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Is it easy to go to a private secondary school in Dublin South?

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  • 12-12-2023 10:53am
    #1
    JustinTina
    Registered Users Posts: 3 ✭


    Our kids need to go to secondary school in a few years, and we've been reading a lot of information about private secondary schools in all of Dublin South, and they are all great. One question, is it easy to get into a private secondary school in Dublin South? I mean apart from the tuition fee consideration (we are not worried about the tuition fee), are there any other requirements, or selection mechanisms, and is it difficult for us to get into a private secondary school if our child is not good in academics? What preparations should we make in advance? Thank you very much.

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    #2
    JustinTina
    Registered Users Posts: 3 ✭JustinTina


    Adding to the question, wondering how private secondary schools admit students when oversubscription, I know they have some rules like alumni connection priority for admission, other than that are there any other rules? Is it just first come first admitted? Or do they take into account the child's academic performance, talents, hobbies and related achievements? If you have relevant experience, feel free to share, thank you very much!



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    #3
    knockoutned
    Registered Users Posts: 131 ✭✭knockoutned


    It would be worth going on the school’s website and checking what the breakdown of admissions in previous years were. In the one I looked at, the vast majority of students had a connection to the school (parents and/or siblings) and there were only a small handful admitted without any connection.

    If this is the case with school you are looking at, and if you have no connection, starting your kids in the junior feeder school might help.



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    #4
    Murph_D
    Registered Users Posts: 10,420 ✭✭✭✭Murph_D


    Why the obsession with private schools, as a matter of interest? Surely all good schools are worthy of consideration?



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    #5
    JDD
    Registered Users Posts: 1,578 ✭✭✭JDD


    Look at each school’s admissions policy. Usually the junior school (if they have one) get first priority, then it’s siblings of current pupils, then children of staff, then - if the school is Protestant - children of that particular faith. After that it’s a mish mash of other criteria. If the school has no junior school, it may have a couple of feeder primary schools. Then it might be children of former pupils (they can only keep 25% of places for this), or children who live within 5k of the school. Each one is different.

    schools are not allowed to pick children based on academic performance anymore. That said, you need to submit 4th and 5th class report cards with most applications, so I’m not sure how well this is policed/audited. If they get past all their admissions criteria it’s meant to be random selection.

    If you are set on a private school, I’d suggest applying for your top 4 or 5 choices. Be prepared to pay a non refundable €100 for some applications. You should get at least one offer out of that.



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