Does anyone know anything about Educate Together primary academies?

[Noschoolavailable]

It's finally been announced that our new school in Bristol will be run by the Educate Together academy. When you check it out online it is an Irish company whose main selling points might be unique in Ireland but are pretty standard in UK schools. They are multi-denominational and mixed sex. They also encourage a lot of parental involvement.

Anyone?

Very well established school patron in Ireland.As you say the unique selling point is rare in Ireland as most primary schools are Catholic run.

Parents would chew your right arm off to get their kids into an ET school at home. Very parent-inclusive ethos. Can only say positive things about the one my niece attends in Dublin.

I'm not sure ET are a company in the for-profit sense of the word also.

Thanks . Positive responses are what I'm after!

Would the parents be chewing my arm off just because the school is mixed sex/not religious or because they are great as well?

Also, it looks like they don't wear uniform. Is that part of their ethos? I was really looking forward to buying the uniform with my child as part of the build up to going to big school.

No uniform - normal for ET.

Mixed sex multi-denom is why they are so popular at home as there are very, very few non-catholic alternatives in Ireland. However, they are consider to be good schools too. People are trying hard to set up new ET schools all over Ireland. My sister is on the board of a new starter school.

Ireland's school system is quite different in organization to the UK and more formally academic from a young age. It would be interesting to see what they do with the English curriculum.

Thank you Mairead. I realise the school uniform aspect is not important in the grand scheme of things. It is better to have a good school but I'm still a bit sad!!

It's hard to make a decision based on a website. I don't even know if there's time for any meetings before the application forms have to be in. We are 99% unlikely to get into any other school so this will probably be the one.

You have made me feel better though. I was dreading negative responses.

No worries Noschool!

Curious as to what Jimmy Said that was withdrawn.

Educate togther originated form the establishment of a non denominational school in Dalkey - The Dalkey School project. The school was established by a group of parents who did not like the fact that, at that time in the Republic of Ireland schools were either Protestant of Roman Catholic. Obviously Catholic schools were rather more common.

They wanted their children to go to a school where children of bot brands of Christianity would be educated together. In 1978 that was quite a non conformist thing to want to do, and the schools were, from the very start, parent run. So I would imagine that what they would add to the mix here is the participative tradition they have now established.

However with the further promotion of Religious Schools taking place as part of the "Free School" policy their witness to the desirability of children of all faiths being taught together could become more relevant.

I'm also wondering about this as the nearest school to me is so oversubscribed that we live twice the distance you need to live to get a place. The other local schools are either failing or are catholic. It sounds to me like they spend half an hour a day on religious education which in my and my partners opinion as atheists is half an hour a day wasted. I'd rather they spend that time learning to read, write and be good people. This new school will be our nearest school when our bun in the oven is old enough.

Reveller, is your nearest school an ET school?