Advice on moving to Cork

[Hopefullyhome]

First time joining mumsnet so hope I’m posting this properly 🙈.
I’m Irish, my boyfriend is English and we’ve got a four year old daughter with a new babe on the way in the new year. We live in London and since getting pregnant again, the longing for home that I felt during Covid has really intensified 🥺 and my boyfriend is coming around to the idea. Last time around we didn’t have a soul to help re childcare and the early years were very isolating as my bf was often away with work, not usually for very long but I felt it. I’d love to be closer to family and friends because while I have lots in London it’s just harder to see ppl day to day. Our jobs are flexible, he will be travelling with work regardless and I feel like when he’s away I’d be better off in Ireland than here, though we are planning on cork city where I have good friends from uni rather than my home town.

Basically, I would really really love any advice on how to find a place to rent which I hear is pretty deadly, how to choose a primary school and when I need to apply for my girl, and any Cork city specific info. Or just moving back info. It’s been 15 years since I’ve lived at home and I don’t really know where to start and still have to convince my boyfriend that it’s the right decision … thanks so much 🧡

I'm not originally from Cork, but grew up in West Cork (we moved from England), and then after many years working in England, moved back to Cork for a job many years ago. Kids are finished in school here, so I'm not totally up to date, but some thoughts and advice.

Accommodation situation seems very challenging here, it's available if you have more money to spend. I'd start with that and determine location, and then see what the situation is with respect to school places. For example, if you picked the Bishopstown area then make contact with the primary schools in the area and check for availability of spaces. With young children, you'd also maybe need to think about afterschool care options? (primary schools finish 2.30pm and earlier on Wed).

Generally, people apply for primary schools two or three years in advance. However, the reality is that people do move in at short notice, and there can be school places available.

Good luck with the move.

Finally, Cork school options:
www.schooldays.ie/primary-schools-in-ireland/primary-cork-county

Just to point out that primary schools don’t finish early on Wednesdays. Some secondary schools do, but primary schools don’t.

@Procrastination4 @bythebanksof Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. Applying to school two to three years before start date seems very far in advance 😳it’s a bit tricky because we are hoping to move around April or later so that’s past even the January application cut off date I’d heard mentioned before, and not sure we can be too specific about area since accommodation is so difficult to get. We would ideally move into the area by the Lough if at all possible. X

Generally, people apply for primary schools two or three years in advance

This is not the case, and in fact, not permitted.

People may well check out schools a few years ahead - but the date for application will be at some point in the year prior to entry eg Nov - Jan of the previous school year.

Places are allocated based on defined criteria, usually the primary one being catchment.

OP, as I'm sure you know, there's a massive accommodation crisis at the moment, and trying to find anywhere to rent is hugely challenging.

I'd base myself near family if I were you - could you stay with them?

I'd be very cautious about recommending a move here right now, based on accommodation alone.

Ballincollig is a good
Option with excellent secondary and primary schools and nice restaurants and facilities. Quite near the city centre too .

Perhaps you could check out some of the community notice boards on Facebook? Accommodation is scarce where I live (big commuter town south of Cork City).
Primary schools follow a similar application process as Earrings said.

Best of luck, Op.

Are you sure you and your DP could work in a EU country whilst being employed in the U.K.?
Most employers don't like that because there are tax implications and employment law implications.

School enrollment has changed. It opens for applications in Jan/Feb for the following September. In Catholic run schools, a baptised child doesn't get a place before a non-baptised child anymore. The Educate Together schools have become very popular among non-religious parents. Either way priority goes to children in the school catchment area so (I think) you'd need to have a good idea of where you will live to apply. And finding somewhere to live that's decent and doesn't cost a fortune is very difficult.

Applying for childcare places will also be a major and expensive headache. TBH the main advantage of moving home for most people is grandparents who can help with childcare.

If you have friends in Cork city with children I'd talk to them. Or ask them to put you in touch with someone who has children.

It's horrible to be warning you against it, but you would need to do a lot of planning to make sure things go smoothly.

@RubyRoss @IsFuzzyBeagMise @KnickerlessParsons @EarringsandLipstick @Crazycrazylady

Huge thanks for all your thoughts on this, I have heard accommodation is a nightmare and think that'll be our biggest battle because even though London is super expensive, there's also an awful lot of rental options available, in generally good condition. The facebook groups is a good idea, I don't use fb much but will have a look. I am going to be on maternity leave for some time and both my partner and I are self-employed so the tax thing will be on us, I suppose we will file wherever we are advised we need to and it seems to be more or less the same rate.

I didn't expect it to be easy but I am a little daunted by just how difficult it is sounding, at the same time I feel like making the move before my girl starts at school is best , the fact that the school day is shorter and less intense for them is also a big factor as to why I want to go home in the first place. Such a big generalisation, but my family and friends have all seemed fairly happy with their schools or more importantly their children seem happy, while here kids who've just started are getting (optional) homework and there's an early emphasis on reading/ writing which I don't get. I'm fine with a Catholic school so don't need to rule those out. By and large, do people find most schools to be pretty good, is that a stupid question? My only real wish is that the kids are really encouraged to be kind to each-other and that the school is warm and fosters a love of learning. I think I'll have to apply for schools in both countries until we know what the story is.

We are actually not moving all that close to my parents, they'll be 2.5hrs away so moving in with them isn't an option, but we didn't have help with childcare for the early years here so that won't really be different. At least at home people can come and stay/ I can go up to them at wknds, I also have friends around Cork, it's kind of company that I miss especially in those early years. Nursery here is around 120-130 pounds a day! so again think that expense won't be a shock.

It seems like it's all going to rely on luck so fingers crossed we find somewhere lovely against the odds!x

Seconded. The 220 bus is 24 hours now. Collig has all the big stores and it's handy enough for town.

Thanks very much for that recommendation, I can't drive so would prefer to be within walking distance from city centre, also my partner is already unsure about leaving the buzz of London so I think we need to be quite close for him too. xx

Personally, I wouldn't have any concerns about the schools. I'll be sending my child to the local Catholic school. Primary teachers in Ireland are really well trained. It has changed a lot since the time when we were in primary.

True @RubyRoss . Plus its multicultural now. When we came back in the 90s our London born kids took a while to fit in , being the only nonlocals. All changed since then. Cork city won't be a big shock. Culture wise.

@Hopefullyhome you asked about schools and by and large are they good and I would say absolutely yes to this. My DD goes to a lovely but massive primary close to us which is wonderful and my DS has moved to another school across the town in a completely different area due to additional needs and I've been blown away with how amazing this other school is. I'm not in Cork but also Munster so in my experience schools in general and in particular the staff in schools are excellent so you'll have no worries there

5 years ago dd was paying 3000€/month rent with 3 colleagues for a flat in Cork.

Hi OP

We are also moving from London back to Ireland. I would recommend making contact with schools in your target area and if you can, arrange a trip and visit all of them on person. We did that recently (across primary and secondary as we need both) and we were very pleasantly surprised that (a) they all have spaces and (b) how very welcoming they all were. The primary schools all had some type of wraparound childcare options as well. I realised I was expecting London levels of stress in terms of admissions criteria and catchment but it was nothing like that at all. None of the Catholic schools were at all bothered that my kids aren’t Catholic (unlike the Catholic schools here which are unwelcoming to say the least). I think you need to speak with (and ideally meet with) the schools to really get a feel for things. It was also lovely for my kids to tour the schools, and (secondary) one even offered a taster:settling in session which was unexpected.
Good luck with your move! I felt a massive weight of worry lifted once I’d visited the schools - I hadn’t realised quite how worried I was before that.

OP - re accommodation
We also used our visit to meet with several estate agents. Interestingly (and news to us) they don’t typically list their rentals online (eg Daft) because they just get flooded with hundreds of online queries the moment it is listed And they have no idea the calibre (their words) of the applicant. You need to meet with the agents and get on their waiting lists. It’s not as dire as it seems if you’re just browsing websites (as we were) as there is a whole hidden market that operates via the agents. Like the schools, personal interaction counts for a lot.

The Common Travel Area agreement allows for people to work/live across the U.K. and Ireland borders. It’s all online here:
Cross Border workers

As a few others have mentioned, I'd strongly recommend to speak directly with the school. Having been on the parents committee for a few years, the school will be able to give you a lot of advice. The primary school will take in so many classes per year (multiple class numbers by their target class size), they can sometimes take one class more or less, but there is limited flexibility. They'll have a good idea of demographics and a fairly accurate picture of availability in the next 2 or 3 years, independent of the formal application process.

With no local family support here, we ended up picking school purely based on logistics and where we'd rented initially. Even though we're English and Presbyterian, we'd no issues with the Catholic ethos school. The school was close to a hospital, so a lot of the kids parents worked there (from Sweden, South Africa, India, Philippines) and it was a very diverse group!!

@RubyRoss @Abhannmor @SparkyBlue thank you, that really confirms what I have been hearing about schools at home which is a great relief xx

@AutumnAgain thanks so much for your reply and congratulations on making the move yourself too, sounds very exciting. I feel a bit ridiculous admitting it, but the only time we can really get over to have a look is just after Christmas when things will be closed, it will be more of a showing my partner around various areas geographically/ getting a sense of how easy it'll be to get in and out of town/ airport /where friends live in relation to where we would be looking and so on, so don't think a school visit will be possible. That said it's obviously so important, I was kind of hoping that it would be time enough in April/May after the new babe is here which would be closer to the time we'd like to be moving. But following your and
@BasedInDublin advice, I am going to draw up a list of schools in areas we're thinking of and will call them to see what their availability is and what they recommend me doing. Thank you!
Also really helpful info about estate agents too! I'd been told it was mostly word of mouth and knowing people in your own circle of friends and so on but would be great to have more options than what is essentially a fluke! x