Bray School Project or St Patrick's?

qwq

Recently moved to Bray. We have places offered in both Bray School Project and St Patrick's for our daughter going into junior infants.

We are not practicing Catholics and I'm a little concerned my daughter will feel left out at communion time down the road.

Does anyone know the reputations of these schools and how they compare? Also, I presume Bray School Project is a feeder school for the Educate together secondary in Bray. Any info on that school much appreciated as well.

Thanks.

browne_rob5

Would be worth checking the Bray Open Forum Facebook page for feedback on these schools as people regularly ask these questions there and you are unlikely to get much of a response here. Both of these schools receive positive feedback but I have no direct experience.

North Wicklow Educate Together Secondary School does not appear to prioritize "Feeder Schools" but has a School Planning area it prioritizes. Further details are in the admission policy below. Also worth nothing that this school should have relocated by the time your little one is ready to enroll.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d8cb41be2339206f78609c9/t/63e26895ce81b15ef311f71e/1675782294808/NWETSS%2BAdmission%2BPolicy%2B2023.pdf

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/wicklow/bray-news/site-in-fassaroe-confirmed-for-new-north-wicklow-educate-together-secondary-school-home/42294068.html

zoobizoo

I presume that Patrick's still has a strong Catholic Ethos - so while you can exclude her from Communion etc, you may still get grace sung before Lunch.... (not sure if they still do that, it's been a while since I was there) and prayers plus regular religion class.

A friend of mine's kids are in BSP and they enjoy it.

One thing that I didn't factor in prior to sending my son to school in Bray was the benefit of a smaller school - he's in Scoil Chualainn which is small- and so he socialises with older kids / the teachers all know him / nice vibe to it.

I'm not sure how many classes are in Patrick's these days but there were 3 classes per year when I was there in the 80s. So it was big.

Patrick's is central - BSP is a trek if you're in Little Bray for example. Traffic on the main street, during term time, is a bitch.

Another thing to consider is that Patrick's is all girls after 1st class.

BraveDonut

My 2 went to BSP and we found it great. It was a bit hippy-dippy at times but it did teach them to question what the teacher was telling them and not just blindly accept it.

No religion agenda other than to teach them about all religions. They both made their communion as an extra-curricular class, but didn't bother with confirmation.

They went on to Pres and Loreto where they found some of the religious stuff that the other kids had been exposed to strange (but very little).

qwq

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120929804#Comment_120929804

Thanks, good to know about the secondary school.