Advice on primary school needed

ennisnewcomer

Hello,
We are a family of four relocating to Ennis. We are about to enroll our son into Ennis National School. We have seen only positive reviews about this school so far. Is it really a good choice or we should probably look elswhere (like Educate Togheter, CBS)? We would very much appreciate any advice from local people who have their children in Ennis National or other schools around Ennis.
Thanks in advance for any advice
Martha

johnam

I have a daughter in Ennis National, and have no complaints about the school. She is only in Senior Infants at this stage, but from my dealings with the staff there so far, I have nothing but praise. The school is brand new which is a plus, but I don't think the older schools are disadvantaged in anyway either. I think you need to look at where you are going to live and look at schools from there. While the new school is great, I think you would be mad to send your child half way around town to get to it if there was another school within walking /cycling distance of your new home.

Hope that helps, and welcome to Ennis

ger664

CBS is a good choice as it will leave you an option of attending CBS Secondary and principal is very forward thinking in terms of IT mixed with education.

blowin3

Gaelscoil Mhichíl Cíosóig Gort rd gets my vote. My lad skips to school loves it and the teachers' are great. But every ship needs a good captain and Donal the principle is brilliant he's progressive and you can see he loves his job. So before you make a decision go out and look and talk to him guarantee you won't be disappointed . Good luck with your move to Ennis also a great choice.

ennisnewcomer

johnam wrote: »

I have a daughter in Ennis National, and have no complaints about the school. She is only in Senior Infants at this stage, but from my dealings with the staff there so far, I have nothing but praise. The school is brand new which is a plus, but I don't think the older schools are disadvantaged in anyway either. I think you need to look at where you are going to live and look at schools from there. While the new school is great, I think you would be mad to send your child half way around town to get to it if there was another school within walking /cycling distance of your new home.

Hope that helps, and welcome to Ennis

Thanks for your reply johnam. It was helpful. We are currently looking for a place to rent/buy(possibly) near the ENS but it does not look very promising. I will not have a car for at least the first 3 months so driving is not an option for me. Do you know if it is possible to access the school by bus let's say from the town centre? I have located the school on the map but I am not sure whether it is far from the towncentre. Also do the school have a school bus? Sorry to bother with all these questions. Which areas you would advise to look at to be near the school with a good reputation?

ennisnewcomer

ger664 wrote: »

CBS is a good choice as it will leave you an option of attending CBS Secondary and principal is very forward thinking in terms of IT mixed with education.

Thanks for your reply ger664. We have also considered CBS as we know it is a very good school. We sent an email to the school and got a very cold reply from their secretary who really put us off. We felt like we were not welcome at all. I am sure they get a lot of applications but they could at least be polite even if they cannot offer a place. I will try to contact them again but it does not look very promising.

ennisnewcomer

blowin3 wrote: »

Gaelscoil Mhichíl Cíosóig Gort rd gets my vote. My lad skips to school loves it and the teachers' are great. But every ship needs a good captain and Donal the principle is brilliant he's progressive and you can see he loves his job. So before you make a decision go out and look and talk to him guarantee you won't be disappointed . Good luck with your move to Ennis also a great choice.

Thanks blowin3. Is it easy to apply for this school? Do they have any specific requirements (like speaking Irish)? Also is it easy to access the school from the town centre? I can see they do not have a website is it a small school?

ennisnewcomer

Does anybody have any opinion about Scoil Chríost Rí school?

johnam

ennisnewcomer wrote: »

Thanks for your reply johnam. It was helpful. We are currently looking for a place to rent/buy(possibly) near the ENS but it does not look very promising. I will not have a car for at least the first 3 months so driving is not an option for me. Do you know if it is possible to access the school by bus let's say from the town centre? I have located the school on the map but I am not sure whether it is far from the towncentre. Also do the school have a school bus? Sorry to bother with all these questions. Which areas you would advise to look at to be near the school with a good reputation?

There is a bus that runs from the Old Ennis National School to the new school, but I am not quite sure how you go about getting a seat on it. It is run by the school for a small fee, and I have a feeling you need to book a place at the beginning of the year, but I could be wrong. It doesn't serve the area in which I am living, so I never paid much attention to the letters about it.
The School is roughly 2km from the Square in the Town centre, but there is very little housing in the town centre, so you probably wouldn't be walking from there. I live on the lahinch rd, and if the weather suits, I cycle around the bypass to get to the school, it takes roughly 15 minutes, walking would take too long.
I don't think there are any areas on the Kilrush Rd, or anywhere on this map that I would say avoid, but that all depends on your budget.
Ennis National School historically feeds into St.Flannans College for second level, but I don't know if there is any formal link.

Hope that helps.

CptSternn

You can speak to the secretary in the school in regards to getting a place on the bus. The bus makes two runs. You need to schedule a seat on one of the buses, if one is available. The cost is a tenner a week.

Gregor Samsa

ennisnewcomer wrote: »

Thanks blowin3. Is it easy to apply for this school? Do they have any specific requirements (like speaking Irish)? Also is it easy to access the school from the town centre? I can see they do not have a website is it a small school?

Here's the Ennis Gaelscoil's website (English version): http://gmci.ie/?lang=en

My eldest goes there and loves it. We don't speak much Irish at home, although we have tried to speak a bit more since she started there - but it's not a requirement of the school. The kids do learn everything (except English) through Irish. The teachers will obviously talk to the parents in English, and letters and notes from the school are bi-lingual. It's technically a Catholic school, but as we're don't have a religion, we didn't provide an answer to the religion question on the application form, and had no problem enrolling her. I think the real religion in there is Hurling :P

You may think that kids going in there with no Irish would be lost and scared being immersed in a language they're not familiar with, but it works really well, trust me. There are students there with non-national parents that wouldn't have any Irish at all.

It's a growing school. My daughter is in Senior Infants, and that year has 60 pupils split into 3 classes of 20. Older classes have less students, as the school was smaller then. Donal, the Principle, is a dynamic and passionate man, and he runs a great school.

I drive her to school, but there are busses that do a drop too (I don't know the details). The school is about a 20 minute walk from the town centre (7 minute drive), just off the Gort road.

ennisnewcomer

johnam wrote: »

There is a bus that runs from the Old Ennis National School to the new school, but I am not quite sure how you go about getting a seat on it. It is run by the school for a small fee, and I have a feeling you need to book a place at the beginning of the year, but I could be wrong. It doesn't serve the area in which I am living, so I never paid much attention to the letters about it.
The School is roughly 2km from the Square in the Town centre, but there is very little housing in the town centre, so you probably wouldn't be walking from there. I live on the lahinch rd, and if the weather suits, I cycle around the bypass to get to the school, it takes roughly 15 minutes, walking would take too long.
Ennis National School historically feeds into St.Flannans College for second level, but I don't know if there is any formal link.

Hope that helps.

Thanks a lot. Your reply was very helpful. I will contact the school to see if we can get a seat on the school bus.

ennisnewcomer

CptSternn wrote: »

You can speak to the secretary in the school in regards to getting a place on the bus. The bus makes two runs. You need to schedule a seat on one of the buses, if one is available. The cost is a tenner a week.

Thanks for the info. I will definitely contact the school.

ennisnewcomer

phutyle wrote: »

My eldest goes there and loves it. We don't speak much Irish at home, although we have tried to speak a bit more since she started there - but it's not a requirement of the school. The kids do learn everything (except English) through Irish. The teachers will obviously talk to the parents in English, and letters and notes from the school are bi-lingual. It's technically a Catholic school, but as we're don't have a religion, we didn't provide an answer to the religion question on the application form, and had no problem enrolling her. I think the real religion in there is Hurling :P

You may think that kids going in there with no Irish would be lost and scared being immersed in a language they're not familiar with, but it works really well, trust me. There are students there with non-national parents that wouldn't have any Irish at all.

It's a growing school. My daughter is in Senior Infants, and that year has 60 pupils split into 3 classes of 20. Older classes have less students, as the school was smaller then. Donal, the Principle, is a dynamic and passionate man, and he runs a great school.

I drive her to school, but there are busses that do a drop too (I don't know the details). The school is about a 20 minute walk from the town centre (7 minute drive), just off the Gort road.

Thanks a lot for the info. It's interesting what you said about non-national parents sending their kids to this Irish school. I also like the idea of our child going to a small school. For some reason I prefer small school over the big ones.
Thanks again for your helpful advice. We will definitely consider this option.