Preschool Recommendation

JohnnyPoon · 02-03-2021 12:39pm #1

Hello parents, we are new to Ireland and we have two preschool offers: Alexandra and Loreto (St. Stephen's Green). May I get some advices from you how to choose between the two? Let's say if you have a danghter getting the two offer, which one will you want your daughter to go and why?

Millem · 02-03-2021 4:07pm

JohnnyPoon wrote: »

Hello parents, we are new to Ireland and we have two preschool offers: Alexandra and Loreto (St. Stephen's Green). May I get some advices from you how to choose between the two? Let's say if you have a danghter getting the two offer, which one will you want your daughter to go and why?

Which location suits you best?

shesty · 02-03-2021 4:18pm

Also I presume you mean primary school, rather than preschool. Preschools are for ages 3-5,primary from age 5- 12 (or thereabouts).
As per Millem's post, which location suits you best would be a good start.

JohnnyPoon · 02-03-2021 10:45pm

Thank you Millem and Shesty. We are flexible in location as we are going to move anyway. And it is preschool since my daughter is just 4 but we plan to keep on the same school to leaving cert., assuming this is what children in Ireland usually do?

Millem · 03-03-2021 6:05am

JohnnyPoon wrote: »

Thank you Millem and Shesty. We are flexible in location as we are going to move anyway. And it is preschool since my daughter is just 4 but we plan to keep on the same school to leaving cert., assuming this is what children in Ireland usually do?

Loreto on the green is in town!! Unless you are going into work in town that would be a nightmare!!
I would say Loreto’s fees for primary and secondary are a good bit cheaper than Alex so that might be a factor! Loreto is Catholic and Alex is church of Ireland so maybe that might change things?

I would choose a mixed preschool myself

shesty · 03-03-2021 4:12pm

Em yes, I didn't think Loreto had a preschool, so I am assuming you mean your daughter will start primary school, in Junior Infants, in September.

It is really personal choice tbh! Most kids don't stay in the same primary school all the way to Leaving Cert, many do primary in one school then move to a different secondary age 12. There are not many schools that offer primary and secondary on the one campus altogether. Generally fee paying schools such as the ones you mention are the only ones (around Dublin anyway), and there aren't that many of those.

If you have places in both of those schools, it is probably best to look at where you might be moving to. Loreto on the Green is in the city centre, a business district essentially. I'd imagine both schools are equally good. Sorry not to be much help.

JohnnyPoon · 03-03-2021 6:17pm

Thank you Millen and Shesty. Shesty, you are right, it is my fault. Loreto has Junior Infants, not preschool; while Alex is offering preschool upper. I mixed up. Even though there are still couple of years to Leaving Cert., it looks to us from the ranking that Loreto ranked 3rd in Ireland while Alex keeps going down in recent years (ranking based on % of students going to university). Just from that, it looks like it is more favourable on choosing Loreto. And yes, if selecting Loreto, we will have to move to the city center. Is that the concerns on moving to city center is about the traffic and less green places? What other considerations we should take?

Millem · 03-03-2021 7:37pm

JohnnyPoon wrote: »

Thank you Millen and Shesty. Shesty, you are right, it is my fault. Loreto has Junior Infants, not preschool; while Alex is offering preschool upper. I mixed up. Even though there are still couple of years to Leaving Cert., it looks to us from the ranking that Loreto ranked 3rd in Ireland while Alex keeps going down in recent years (ranking based on % of students going to university). Just from that, it looks like it is more favourable on choosing Loreto. And yes, if selecting Loreto, we will have to move to the city center. Is that the concerns on moving to city center is about the traffic and less green places? What other considerations we should take?

I wouldn’t want to leave in town myself!
I live approximately 5km away and pre covid the traffic was a nightmare.

I don’t get bogged down with % going to college. Alex had boarders who may go to University abroad. They don’t get added into data. It’s only Irish universities.
From a play dates/friends situation they come from far and wide to go to Loreto.
I would guess a fair chunk going to Alex would be coming from D6 and neighbouring areas.

If it were me I would choose neither!!!
I would go with a mixed Montessori preschool and a local national primary school. Then make a decision re secondary when you know more in relation to your child.
The admissions notice goes out the year before your daughter is due to start, then you apply. Each school has their own admissions policy. Some give preference to people within a certain parish etc.

shesty · 04-03-2021 1:42pm

Have you looked where you could live in town? (Dublin, I mean). I don't think there are any residential areas particularly near Loreto, although I admit it is easy to access by bus, and slightly less so by train/DART. One of you would obviously have to bring the child to the door every day though, so do calculate that in - you would most likely be on a bus or train every morning and afternoon doing the school run. I think those doing car drop offs tend to do it en route to their jobs.

Dublin is relatively small though. With all due respect, the percentages going to college mean very little. It is a statistic our media have started to try and gather.We do not rank schools by student's grades. The media (for unknown reasons), would like to be able to publish league tables similar to the UK, and rank schools. They can't. So the next best thing is tracking the percentages of students from each school that go to college. It is not really an indicator of anything. Somewhere like Alexandra might have a Leaving Cert class of 100 and 100% of those go to college - ie, 100 girls. Somewhere else might have a Leaving Cert class of 150, and only 90% might go to third level, but that is 135 students. The remainder might repeat the leaving cert the next year, defer their college course and work for a year, go into a trade - anything. It doesn't mean that it is a worse school. The data has to be read very carefully.

As far as I can see of both schools you have picked, they have 100% of students going to 3rd level. Both schools are private schools, there are not many of these in Ireland. And in general, private schools have almost 100% of their students going to 3rd level. If these are the schools you are set on, I honestly cannot tell you if one is better than the other, and I doubt there is one better than the other. It does come down to where you plan to live and which one will be easier for you to do a school run to, maybe which fees are lesser, and small decisive factors like that.

Otherwise I agree with Millem, I would go for a mixed preschool and primary school myself and then see what your choices are for secondary further down the line, however I know school places can be hard to get in that general area of Dublin, so you might be in a position where have to stick with the 2 you have.

AndrewJRenko · 04-03-2021 3:29pm

JohnnyPoon wrote: »

Thank you Millen and Shesty. Shesty, you are right, it is my fault. Loreto has Junior Infants, not preschool; while Alex is offering preschool upper. I mixed up. Even though there are still couple of years to Leaving Cert., it looks to us from the ranking that Loreto ranked 3rd in Ireland while Alex keeps going down in recent years (ranking based on % of students going to university). Just from that, it looks like it is more favourable on choosing Loreto. And yes, if selecting Loreto, we will have to move to the city center. Is that the concerns on moving to city center is about the traffic and less green places? What other considerations we should take?

The ranking of % going on to college is a measure of the ability of parents to fund college, not the quality of teaching in the school. These are both very expensive schools, top of the range of costs. I'm guessing they have been recommended to you as part of a relocation package. Unless that package is going to run for the full 14 years of education, you might want to consider other options. Very few parents pay primary school fees in Ireland. The best school is often the one closest to you.

JohnnyPoon · 04-03-2021 6:30pm

Thank you very much for Millem and shesty for your detail replies and thank you Andrew as well. The reason why we selected Alex was that it comes up a lot when doing a Google search; and considered Loreto as I saw it ranked on top among other schools in the list (with both private and public schools). As a foreigner without any other recommendations, that's the only reference we have. Now we know that the list has limitations and we should not use as a primary reference. We first look for the school then look for a place to rent. So location I thought it doesn't matter originally. Now our daughter is studying in Alex (preschool) and we are living next to it. Supermarket is 30+ minutes walk away (and we don't have a car). Also, in case we consider buying an apartment here, the cost is relatively high here as compared with other places; and therefore the selection is very limited.

Later on, after lock down, I have to go to St. Stephin Green everyday anyway, so Loreto seems more reasonable and we can move to somewhere close to there. Agree with shesty that there is no place to rent close to Lorete but still, it looks like there are more options than here in D6.

We have no intention on selecting private school but the problem is that we couldn't find much information about local primary school or is it just a random ones don't really matter? (I heard that some districts like D8 may have drug issue - sorry if I am wrong as I didn't look for proofs. And certainly won't affect primary school and guess that's why it doesn't matter?) But thank you all above now that I know going to private school is unusual. Back in HK where the education system is more or less like UK/Ireland, we also prefer public schools. But again, without the knowledge and experience, that's why it comes a price. Or maybe if the next one/two years after getting to know about the area and perhaps we could consider switching to a public school, if that makes sense.

And yes, the full 14 years of education is one of our primary consideration as we believe it won't be fun to looking for a secondary school with a long waiting list and most have sisters/brothers have priority on entry. The day which we first submitted the admission application to Lorete, they told me it is unlikely (sounds impossible at that time) to get an offer as the waiting list is sooooo long. And I certainly don't want to have that experience again.

Understand Millem mentioned about the traffic, but if we live close to the school, then the traffic issue shouldn't affect us? Not sure if it makes sense, please kindly advise.

Millem · 04-03-2021 8:32pm

JohnnyPoon wrote: »

Thank you very much for Millem and shesty for your detail replies and thank you Andrew as well. The reason why we selected Alex was that it comes up a lot when doing a Google search; and considered Loreto as I saw it ranked on top among other schools in the list (with both private and public schools). As a foreigner without any other recommendations, that's the only reference we have. Now we know that the list has limitations and we should not use as a primary reference. We first look for the school then look for a place to rent. So location I thought it doesn't matter originally. Now our daughter is studying in Alex (preschool) and we are living next to it. Supermarket is 30+ minutes walk away (and we don't have a car). Also, in case we consider buying an apartment here, the cost is relatively high here as compared with other places; and therefore the selection is very limited.

Later on, after lock down, I have to go to St. Stephin Green everyday anyway, so Loreto seems more reasonable and we can move to somewhere close to there. Agree with shesty that there is no place to rent close to Lorete but still, it looks like there are more options than here in D6.

We have no intention on selecting private school but the problem is that we couldn't find much information about local primary school or is it just a random ones don't really matter? (I heard that some districts like D8 may have drug issue - sorry if I am wrong as I didn't look for proofs. And certainly won't affect primary school and guess that's why it doesn't matter?) But thank you all above now that I know going to private school is unusual. Back in HK where the education system is more or less like UK/Ireland, we also prefer public schools. But again, without the knowledge and experience, that's why it comes a price. Or maybe if the next one/two years after getting to know about the area and perhaps we could consider switching to a public school, if that makes sense.

And yes, the full 14 years of education is one of our primary consideration as we believe it won't be fun to looking for a secondary school with a long waiting list and most have sisters/brothers have priority on entry. The day which we first submitted the admission application to Lorete, they told me it is unlikely (sounds impossible at that time) to get an offer as the waiting list is sooooo long. And I certainly don't want to have that experience again.

Understand Millem mentioned about the traffic, but if we live close to the school, then the traffic issue shouldn't affect us? Not sure if it makes sense, please kindly advise.

I would get a house not an apartment.
I wouldn’t want to live in town. It’s personal preference.
South Dublin has loads of fee paying secondary schools. You will have loads of choice. Personally I would say it’s too early to choose a secondary school.

Look up areas that you think you might like to live in, then Google the schools.

For some people an Educate Together School would be their number 1 choice. Again personal preference.

Even if work were paying I wouldn’t choose Alex or Loreto.

I would go for a mixed school. If you defo want fee paying what about St. Andrews junior school? I am sure there are more schools it’s just off the top of my head.

My preference would be a national school though.

shesty · 04-03-2021 10:44pm

Certain primary schools feed into certain secondary schools.They are not all on the same campus, but say any D6 primary school will be a "feeder" school into a few D6 secondary schools.For example.So if your address and primary school is in D6, then you would be quite likely to get a place in a secondary school in the area.

As Millem said, I would not worry too much about secondary schools though.

I am not hugely familiar with primary schools in the area of say D6.Off the top of my head I googled there, and found a rough list (below).

https://www.schooldays.ie/primary-schools-in-ireland/primary-Dublin-6

Someone more familiar with the area might advise you what each exact school is like but I imagine most of the schools in that area are fairly ok.All the primary schools on that list will feed into local secondary schools in the area.

Be wary of renting a Dublin apartment.They can be quite small, and a lot have no facilities at all for children.Try a house if you can manage it, although you may have to go further out in the city to find one.

imtheking · 16-11-2023 2:42pm

What school did you pick in the end? Our daughters go to Loreto , nearly finished primary school then they will go to Loreto secondary. Reason we moved them from local public school to Loreto was to guarantee place in secondary school, near impossible to get place in Loreto on green if parent did not attend.re living in town, there are lots of nice areas close to Loreto via bus or dart or walk- Portobello, Ranelagh, sandymount, Clontarf etc PS our daughters love the school.

Preschool Recommendation

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