Local Catholic or newly established educate together

[SuddenArborealStop]

Help me decide.

We had a bit of a wait to hear on any school place for September and was eventually happy to get a place in the local parish primary in the 4th offers.

We're expecting to get an educate together offer this week and I'm not sure which way to go.

We're firmly against religion in schools and I'm not too happy about making DS different by keeping him out of making his communion etc. I know someone who has a child in the school and they recently had homework about sin which would make me very uncomfortable.

The new educate together is a few years old. No building of their own but they are moving into a temporary place in an old school and they have a site for the new building which is near to us. But it could be a few years.

Pros of the Catholic school are really familiarity to me . Although I am not Catholic anymore I was raised that way and I there is some comfort in raising the kids the way I was.
I think most of the kids from the estate will go there which might help with making local friends for me and DS... with covid I know no local mothers and it has been quite isolating.
I am just unsure of the newness of the educate together , this may just be fear of the unfamiliar.

Please help me decide.

Could you by any chance visit the schools. They might help you make up your mind. My eldest was due to go to an educate together and I attended the Christmas fair and it turned me off the school completely and to be honest I heard several things afterwards that made me so glad I went to our local national school. I also know of another educate together school that's excellent so really what I'm saying is without knowing the schools you can't say one is better than the other. religion wasn't an issue for me but I can totally understand not wanting a catholic school. Does one have better or more sports facilities etc. Does any offer after school care? Think about the actual things that might make your life easier on a day to day basis like the location.

I agree, try and visit and get more to go on. I sent dc2 to a new ET secondary school as I thought they'd be the most accommodating to his PDA/ODD. WHEN he went in to first year there was only one year>
He is not the most 'biddable' character and they don't push him, they let him come and go. That's not what you'd usually want but it's right for him and they get that. They don't come down on him like a ton of bricks.

DC1 went to a catholic girls' secondary school but she's very good at working within an established system. Not only are we not catholic but we were / are (not sure at this point tbh!!!) church of Ireland so I initially had some reservations about sending her to a catholic school but it was absolutely fine, so much better than fine, it was perfect in fact. All the teachers were young and enthusiastic. She was supported and encouraged and she made lovely friends. The only nun is a lovely woman who taught them to believe in themselves and showed them all how to change a tyre! She's at Trinity now.
Both my dc went to a c of I national school but because a quarter of the kids were catholic, there was still a lot of talk about first communion when they were in first class. Unavoidable disruption in first class no matter what school you choose i think. Good luck!

ps, I agree that there is a lot to be said for looking at the practicalities that will make life easier. That whole finishing at 1.30 and finishing at 14.30 was the bane of my life for two years because there was no afterschool club
If you have a younger child, look at that.

If you are 'firmly against religion in schools' then you've answered your own question really.

My memory from my DCs' time in a Catholic primary is that religion permeates the whole curriculum and the whole school day. I wasn't raised in Ireland and am not Catholic so have no personal experience. DH is very lapsed Catholic so he had to deal with all the religious stuff. All the DC have completely rejected religion as young adults.

If there'd been an Educate Together school available in our area I'd have wanted my children to go there, but unfortunately we had no choice.

@Joy247 the two different finishing times really is a form of torture isn't it? Thank god now DH works from home so I can leave DS watching tv while I nip back down the road.
Also OP it might get not be something that applies to you but ask about facilities for children with SEN. Some schools are way better than others. As it turns out the school mine go to have a great name and reputation for dealing with children with sen. Not something I ever thought about as DD has no additional needs but her brother does (I wasn't aware that he did when DD started school) and the school has been great.

Okay I’ll say it…..please don’t send your child to a catholic school if you have an issue with them being taught the faith. It just makes it annoying for everyone (including your children and you).

@DramaAlpaca what you put on the census? nosy question

I put nothing or other but I felt very bold. I felt my mother's disappointment in me. I ticked nothing for all of us. Even though that made me feel ungrateful for reasons I won't go in to here.

But my vision for Ireland is that we all merge in to one sea of general relaxed but genuine spirituality with maybe a gentle nod to Christianity. A bold vision

@minniep yes it is, maybe i'll write that in on the census form! Where you have a space to write your own comment. Let's hope that in a hundred years parents aren't still figuring out how to kill that *ing hour!

@Joy247 there's no option for C of E so I ticked C of I as it's pretty much the same. I'm not religious at all, but it's how I was raised and roots go deep, I suppose. My adult DC put no religion, and lapsed DH put RC.

I’m a Catholic, not particularly practicing but I go through the motions, baptisms, communions etc.. DH isn’t. Neither of us grew up in Ireland, for me personally I was very lucky in that I never had a “bad” Catholic experience growing up, it was far more relaxed than Ireland. And our parish Monsignor was one of the rare good ones.

Anyway my DDs have been going to an educate Together school for a year now. It’s got a whole new building, special needs unit etc.. I’m not certain how I feel about it. I’m glad religion has been taken away in that my DDs have made a group of friends across a large selection of different backgrounds, which I like. There are voluntary Catholic classes for sacraments if parents are interested, again which I like. But the school is definitely lacking. It feels very siloed and that teachers are just ticking box’s, clocking in and out. It’s the only school in the area that has no sports teams or dose after school activities other that Catholic club which is driven more by the volunteer and parents who want it and Irish dancing, which again I think is driven by a parent that runs it.

There is a distinct lack of leadership in the school. As we are new I’m not sure if this is just an isolated school incident or a whole ET laid back way of running things. It’s very much drop your kids off & pick them up without any engagement or interaction with any teachers, they are just gatekeepers who send the kids out of school, most are exiting the car park before I even get my kids settled in the car. I’m use to teachers talking to parents, being at school gates in case a parent has questions or just to smile and say hi. Obviously assemblies stopped during covid but my DDs old school did them virtually so parents could still be involved and their would be weekly newsletters. Nothing like that where they are now.

We didn’t visit the school, we moved to Ireland during lockdown so everything was out of bounds. Id say definitely visit each school, take your dc so they can get a feel for them. You will get a better feel once you do this.

There are lots of children that aren’t catholic in our local school. Might not be the same as all catholic schools though. Our local educate together school is actually less diverse.

One thing about going to the local when the majority go there is the social side of it. My child has so many friends who live locally that she knows from school and can play with on a daily basis. There is one child in our street who goes to the ED which is also quite local but she has no local friends as they come from a wider catchment area.

Overall, as others have suggested it depends on the particular school. Catholic schools are not the strict, serious places that I or my friends experienced in our childhoods. School is so much fun now, the methods of learning are fun, the teachers are enthusiastic (or the majority anyway). Yes there is religion as obviously it is a religious school so I would expect there to be but many non religious or non catholic still choose catholic schools for a particular schools overall reputation and how it suits their particular needs.