Moving a teen to Dublin from Scotland

[Onlycats]

Hello all, my husband has been offered a job in south Dublin with a planned start in approximately 9 months. We’re currently in Scotland with two teens and trying to figure when to follow him over. I’ve been reading around the school system in Ireland and think that his planned move date is not going to be great timing for our younger one but would appreciate real life info as Google isn’t always right!
She started school age 5.5y, normal start age in Scotland and leaves her at the older end of the age range. She’s done the usual 7 years in primary school and is now in her second year (S2) of 6y in senior school. The last 3 years are exam years, S4 they do 7/8 subjects for Nat 5, S5 they do 5 highers which determines uni offers, S6 if they stay on they do more highers/2-3 advanced highers. In August she will start her Nat 5 course (her school spreads it over 2y), 8 subjects. If we were to move her the following year, August 2027, she would be age 15y 4 months, would have done a total of 10 years in school with 3 years to go. Where would she fit in the Irish system? Would she need to go back to second year (when she’s expecting to go into S4 in Scotland) and do the junior cert? I presume she couldn’t go into TY with no Nat 5s nor junior cert? Maybe we would be better letting her do Nat 5s then moving over and joining TY (or fifth year if she insisted).
But more than a year of husband commuting Dublin/Scotland doesn’t appeal to any of us and I have an elderly, increasingly worrying parent in the north so would be good to be within driving distance of them sooner than later.

Sorry for such a long post, I’m just really keen to get it as right as we possibly can for her. Her sibling was miserable at school so I don’t want to go there again. This one is thriving with a great set of friends, lots of activities in school and outside too, just very happy with her life as it is and I’m sad to think about changing that, as is she. And I like my life as it is, my colleagues, where we live, our house is a good size for us and we’ve just renovated it, in a good location (and yes, I’ve seen Dublin house prices, cost of living etc, it makes me panic).
On the other hand I have an utterly miserable husband in current job who is pretty sure this is a good move for him (he’s sensible, cautious, has researched heavily, visited proposed workplace, it feels like a now or never for him), an older child who wants out of the city they’ve been so sad in and a parent who needs me closer. No way to keep everyone happy it seems. Least bad approach?

Big decision for you all and it's a hard age for your dd to move tbh. My dd2 is similar age now with a lovely group of friends and she would be devastated if I uprooted her so be prepared for a bit of resistance.

I live in south Dublin I think it's a great area. I think your dd is best starting in TY kids get mixed up in that year and there's a bit of movement in that year anyway so probably a better year for her to start. My niece moved from England to Ireland at similar age she went into TY so didn't do junior cert and also missed GCSE in England and it hasn't mattered at all.

I knew someone who moved to Ireland from NI with teens she told me they were given option of starting 3rd year or 4th year( TY) maybe even 2nd but a tip given to her was there is less bullying amongst teens in exam years so they joined 3rd year and did the Junior Cert.
Kids in Ireland start school at 4, 5 or every almost 6. Know my children have class mates 15 months older than them. So it would not be unusual to be older or younger than others in class.
Visit a few schools see what they suggest
Good luck

I’d be thinking ahead to university, OP. Friends from England who moved to Dublin with teenagers have had difficulty with paying overseas fees because of neither being in Ireland long enough to qualify as ‘home’ students or to count as ‘EU’ when one wanted to study in Europe, but who’d been gone from the UK for too long to count as ‘home’ there for fee purposes. I know it’s a long way ahead, but I would look up home/overseas fees and residency requirement for different options, but does she have an idea of what and where she might study, if she plans to? I know Scottish people don’t pay university fees in Scotland. Would she forfeit that?

I wouldn't do it, OP. Why is your husband's happiness more important than your child's? I'm from Dublin, and Scotland is a far better place to live.

@Boolabus and @853ax thanks, that’s reassuring to hear that absence of junior cert is not the end of the world and that there is quite a bit a broad age range within year groups. Interesting to hear the comment re bullying, hard to generalise about this but is it a big issue?

@SadBoys that is a good point. As you say Scottish students don’t pay fees in Scotland (but also limited places as the universities don’t get enough funding from the government for home students and so many of the Scottish unis are in financial trouble) and we would lose that by moving. I’ll need to do more reading around it. At the moment she has no idea what she wants to do beyond going to uni in London with her best pal who plans (dreams) to play for her favourite football team hence London! So it’s hard to plan with any certainty, at the moment she isn’t wanting to go to a Scottish uni but that could change and the financial savings could be huge (esp because medicine has been mentioned on and off)

@MirrorVent his definitely isn’t, she is the ultimate priority. We’ve been through a lot with the older sibling so will do anything to protect this one’s wellbeing. I’ve been clear with both of them that she won’t be forced to move against her will. If we have to spend 3+ years going back and forth then we will.
Just trying to plan ahead because there are big changes afoot at her school - going co-ed and changing site in August, a total mix up of their form group, her friend group getting separated through the day due to different current subject choices. And a little bit of niggling between them all as their interests move in different directions. So she may feel differently about school in a year’s time, who knows.
For me, I’m over with the elderly parent just now, it’s teetering here and stressful to manage from another country with no one helpful nearby. Just another consideration for us

Hi there, sounds like a very tough and delicate situation. Wish you very well, whatever you decide. I've spent a fair bit of time in South Dublin (my ex-husband was from there) and have now been living in Cork for six years with my now-husband and our six-year-old. I am from London but also lived in Glasgow for a year when I was a child. Have to say, out of all 3 of them, Glasgow was the best in terms of access to services and a cosy community feel at the same time. Not only is the housing situation really tough here in Ireland, but it's quite hard to make friends, you have to pay for GP care etc, the health service is bureaucratic and slow. Give me the NHS any day!

But one thing they do get right here is education. I've found my son's school to be good and attentive (although I have nothing to compare it to, as we moved from the UK when he was only two).