Ballinteer or Dundrum primary school?

sabiki2

Considering moving to the area and applying to send daughter to Ballinteer National School or Dundrum Holy Cross.
What are these schools like?
Would you have any preference given a choice of these two?

Thanks.

SerialComplaint

Not sure what you mean by 'Ballinteer National School'. The national schools in Ballinteer are;

Scoil Naithi (gaelscoil)
Our Lady's Girls
Our Lady's Boys
St Attracta's Junior

Our girl is in Our Lady's Girls, and we are generally happy. They are fairly conservative in approach. Some of the class sizes are quite high (30+), but that is really the luck of the draw - no guarantees anywhere on that.

I hear generally good things about St Attractas and Scoil Naithi too. I heard a couple of bad stories about Holy Cross. I was told that a lot of the teachers are very young and inexperienced, and were having trouble maintaining control and discipline. I've no first hand experience of whether this is true or not.

Red Alert

I'm a product of Holy Cross in Dundrum, although I come from Ballinteer. I think like all schools there's probably going to be a mix of ages and experience in teachers, which is a good thing for the children and also encourages younger teachers to take on responsibilities. I unashamedly did very well on the back of it: had an excellent start when I moved to secondary school and over 12 years since leaving I'm now finishing my PhD. Every school has discipline issues, and in my time there I don't recall any systemic discipline problems compared to other schools my friends went to. If I had children I'd send them there in a heartbeat.

sabiki2

thanks for the comments, its helpful.

Some of my recent observations, when trying to get a feel for the schools -

Got a tainted view when outside Holy Cross last week. School was closed and this may have no connection with the school itself, but left me thinking about the general area. There were primary school aged kids (acting like bullies) at the bus stop outside Holy Cross shouting derogatory remarks at another kid across the road walking on his own. I just got a bad feeling then.

At Our Lady's Ballinteer, again out of school hours, I couldn't get near a letter box to drop off an application form. The school is totally barricaded with steel fences around the perimeter. There are also cctv cameras in cages. I went to that school many moons ago and it just felt like it has now been fortified and suffered a bit from bad social behaviour.

Still I'm glad to hear of recent and current positive experiences of both schools.

Thanks.

Red Alert

Yeah the fortifications on both schools are a bit excessive, but I think it's more to guard against theft in the evening time and during holidays. Although both of them are in built-up areas the surrounds would be deserted when the schools are closed, so unfortunately they'd be a magnet for thieves.

Holy Cross has had a new principal there in the past year or two, because the person who was the principal died very unexpectedly. He'd only been in the job for a couple of years. The woman who was there before him was there when I went there, very capable lady in terms of discipline.

There's probably not much difference between both of them, although Holy Cross is mixed and Ballinteer is separate boys/girls.

SerialComplaint

sabiki2 wrote: »

At Our Lady's Ballinteer, again out of school hours, I couldn't get near a letter box to drop off an application form. The school is totally barricaded with steel fences around the perimeter. There are also cctv cameras in cages. I went to that school many moons ago and it just felt like it has now been fortified and suffered a bit from bad social behaviour.

There is very little teenage vandalism in the area, but they have had some problems with travellers and Roma gypsies in recent years. While the railings may not look pretty, if you're little one is on the inside, you'll be pretty happy about having the railings in place.

Gingy

Your child will be happiest in the school that's nearer your house. It makes it so much handier for her going alone when she's older and her friends would be closer to you.

sabiki2

Gingy wrote: »

Your child will be happiest in the school that's nearer your house. It makes it so much handier for her going alone when she's older and her friends would be closer to you.

I couldn't agree more, its all about quality of life and that's exactly what has influenced our relocation and schools decision.
They're both fine schools. Thanks for the helpful comments.

Rb

Taney in Dundrum is a good choice.