School advice for family relocating to Dublin

[sarahnovember]

We are an American family relocating to Dublin next summer (already based in Europe). I know the rental situation is a mess, but I'm more concerned with school placement for our three boys in grades 3, 6 (junior) and 2 (senior) next year. We are not religious and I'm curious about the Educate Together curriculum. Are some better than others? Which are considered top locations? Would gladly welcome any other advice on the best private schools (ideally mixed). Many thanks!

Welcome! You may have trouble getting a school place without an address. My kids' school is oversubscribed and they're very particular about checking applicants reside in the catchment area. If you're relocating with an employer they may be in a position to assist you with this.

We're not religious either but our local school is Catholic. The whole system is infuriating, but in practice it's no issue opting out of religion. I'd have liked my kids to go to Educate Together but it would have meant driving them to/from school and I wanted them to be local.

Which area of Dublin are you looking at?

The Educate Together curriculum is by and large the same as what is available in denominational schools. However, there are fewer ET schools in Dublin than Catholic/Church of Ireland so places are like hens teeth. You can opt out of religion classes and more and more parents are doing that.
I'm not sure what ages grade 3,6 in Junior are and grade 2 senior is.

Primary school in Ireland generally has the following class groupings:
Junior Infants - 4ys
Senior Infants - 5yrs
1st Class - 6 & 7 yrs
2nd Class - 7 & 8 yrs
3rd Class - 8 & 9 yrs
4th Class - 9 and 10 yrs
5th Class - 10 and 11 yrs
6th Class - 11, 12 and sometimes 13 yrs

Secondary school
1st - 3rd Year - 13 - 15 or sometimes 16yr olds - these years cover the Junior Certificate exam
4th Year - some schools offer what is called Transition year, a year between the junior and senior cycle in schools.
5th & 6th Year - up to 18 or 19 years old - Leaving Certificate exams - these generally form the entry requirements for 3rd level colleges/universities.

Do you have a location that you're looking at to live in as that may play a factor in determining the school your children go to?

The age groups are approximate. The school year starts in September, there is a mid-term break in October (to coincide with Halloween usually), there are Christmas holidays and the second term starts back after New Year.
The second term in January includes a mid term break in Feb/March (depending on when Easter is) and then there is the Easter holidays.
Coming back after Easter we have the summer term (not sure if there is a mid-term break, can't remember) but if the kids are in Primary School they will carry on until the end of June and if they're in Secondary School, they finish at the start of June (due to the state exams being held).

www.educatetogether.ie/
www.expatarrivals.com/europe/ireland/dublin/education-and-schools-dublin
techlifeireland.com/moving-to-ireland/find-schools-ireland/
www.expatfocus.com/ireland/living/choosing-your-child-s-school-in-dublin-a-guide-for-expat-parents-5084

Hopefully those links will help you.

Super helpful, thank you! We're hoping to find a house in South Dublin, possibly D4, 6, 6w, 14, or maybe D18? Not entirely sure as we've never been. Fortunately, we have a visit planned to scout things out before we relocate this summer.

You're looking at some of the nicest and most expensive areas in Dublin with the most oversubscribed schools and childcare!

There's a search function on the Educate Together website and you can filter for Dublin. There are fewer secondary schools than primary. There are also quite a few private options for both primary and secondary in the areas you're looking for. The Irish Times did a list of the annual fees for fee-charging schools recently if you search their website. They're not mad money but that's all relative!

ET schools tend to be non-uniform which makes them unusual in Ireland where there's usually quite strict and expensive uniforms. There's no 'faith-formation' and children who wish to make communion and confirmation prepare outside school. Other than that, I think they're similar to the typical Catholic schools.

Those are the nicest areas of Dublin and there are lots of good schools there.

You will need to cast your net very, very wide and start ASAP to find places. Don't discount denominational schools. You might not have much of a choice in the end. Don't overlook niche places like St Kilian's German School either, or CoI schools.

I think you should also look at the north side - King's Hospital for instance, and don't dismiss nice parts of the north side for a home.

There are one or two Community Schools that might be worth looking at too.

I attended Sandford National for primary in D6. It's very good.

If you’re looking to start your children in September you should start calling schools to find out availability asap - many will be full up by the summer. As others have said, I wouldn’t get hung up on denominational schools, and for the younger children (primary age) there is very little difference between fee paying and non-fee paying schools. There was an interesting thread on Reddit on this topic earlier today: Reddit thread - public vs private schools which you might find interesting. The difference is probably more pronounced at senior level.

I don’t know what your budget is but I do know a few American families which have chosen Nord Anglia International school as it offers the International Baccalaureate curriculum and they felt it better suited their needs as they did not intend settling in Ireland long term. It is materially more expensive than the other private schools in Dublin though. There are other schools that do the IB as well - St Andrews might be one I think.

It would be helpful if you could give your children’s ages as we could tailor the advice to that - we have a different system so don’t know what the grades you mention are.

The curriculum in all schools in Ireland is the same.

It's a highly centralised system.

Subject wise, the ET schools will follow the same curriculum as all other schools.

We were also hoping for an IB school, but Nord Anglia is quite expensive and far from the city from what I can tell. We applied to St. Andrew's College, but the waitlists are huge. We're very interested in St. Kilian's Deutsche Schule as our kids already speak German. Does anyone here have experience with it?

@Blogdog our kids are ages 7, 10 & 12 and we're applying for 3rd class, 6th class and 2nd year in September.

At those ages your children will be very young for their years, you might want to look individually at those year groupings depending on their birthdays.

The vas majority of children nowadays start school at 5 and leave at 19. They are 12 or 13 starting post-primary schools.

Lots of good Educate Together schools in those areas. A couple of them are growing so don't have full year spans yet -- e.g. Educate Together D14 primary only takes up to 3 class this September as it is still new.

Fewer children starting school at age of four
www.independent.ie/irish-news/fewer-children-starting-school-at-age-of-four-41873013.html

The ages are very helpful, thanks. I do think your children are a little young for the classes you are looking at. For example my own children are 8, 11 and 13 now and will be moving into 3rd, 6th and 2nd year in September. My eldest will be 14 at that point and the others have birthdays in November. It’s doable but yours could be the youngest in their year which isn’t ideal. A 12 year old in 2nd year would make me worried as age/maturity wise they could be well below their peers. I would take advice from some of the schools you are looking at.

I will be back to comment on schools but have to get the kids out of bed now :)

I grew up in D18. It's lovely. My siblings still live local and my niece and nephew go to the Stepaside ET school. They're really happy with it but I think it's pretty oversubscribed. If you end up in that area there are other great schools.kike Holly Park. It is a Catholic school but you can opt out. That said every school around there is oversubscribed.

our kids are ages 7, 10 & 12 and we're applying for 3rd class, 6th class and 2nd year in September.

I agree with pp. The children sound a bit young for those classes, even given that it's next Sept they'll be starting. My 1st year student is 13, for example. Children usually start school around 5 (they can be a bit younger or older depending on when the birthdays fall), then are 12.5 - 13.5 approx by the time they start secondary.

Good luck with the move and welcome to Ireland.

Could you tell us when their birthdays are?

D18 - st brigids national school is also excellent but has a separate boys and girls

Nord anglia is in sandyford by the way which is in Dublin 18. It is out of town but close to foxrock/D18 if you are live there

For mixed secondary st Killians, st conleths, sandyford park, Wesley, St Andrew's, newpark, ET goatstown, ET stepaside,

If you can get st killians then that would be a great choice, they would look favourably on German speakers - Itd be close if you based yourselves in d6 / d14 - might be challenging from d4/d18 as traffic in the mornings is significant both in and out of town.

Also agree with PPs - your kids will be very young for those classes even if they have a birthday in the first term. My daughter was 8 turning 9 in 3rd class, 11 turning 12 is usual for 6th class and 13 turning 14 usual for 2nd year. I'd take the advice of the schools in this regard.

Be aware that the study of Irish is compulsory here so your youngest and possibly your middle child will have to study it. Your eldest will probably be exempt due to age.

Their birthdays are all in late spring, so they'll be 13, 11 & 8 by the end of May. The schools I've spoken to have advised they would be among the youngest in their classes, but they are already in 2nd, 5th, and 7th grade and we don't necessarily want to hold them back a year.

I woukd advise 2nd class, 5th class and first year then. The curriculum is different here. I don't think you can compare directly between countries?

American grades don’t equate to classes here - kindergarten is equivalent to junior infants and grade 1 is equivalent to senior infants. Grade 5 is equivalent to 4th class. Basically you take the US grade and deduct 1 to get the equivalent Irish class. Have you taken that into account?

I'd really consider 1st year for your eldest, they'll be joining the school with all the other new starts. How long will you be here for? Junior Cert state exams are in 3rd year. At that age I'd be thinking of the age of the other kids as well as your child's academic capability. They could be well able for the classes but if they're very behind socially it could be a challenge. My experience in South Dublin is that the youngest/oldest generally have early spring birthdays so we have 6/7 birthdays at the moment in senior infants. The youngest finishing up in March and the eldest birthdays starting in February. The schools will give you guidance though.

It would be to your eldests' advantage to start first year. All the students will be new. Otherwise they will be a year behind on their curriculum. Remember they have to adjust a lot of subjects catch up on history, European geography, Irish ? adjust culture.

My son has friends from America who settled last year it was s tough on the teen. They had a lot of gaps, of the Irish Curriculum, in their education.

This is all very interesting feedback, thank you. I've shared our children's birthdates with several schools and they have confirmed 3rd & 5th Classes for our younger boys and 2nd Year for our oldest. For reference, they've attended Austrian public schools for the last five years.