Schools advice: Dublin 18 ish: Holy Trinity, Gaelscoil Shliabh Rua and beyond

Haidee_Hammond

Hi all, I applied to a good few schools last month and we are at the acceptance/waitlist phase (or at least for some of them), we have so far been accepted in Holy Trinity (religious, which was originally a big no-no for us) and Gaelscoil Shliabh Rua (which intimidates the hell out of me because I want to help her with her learning and I am not Irish and getting the necessary level of Irish won't be an easy project). I would love input from people in either schools, specially for the ones, like me, where religion or lack of Irish might have been a problem.

Ps. Before anyone ask what I want… of course as a mum I would an utopia for my child: a place were the kids were loved, nurtured, accepted, allowed to experiment and learn with full support for their interest and understanding rather than memorizing, interesting extra curricular activities (and after school due to work), non-religious, mixed, where bullying is dealt with and diversity of all kinds is encouraged, and of course, walkable 😂 I am aware I am asking for the moon, and I will have to settle a lot of my lofty goals, but I still want to do the best I can for her. We live in Leopardstown, walkable would be the dream, but I am happy driving or paying if that is better. So far we have mostly looked at non-fee paying schools but are considering a private one for secondary.

ted1

my kids all went to Gaelacoils and now 1 is in an Irish speaking secondary and the other in an English language speaking one.

You do not need to have any Irish for your kids to go to Gaelscoils in fact they will tell you that if you don’t have great Irish don’t try to help them as the teacher will Have shown them what to do and you’ll confuse them

if you are stuck someone in the class parents WhatsApp group Will Help

Haidee_Hammond

I surely won't be any help for Irish, my husband maybe for the first year or two 😅 but what about the other subjects? How do you help them understand math, biology or history if you can't understand the books? 😬 I have always done that for my brother, nieces and nephews and can't imagine not doing it for her…

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122848233#Comment_122848233

you don’t need to. The teachers know the curriculum and explain it well. Trust the process, my kid who is in an English language school (1st year) is flourishing and timid her class in all subjects

markpb

My kids go to Holy Trinity and, while I can’t compare it to any other school, I’ve no problems with it at all. The kids are happy and well looked after, the staff are supportive and communicative, the selection of after-school activities is great and the teachers seem to be, on balance, young and enthusiastic. Any time I’ve needed to talk to them about general questions or specific requirements, all the staff have been great. The religious element seems to be present but not overly dominant.

Walking/Cycling access to the school is great from all the surrounding areas so I’ve no problem with my 8yo heading off to school by herself in the morning.

There’s a Kids Inc after-school camp hosted within the school itself which is great. My kids have gone to several different AS camps and they love the one there. Lots of great staff on hand, a wide variety of activities, lots of outdoor time even in winter and a late collection time. It’s really busy though so you need to book a place there as early as possible, I think it’s over subscribed.

doughef

You shouldn’t enrol your child in a school with a religious ethos if it’s not for you.

enrolling them and then expecting the school to change to suit your beliefs is disrespectful and selfish.

Plenty of educate together schools out there.

Haidee_Hammond

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122881176#Comment_122881176

Thanks for your input doughef, I will have you know (not because i don't appreciate being called selfish, but also so others reading your comment might not go around equally uninformed) that I had no options truly close, still I put my daughter forward on 5 on a 12-20 mins drive radius ET ones, and due to oversubscription she was not accepted in any, so hence, my problem. I was also trying to understand what the school was like, rather than changing them. Although, let me tell you, if all the religious schools in this country only accepted (christian) religious kids and did not adapt they will be closing very very soon… Fortunately for a lot of parents, a lot of religious schools have moved to accept, knowingly and happily, not religious kids, so I am not really sure why parents shouldn't if they choose to.

doughef

and I really love being called uninformed :)

let’s agree to disagree so - but try and not be outraged when the kids are being prepared for their first communion!

Haidee_Hammond

touché ;)

larry1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122848662#Comment_122848662

We put all 3 of our kids through Holy Trinity and had a fantastic experience! The principal James Tobin and his staff were just great, I would highly recommend :)

LastApacheInjun

Just as a late addition to this - all three of my kids have gone to Holy Trinity (two still there). We are not religious at all, and as far as I can see the only time religion is even mentioned before second class is during the junior infants nativity play. My daughter asked me, in first class, who Jesus was, despite being in the nativity play a couple of years earlier. So regular religious instruction seems to be basically non-existent. Now, second class did have a lot of time preparing for Holy Communion, but there's a sizeable minority of russian/ukrainian/indian kids in the school, so there's lots of kids that regularly opt out of religion. Because of this, parents who are "native" Irish but not religious feel much more comfortable letting their child opt out too. Out of my daughter's class of 24 children, only 13 made their communion.

Again, more time is spend on confirmation in sixth class, but according to my daughter it was less than Communion prep. She hung out with her best mate and they did their homework together, which freed up all of their afternoons. I don't think the local parish like opted out kids to be doing school work - they're supposed to be doing colouring or reading or something - but Holy Trinity teachers didn't mind at all. The local priest barely visits the school so it's not like anyone was checking.