Non-denominational / secular Primary schools in Dublin

CamillaRhodes · 31-07-2012 5:15pm #1

Hi there;
Forgive me if this is easy to find out, I've done a bit of searching around and can't seem to find out.

I was under the impression that the only fully secular / non-denominational schools in Dublin / Ireland fall under the aegis of the Educate Together group. A colleague has mentioned however that she thinks there are others; I'm wondering if and how I can find this out?

My partner and I are expecting our first child; neither of us are religious, and our backgrounds / upbringing are from very diverse religious backgrounds (my partner's non-Irish), so we're very keen for our child to go to a secular school rather than just 'opting out' of religious instruction in denominational schools.

We currently live in an area which has an ET school so will definitely put our son's name down there, but we're only renting and may well move within the next four years - is it crazy to think about putting his name down in any / all ET schools in areas we might end up living? Any other suggestions?

P.S. I don't mean to reignite the debate about ET vs. other schools, I can see it's pretty emotive on these boards, but it's important to my partner and I not only that our son gets a good education, but also that he is not educated under religious instruction nor excluded from his classmates because he is "different", hence why we see these schools as our option.

dambarude · 31-07-2012 5:55pm

There are also Community National Schools (see www.cns.ie). These aim to attend to the religious background and wishes of all the children in the class. I'm not entirely sure how they do this in practical terms though.

byhookorbycrook · 03-08-2012 3:55pm

ET schools are not not non-denom, they are multi-denom,some Gaelscoileanna are also multi-denom.There are no non-denom public primary schools in Ireland at present.

CamillaRhodes · 04-08-2012 12:41pm

Thanks, sorry if I got the terminology wrong. I went to a school that accepted all denominations of children (and those with no religion) but still had prayers first thing every morning, preparation for holy communion / confirmation, etc. and the non-religious (or alt-denomination) kids just sat these out, went ot the library on their own or sat in the hallway - this is what I want to avoid for our son.

Our kid will be growing up bi-lingual anyway (English and his father's language) so adding full-schooling through Irish into the mix isn't something that we'd considered, as it sounds like a lot of linguistic confusion and pressure, but could you point me in the direction of finding out (or how) which Gaelscoileanna in Dublin would be multi-dom (assuming it's in the ET model rather than my own schooling)?

byhookorbycrook · 04-08-2012 6:17pm

Most Catholic schools willl accept children of all religions and none, but here's the kick, if there is space.Some schools will give preference to Catholic children, just as Church of Ireland schools might give preference to COI children and so on.

I work in a Gaelscoil and we have a number of mutli-lingual children who see no issue, I think we adults are more inclined to be worried than they are!!

Foras schools as follows:
http://www.foras.ie/media/files/2%20Liosta%20Scoileanna%2C%20Baile%20Atha%20Cliath.pdf

muckisluck · 04-08-2012 8:31pm

As far as I know this school is non denominational and is based in Dublin. http://www.johnscottus.ie/?section=118

byhookorbycrook · 04-08-2012 9:40pm

There have been rumblings on other sites about its ethos (see schooldays.ie) I always thought this was a private/fee paying school?

CamillaRhodes · 06-08-2012 3:04pm

Just to clarify again: I do not want my child to go to a Catholic (or other religious) school, regardless of whether the policy is to accept non-Catholics or not and in what order of preference. It is important to me that my child not be the 'odd one out' and that the way he is raised by us is afforded equal legitimacy in the eyes of his educators as their own belief systems. I don't want to get into an argument about it here but there are multiple reasons why I asked for secular schools, not whether or not a religious school would accept my son.

As far as the Gaelscoileanna go, the fact that I can't even read the list of where they are means this is probably not an option we'll pursue either. Regarding John Scottus, sorry for not specifying this also, but we want co-educational. Also, the ethos of starting "each morning has prayers from different traditions" isn't really what we're looking for either - though we want our son to learn about the different faiths in the world, we'd prefer not to have him participating in prayers etc.

Looks like we'll stick with the ET plan. Thanks all for your responses.

Orion · 07-08-2012 1:23am

There are no state funded non-denominational (or secular) primary schools. All publicly funded primary schools must provide 2.5 hours of religious education per week (one of the teachers here will correct that number if it's wrong but I think it's right). That includes ET. The difference is that ET do religious education about all world religions and not religious instruction in one. There are two different types of Gael Scoileanna also - one is catholic and the other multi-denominational - I'm not sure which is which.

ET schools do not do preparation for communion etc - that is run by parents (usually in the school building by agreement with the BoM and PA/PTA) outside of normal school hours.

As for putting the kid's name down in other schools go for it. Being on the list is only an expression of interest. When the time comes for the offer of a place you can then turn it down. When I was enrollment officer for our ET school I had kids on the list from Dublin, Offaly and the US! There is no catchment area for ET schools - you can go on the waiting list no matter where you live.

CamillaRhodes · 07-08-2012 9:38am

Thanks so much Orion, that's exactly what we'd been hoping for from ET. Much appreciated.

Non-denominational / secular Primary schools in Dublin

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