Best Public Schools in South Dublin?

Soladx

Hi, my family and I will move to Ireland next year with our twin boys which will be, by then, 4. They'll attend one year Montessori and then enrol in Junior Infants in 2017. I've put their names down in one school only, as a very generic precaution, but the truth is, we still have no idea where we'll be renting. We reckon it's going to be Dublin South, preferably South East (we lived there previously, near Belfield). My question: we're considering public schools beside private schools; which public schools are considered to be the best? I'm equally concerned by primary and secondary schools. Moreover: do public secondary schools also have feeders primary schools, as in private schools? Thank you and sorry for the long post

Solange

p.s. we don't mind co-ed or denominational schools either. Irish focus though would be a bit less of a priority for us as the kids are already exposed to 4 languages and I think I'd like to give them a break!

lazygal

There's no best school. What one parent or child considers a good school isn't the same as what we'd consider a good school. Your best best is to narrow down the location and ask for word of mouth feedback. Whole school evaluations are available online for you to read as well. You'll need to check each school for feeder status as well because all schools set their own criteria.

Soladx

Thank you Lazygal,
and sorry for coming across as annoying or naive. I didn't mean to take for granted that there is an ideal public school, as the way education is carried on in real life is always tricky, no matter what country. I currently have very little access to word of mouth feedback, so I'm trying to collect as much info as possible from the web - hence this post. Thanks again, S.

lazygal

You will have to narrow it down first. Some schools are oversubscribed or have very strict enrichment criteria.

Soladx

Ok. I see what you mean. Would the Stillorgan - Blackrock and Dundrum - Rathgar areas be narrow enough? We're still not sure where we'll be renting in one year time. We'll basically go where Daft tells us to go. At the same time we're trying to make an informed choice for the kids... If we choose an area to live first we might overlook good schools which are not in that area. If we choose the school first we might not be able to rent there. It's a vicious circle and I'm loosing sanity!

killbillvol2

To get you started you could go to the Dept. of Education website www.education.ie and download the list of schools. You could then make a list of those in the areas you mentioned and go back to the site to read the Whole School Evaluations. It would give you a little bit to go on and might help you to rule out some schools. You might also get a feel for the school from its website.

lonestargirl

You need to get the enrolment policies for the schools you are interested in also, many prioritise those living within a catchment area (often the parish). Places are typically offered Nov - April before entering in September and you won't know until then if you have got a place. There is nothing stopping you putting you child's name down for multiple schools at this point.

byhookorbycrook

You may already be too late for 2017 in many schools in Dublin. Irish is compulsory in primary school. There are schools that also teach through Irish called Gaelscoils.Every public primary school is Ireland also has to teach religion, though multi-denominational schools don't do faith formation. Faith schools may have children of many religions or none.

Moonbeam

You need to contact all of the schools and put the kids name down in all of them as in high demand schools you need to enroll early,some schools require you to be in the catchment area so you will need to live locally and have a local address.

lazygal

Some schools only take applications the year before intake. Also some faith schools wouldn't even send us forms as we are not religious. Every school sets its own criteria.

Rorok

St Marys B.N.S

Mary63

Oatlands primary school would be a good bet as you would feed automatically into Oatlands non fee paying secondary school which is very good,its all boys though even though the primary school is mixed.I cant understand why the secondary school is still all boys as Oatlands primary is mixed for about ten years now. Carysfort National school is mixed and it is a feeder school for Oatlands too.

Another option is to go to Hollypark Boys school,this school feeds into Clonkeen College,I dont know much about this secondary school though,its a large all boys one.

You could opt for ST Lawrences in Kilmacud primary too,this is all boys and again feeds into St Benildus which is an excellent non fee paying school.

Most of the St Marys BNS probably go onto Blackrock College which is an all boy private school.I dont think St Marys feeds into any non fee paying school though I could be wrong.

Im not sure if you arent Catholic but are in a feeder primary school to a catholic secondary school,I dont know where you end up on the waiting list,ie do you have priority over a Catholic child who didnt attend a feeder national school.

Rorok

Mary63 wrote: »

Oatlands primary school would be a good bet as you would feed automatically into Oatlands non fee paying secondary school which is very good,its all boys though even though the primary school is mixed.I cant understand why the secondary school is still all boys as Oatlands primary is mixed for about ten years now. Carysfort National school is mixed and it is a feeder school for Oatlands too.

Another option is to go to Hollypark Boys school,this school feeds into Clonkeen College,I dont know much about this secondary school though,its a large all boys one.

You could opt for ST Lawrences in Kilmacud primary too,this is all boys and again feeds into St Benildus which is an excellent non fee paying school.

Most of the St Marys BNS probably go onto Blackrock College which is an all boy private school.I dont think St Marys feeds into any non fee paying school though I could be wrong.

Im not sure if you arent Catholic but are in a feeder primary school to a catholic secondary school,I dont know where you end up on the waiting list,ie do you have priority over a Catholic child who didnt attend a feeder national school.

Most of St Marys go to Colaiste Eanna, only 2 or 3 go to Rockbrook, about 15 to Terenure, a couple have recently gone to an irish secondary school (Gaelcholaiste an Phiarsaigh) but St marys is an english school, the rest is random

Mary63

I thought you meant St Marys boys national school in Booterstown.