Applying to primary schools from abroad

antgal23

Hi folks,


has anybody had experience of doing this?

what was the outcome?

any advice?

I ask as we plan to move back to Ireland in June 2015 and want our two kids to start school.

We are on the waiting list for one school, another hasn't responded to my explanation as to why we didn't apply in person and the other I need to call.

Cheers

Anthony

byhookorbycrook

What ages are the children?You'll have to check each school's enrollment policy as some schools give priority to children in a certain catchment area.

antgal23

kids are 4 and 7 before June next year

Read the policies, got the form from the second place, need to call third place

reasons going against us for schools 1 and 2 are

1/ dont live in area (we live abroad)
2/ dont have siblings in school already
3/ dont teach at school
4/ dont speak Irish at home
5/ dont work at school in any capacity

third place may have places but if we end up with no school places available, what should we do?

Pugins

Tried to do something similar a couple of years ago. Very difficult. We were trying to move back to Dublin and our eldest was due to start primary in September. I contacted the 3 schools local to where we wanted to live. One school just said you will be 30 on the waiting list. And that was actually the most positive response. The other 2 said registration was in February and you should have come in then with prof of address etc then. Not useful when we didn't know we might return in February!

Sorry to not be more positive but that is my experience. We ended up not returning to Ireland at that time. But we may do in the future and finding school places is something I dread. We live in Australia now and it's so straightforward. Each school has a catchment area, each house is in a school catchment area. Everyone is entitled to a place in their local school. No questions asked. I wish they'd introduce that in Ireland.
Good luck!

antgal23

Thanks!

As I probably wont get the school in the town I want, I emailed a few others in the surrounding towns just in case to find out how to enroll.

We ll end up living in the place where my kids get accepted

by the seaside

We are in the same position. Kids are 6 (year 2 in England) and 3 (pre-school). I am guessing we will move to Dublin, rent a house, see where they get into school (and hope they get into the same school) and then buy a house in the area where they are in a school.

Are there any strategies to deal with this? Is it worth phoning round individual schools first to see what they advise re how oversubscribed they are? The admission policies are fairly clear but they don't tell you how oversubscribed schools are.

What do people do? I'm particularly worried that as a non-religious family we may be in a particularly bad spot.

antgal23

by the seaside wrote: »

We are in the same position. Kids are 6 (year 2 in England) and 3 (pre-school). I am guessing we will move to Dublin, rent a house, see where they get into school (and hope they get into the same school) and then buy a house in the area where they are in a school.

Are there any strategies to deal with this? Is it worth phoning round individual schools first to see what they advise re how oversubscribed they are? The admission policies are fairly clear but they don't tell you how oversubscribed schools are.

What do people do? I'm particularly worried that as a non-religious family we may be in a particularly bad spot.

Hi

I applied to 8 primary schools in NCD and 4 said I would have to collect the application form in person and the other 4 said they would put me on the waiting list.

I have family in Meath and contacted them. My cousin suggested I name drop her when applying as this establishes a family link to the area.

I live abroad and so dont own / rent a property in Ireland.

The Meath boy's school accepted my son for Grade 2 but the other said I would have to visit before the end of the school year.

My advice is to start the process early as you probably wont get the school you want in the area you want. Best begin with where your family (cousins, siblings) are based. Some schools were drawing up lists for starting in 2017 and 2018!

Good luck!

by the seaside

antgal23 wrote: »

Hi

I applied to 8 primary schools in NCD and 4 said I would have to collect the application form in person and the other 4 said they would put me on the waiting list.

I have family in Meath and contacted them. My cousin suggested I name drop her when applying as this establishes a family link to the area.

I live abroad and so dont own / rent a property in Ireland.

The Meath boy's school accepted my son for Grade 2 but the other said I would have to visit before the end of the school year.

My advice is to start the process early as you probably wont get the school you want in the area you want. Best begin with where your family (cousins, siblings) are based. Some schools were drawing up lists for starting in 2017 and 2018!

Good luck!

Thanks for this. Unfortunately family is out West, so won't help. We are only in England so a trip around some schools is not the end of the world. What I'm fearful of is that the application system seems to be more based around the interests of the school than the interests of the child, but I guess we have to suck it up.

nickig

Only just saw your post.
I would recommend contacting all the schools in the area you are looking at explain that you cannot visit in person but that you would like an enrollment form and ask if they could either post it or email it to you. They should also be able to tell you if it is likely or unlikely that you would get a place for next year. If you are looking at moving to Dublin then this needs to be done ASAP as schools there fill up very quickly and many will already have a waiting list. Schools don't have to take new pupils into pre-existing classes if they are "full to capacity" (even if you were living next door!) so the sooner you do this the better chance you will have of getting a place.
I'd also recommend having a look on schooldays.ie as they have information on all primary schools in the country, including contact details, school websites, pupil teacher ratio etc.

Best of luck!

byhookorbycrook

nickig wrote: »

They should also be able to tell you if it is likely or unlikely that you would get a place for next year. !

No, they won't know at this stage if a child is likely to get a place or not, as some parents apply to multiple schools.

nickig

I'm a primary teacher and have been teaching for 12 years. I''ve taught in four schools and all of them would tells parents applying at this stage if they are unlikely to get a place and an idea of how many applications they have so that parents don't put all their eggs in one basket and be left with nowhere to go in September. ano

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

No, they won't know at this stage if a child is likely to get a place or not, as some parents apply to multiple schools.

lazygal

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

No, they won't know at this stage if a child is likely to get a place or not, as some parents apply to multiple schools.

All the schools near us are really upfront about the likelihood of getting a place. I emailed a few when pregnant with my first and they were able to tell me what the likely situation would be. Hence I preenrolled in the schools we'd prefer. Some private secondary schools are also able to tell me exactly how many are on waiting lists and whether we should bother applying.

byhookorbycrook

Primary teacher, teaching 25 years. Many schools in urban areas can't say, simply due to the fact, as I have said, that many parents apply to multiple schools. I have known cases where parents accept places in several schools and don't notify the schools they are not choosing, so the first the school knows is when the pupil doesn't show in September.

by the seaside

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Primary teacher, teaching 25 years. Many schools in urban areas can't say, simply due to the fact, as I have said, that many parents apply to multiple schools. I have known cases where parents accept places in several schools and don't notify the schools they are not choosing, so the first the school knows is when the pupil doesn't show in September.

Thanks for all your input, everyone. The difficulty we may find ourselves in is waiting at the beginning of September to see where there is a place for two kids of different ages at the same school. Time to start ringing round.

by the seaside

Have a job offer in Dublin so we are moving over - hooray! And we face the horror of getting two kids into the same school - campaign starts tomorrow.

Moonbeam

good luck:)
At least now you know where you will be working so it should make it easier:)

by the seaside

Moonbeam wrote: »

good luck:)
At least now you know where you will be working so it should make it easier:)

Yep. Mrs by the seaside phoned around and the first school we tried has space for both the kids. Our lucky day.

Thanks all.

Moonbeam

Awesome:)

by the seaside

Moonbeam wrote: »

Awesome:)

Thanks. One less thing on the biggest list in the world.

Pugins

by the seaside wrote: »

Yep. Mrs by the seaside phoned around and the first school we tried has space for both the kids. Our lucky day.

Thanks all.

That's fantastic! What area of Dublin are you my moving to?

by the seaside

Pugins wrote: »

That's fantastic! What area of Dublin are you my moving to?

We are hoping now for Dun Laoghaire. Does anyone know the reputation of the schools there?