great for them to be sitting completely unchallenged.

Depending on their age, could you move them up a year? School years/ ages are not as strict in Ireland. I know of a couple of children that moved up (or sometimes stayed back) a year, depending on their academic needs.

I'm not a primary teacher but I taught secondary in the UK and ROI for years and certainly the secondary education in Ireland is very strong, so I'm rather surprised at people suggesting there's a large discrepancy at primary.

We attempted to go back to Ireland in the early 90s.I am Irish my H is English.
My kids were young so no school issues.
But for many reasons we came back to the UK. The main one for me was the blind conformity to the catholic church’s’ traditions, making communion and confirmation etc. The majority of people we knew did not believe or even attend mass regularity but went along with the communion panto with gusto!
We didn’t want our children to have to make that choice (based on the desire for a white dress, money from relies and a party)

We had this with dd1 when we moved from UK to Australia. Because of her age they put her back a year, and yet the UK school system was ahead.

Dd1 was bored stiff for a term until we were able to convince the school to put her up (to her correct year) but she's now one of the youngest in her class.

Academically she's doing fantastic now 3 years on.

Talk to the school, explain the situation and insist they put the DC up if they then won't be too young compared the rest of their peers?

@BootsScootsAndToots Thank you! unfortunately the school head is against this as the girls would be under 12 come seconadry school if we moved them up another year.
I spoke with the teachers who assured me there would be diffrenciated tasks but that does not appear to be happening at all. In fact my eldest came home today and said she got in trouble for not counting out subtraction sums with blocks before writing it down. She can do the sums in her head! so this is just tedious and soul destroying. She had been doing multiplication and division this time last year... but she has to follow the same process and the same pace regardless. I feel so guilty!

@Jellyfishjean that's good to know and what appears to be born out by the global rankings etc. That's why I was keen to know when the curriculum start evening out.
UK is definitely more advanced in the earlier years. In the equivalent of second class they are exploring science topics like what is light, magnetic forces, geology. In maths: multiplication and division, adding/subtracting fractions... I don't think she'll do this for another year or two here.

Suppliment her learning with activities in the home.