Moving to west coast of Ireland

[gertrudemortimer]

I am thinking of moving from England to the west coast of Ireland in a couple of years and I wanted to know what life is like there for children and families, particularly schooling. DS will be 10/11, he struggles in school at the moment, he is below average in most things. He is on the SEN register here but no known reason why he struggles in regard to diagnoses etc. I know it's quite a broad question but are schools over good at educating those children who struggle and getting the best out of them? I only have my partners view of education and he and his family are very bright so enjoyed school and got good marks. My son's current school have not been great the past year and I don't want to send him to another education system that is the same but then with the added problem of being new and all the issues that may arise with that.

Also the maternity care, I will possibly have another child. Do they provide the same level of care as the U.K., do they test for feotal abnormalities? Would they do a C-section if first birth ended in an emcs?

Finally health insurance, ds has birth defects that may cause kidney problems later in life, he may need further routine surgeries as part of this too. Will the cost of his insurance be crazy or is the insurance generally quite reasonable?

Some of these may seem ridiculous but I've never moved further than 12 miles from where I grew up, I'm clueless!

If your ds needs the surgeries he could get them publicly rather than privately so you shouldn't need to pay. The advantage of private insurance (which I'd recommend having too) is that waiting lists are shorter, but in this case if you know that the surgeries are something that are needed down the line then you could get referred soon after you move and you'll be 'in the system'.

You'll need to look round schools in the area you're moving to. You can be lucky or unlucky I feel with what's available locally. Children here attend primary school until 12 or 13 and tend to start school a bit later. Depends when his birthday falls but a 10 year old would typically be in 4th class.

Maternity care is considered good but don't know details. Caesarean rates are high though.

@DaffodilDora thank you Daffodil for answering so many of my questions.

That is good to know about the public health option. I suppose another option could be to keep my son's surgeon in the U.K. as he will still have a home here with his dad. It might be easier than starting from scratch.

My partner told me children were held back a year in his school, is this still an option? That might be a great advantage for moving and give him the extra time I think he needs. My sons birthday is in the middle of June.

A 10 year old with a June bithday would usually be in 4th class, 11 year old in 5th.
6th class is the last class in primary, then they move to secondary...so your son would have turned 13 for this. (Average starting age is five but depends on the birthday. There are two years of infant classes before they go into 1st.)

You can still repeat a year I think. Probably depends on the school and availability but definitely worth asking, especially with his SEN issues. I have a child with SEN and I now wish I'd started them a year later than average (which you are free to do here). I didn't realise at the time about the issues though.

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/education/primary-and-post-primary-education/going-to-primary-school/starting-primary-school/

This gives more info about schools.
In general www.citizensinformation.ie is a useful site to search.

I’ve had babies in both Ireland and England and the experience in Ireland was far superior. I had an EMcS with my first in England and was given the choice this year as to wether I wanted an elective cs or VBAC and was supported in my decisions as a flip flopped and eventually went for the elective.

It depends where you want to move to. Start looking on Daft.ie to get a flavour for the housing market and what is available. Once you have narrowed it down, have a look at public transport links, access to GPs, hospitals, schools, shopping ect. You will need to get a PPS number which can be a bit convulated

It would probably be easier for your son to move to a town rather than rural, as the school will have more of a mix of students from different countries. School is more expensive, you will have to pay a yearly fee for school equipment/insurance/music or swimming lessons. The expectation is that kids stay in school. Until they are at least 18 - options for less academic kids has improved with things like the Applied Leaving Cert and Youth Reach but these aren't available everywhere.

In terms of maternity care, it is much different. There are 19 maternity hospitals in the whole country so you maybe an hours journey away from your closest one. Lots of places don't have any community midwifery so all care will be in the local maternity hospital or GP. No postnatal midwifery care. No routine screening for Downs, Edwards or Pateaus Syndromes. You can pay for these privately. Your home visits will be from the Public Health Nurse. No Health Visitors.

The hardest thing at the moment is housing - there is a massive shortage
And very little in the way of council housing. Things operate differently here and it can be hard to navigate if you don't know the unspoken rules or culture. But lots of people do move and settle happily.

Will you be moving to where your partner is from? Does he have siblings with kids, or cousins with kids, in the area? Is he sporty? ^^

DS got some extra help at school when he was about 5 without any formal diagnosis. Getting a formal diagnosis of anything in Ireland is usually done privately due to long waiting lists.

Health wise things can be slow but once you're in the system DS was looked after well.

I'm Irish so can't compare to the UK.

Thank you everyone for your detailed replies the thread has answered all of my current questions.

@Apileofballyhoo yeah we will be moving to his town which is a decent size with lots to do for children. Ds does enjoy sport yeah. Partners siblings are a good bit younger than him and his friends are just starting to settle down now.

He isn't my ds's dad so it's a big move for me, ds and ds's dad. It will take a lot of research and way more trips to decide. And I agree re renting, prices are ridiculous! We'd ideally want to rent close to the centre to begin with but prices are all around 2k mark pcm.

If your partnerv is from there he might have friends with kids there but if your DS is sporty he'll find friends that way too.

It can be hard to find a GP but again your partner's GP when he was growing up might still be there.