What school?

dame

Gaelscoil, regular primary school, educate together, or nearest school whatever it is (they're all the same)?

Assuming you've got the choice of all types of school in your local area, which one would you choose?

Nevyn

Whchever is nearest (they're all the same)

They are not all the same.
Given a choice I would have mine in an educate together school and while there are 3 in the greater dublin 15 area none of them are with in a 20 min walk and I don't have a car.

Pherekydes

Educate Together school

My kids go to a gaelscoil which is outside the immediate catchment area; there was no gaelscoil in our area when they started out. We have all types here in Lucan, now. We want our kids to go to a denominational school and an Irish school. They were the reasons.

Crea

Gaelscoil

Our local primary has very small class numbers so i'm happy to send my children there. It's important to me that they mix with the other children in the area and have a sense of local community.
I did Gaelscoil and wouldn't send my kids to one. Our local school speaks alot of Irish to the children but the subjects are taught through english.
The only thing I know about the Educate Together schools is that they are non-denominational. Given that i've baptised my children i'm happy enough for them to get religious education.

Nevyn

Whchever is nearest (they're all the same)

They are not non-denominational they are multidenominational.
Children are taught a bit about all the main religions and thier customs.

ArthurDent

Whchever is nearest (they're all the same)

I'm lucky in that I wanted my kids to go to an ET school and they have one locally - not walking distance, but cycling distance (and I'll be back cycling with them when DD hits 6 months or so)
Vast majority of kids in their school live within walking distance of it - not that that stops most from being driven there :rolleyes:
In our cul-de sac 6 families with kids at school eaxh family goes to different school
mine ET
neighbours local catholic mixed

others 1 gaelscoil
1 local catholic single sex
2 school outside the area they were attending before they moved here and parents decided not to move them

Have to say it doesn't seem to have impacted greatly on their ability to make friends here and in school - certainly from the way my doorbell rings from 2.30 onwards - they all seem quite happy to play with each other.

crosstownk

A "Private School" option would have added an extra dimension.

Neither of my 2 are at school age yet, but I am strongly considering the local primary schools.

Jrembin

Educate Together.

Nightwish

Gaelscoil

I went to an Educate Together primary school, and I hated it. I had the experience of the "local" primary school too, and I much preferred it. In the Educate Together school, so much time was spent learning about different religions, customs etc, and not enough on the stuff we should have been learning (maths, english, Irish etc). Religious instruction was done outside of school hours, in the mornings 8:50 - 9:30 am, and my classmates were kinda labelled as to which one you went to. There were the Catholic kids practising for their confirmation, the Protestant kids, the "Born - Again Christian" kids, the Humanist kids etc. Out of my class of 30, pretty much all of them didnt excel academically due to lack of proper teaching methods in the school. I know I'm talking from the experience of the Educate Together school in my town, but if I were to raise kids here, they wouldnt step foot inside the place.

Gaspode

Whchever is nearest (they're all the same)

Having experienced Gaelscoil, Catholic/State school, and educate together for my children, I'd recommend the latter by far.
I havent seen any of what Nightwish describes in terms of time wasted on religions - the children do learn a bit about each religion, but its a very small part of the curriculum. All formal religion education is done after school so the children dont actually waste (no, not waste - 'use up' is probably fairer - if you truly believe in a religion, then its not wasted time preparing for an important occasion in your religous calendar) the guts of 2 years preparing for Communion and confirmation like they did in the Gaelscoil, and presumably other schools with a catholic ethos.

Shelli

Educate Together school

Having been in a multidenominational primary school, a catholic primary, a Holy Faith Convent Secondary and a Private multidenominational secondary myself......my preferance from those is the multidenominationals. Most definately. Now having said that I went to the gaeltacht for many years, 5 years as a student and 2 as a supervisor, I spent a lot of time wishing I was in a Gealscoil.
I would like to send my kids to a gealscoil, but I'm a bit worried that they won't share my passion for the language and culture and would be unhappy in a gaelscoil....or even worse, that they would resent being sent to a gealscoil and that in itself would cause a dislike of Irish.

My OH is from the UK, so there would be a huge discussion if Gaelscoil was to be an option, thats one discussion I'm not looking forward to :P

dame

Thanks for the replies everyone. We're lucky enough to have all types of school here in our local town. I hadn't even considered the Educate Together as I was wondering about the Gaelscoil so much (Gaelscoil's the nearest). They seem to be 50:50 going by the poll so far, with the regular National School coming in last behind whatever school is nearest. It's given us food for thought. There seem to good and bad points for each, with people who attended each having different views. Her name has been down for the Gaelscoil since soon after birth but I've been having my doubts about the whole Gaelscoil thing lately. I suppose if we were to change our minds now there might not be a place available in any of the other schools for Sept '08. That's a problem in this part of the country; lots of houses, lots of schools but there seems to be kids left without places every year for the last few years.

ArthurDent

Whchever is nearest (they're all the same)

8 years is a long time to spend in a school - so no matter what type of school you chose for your kids - make sure you're happy with the choice. Ring up and make an appointment - go and see school, talk with principal, drive by school when kids are leaving - see how they behave. Try and arrange for a walk through around lunch or breaktimes - see what the kids are like as they leave their classes, play outside. Be very wary of any school that won't let you have a look, meet with teacher/principal.

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niallb

Whchever is nearest (they're all the same)

There's only the one school here, the local primary, and it's excellent.
I think it's really important where possible that kids can go to school
with their neighbours. I'd be out the far side of lapsed as far as being
a practising catholic is concerned, but the teachers and parish priest
are aware of that and tread lightly around us in those areas ;-)

I lived in Phibsboro for a while, and a lot of friends had kids in the educate together system, and it seemed great for them. Given the choice, I think my eldest would enjoy it, but I've no complaints with what we have.

Crea

Gaelscoil

Thaedydal wrote:

They are not non-denominational they are multidenominational.
Children are taught a bit about all the main religions and thier customs.

We did this for 2 years of religious education in secondary school and our school was run by nuns. Those women were ahead of their time:D

dame

Crea wrote:

We did this for 2 years of religious education in secondary school and our school was run by nuns. Those women were ahead of their time:D

Yes, I believe it's part of the curriculum for religion in secondary schools. We also had a lot about the different religions in the first three years. Again, the school was founded by nuns although there weren't many nuns left and it was a mixed school.

holly_johnson

My daughter was in the local national school but I moved her to a private school in the city centre.
Lots of different reasons why (bad atmosphere, apathetic teacher, poor curriculum), but it's the best decision I ever made. She's much happier, learning more and her behaviour has improved 100%.
That's not to say any other local school would be the same. I think the one nearest me is just a bad school.

Kildrought

" Private multidenominational secondary " - was this in Ireland? and if it was do you mind naming the school?

greenkittie

My kids will be going to private school without a doubt. I went to private school and still constantly thank my parents for sending me there.

Kildrought

So fee-paying = good, non fee-paying = bad?

regardless of the school, teachers, principal, ethos, location etc.,?

holly_johnson

I wouldn't say that. My particular reasons for moving were specific to the school that my daughter was in compared to the school she now attends.

I don't think you can be that broad in saying fee-paying = better than free. Although I do think there are far more extra curricular activities both during and after school. Also I think the facilities are much better.
Again, that's just my experience.

greenkittie

In general if you are paying more for something you expect it to give you a better service do you not? In my experience private education is well worth the extra money.

ArthurDent

Whchever is nearest (they're all the same)

greenkittie wrote:

In general if you are paying more for something you expect it to give you a better service do you not? In my experience private education is well worth the extra money.

I wonder what you mean by a better service?
lower pupil to staff ratio - that would be great, what is the ratio in your private school?
extra support if my child had special needs - fab, but not likely in a private school
national curriculum followed -private schools not obliged to.
qualified teachers -all permenant teachers must be fully qualified in national schools, not so in private schools
access to neps, public health check ups, dental, sight, hearing - not available in private schools.

I kn ow there are plenty of deficiencies in public education system, but all in all it's been very good to my kids and I'd rather save my money for targeting particular areas for my kids - sports for both, piano for one and speech anf frama for the other than hand it over to private school
jmho

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greenkittie

ArthurDent wrote:

I wonder what you mean by a better service?
lower pupil to staff ratio - that would be great, what is the ratio in your private school?
extra support if my child had special needs - fab, but not likely in a private school
national curriculum followed -private schools not obliged to.
qualified teachers -all permenant teachers must be fully qualified in national schools, not so in private schools
access to neps, public health check ups, dental, sight, hearing - not available in private schools.

I kn ow there are plenty of deficiencies in public education system, but all in all it's been very good to my kids and I'd rather save my money for targeting particular areas for my kids - sports for both, piano for one and speech anf frama for the other than hand it over to private school
jmho

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The private school i went to was in Belfast so I can't really comment on down here.
However, in the school i went to it varied form 12 kids in a class to 20 depending on the intake that year. I am dyslexic and got alot of extra support with that.
The teachers were all fully qualified,curriculum followed and we got all the usual health checkups but that might just be in the UK.
I also found that the piano, speech, drama sports side of thing was coverd in the price of private school cause they was alot of that kind of thing in after school activitys etc.

littlebug

Educate Together school

I picked Gaelscoil. However I won't have a choice as I live in a fairly rural area so my kids will be going to the local national school. The unfortunate thing about it is that although the overall reputation of the school is very very good, I have heard that the standard of Irish there isn't great.

dame

Educate Together is at the top now with 11 votes, closely followed by Gaelscoil with 9 votes, Home school/other (private etc.) at 2 votes. The local primary and whatever's nearest only have 9 votes between them. Why are so few people (comparatively) interested in their local national school or whatever school happens to be nearest? I'm starting to think the Educate Together and Gaelscoil are becoming the fashionable, "posh" schools or something.

crosstownk

greenkittie wrote:

My kids will be going to private school without a doubt. I went to private school and still constantly thank my parents for sending me there.

The same goes for me.

However, I have a daughter and a son and in my area the best school for girls is the local national school, while the best school for boys is a private one (based on moderate research and from talking to other parents). So it looks like I will be sending both my kids to different schools. I'd really prefer if they went to the same school - I can't give a valid reason for this but I'd just prefer if it were the case.

ArthurDent

Whchever is nearest (they're all the same)

dame wrote:

Educate Together is at the top now with 11 votes, closely followed by Gaelscoil with 9 votes, Home school/other (private etc.) at 2 votes. The local primary and whatever's nearest only have 9 votes between them. Why are so few people (comparatively) interested in their local national school or whatever school happens to be nearest? I'm starting to think the Educate Together and Gaelscoil are becoming the fashionable, "posh" schools or something.

Involved in an ET school and I think that you might have a point - am very surprised at three of the groups of the parents that come in to enrol their kids with us. One group is the mammies (and it is always mammies!) who say to you when they are filling out the form -it's such a nicer school than X school (the local national school) - now the gas thing is they mean nicer as in more of "their kind" of people - so we leave them under no illusion to the fact that our school has over 50% of the kids who's parents or they themselves are foreign born, not something that many of them are too chuffed about :rolleyes: . Also they are generally the ones that come yelling around communion/comfirmation time that "it's a disgrace that we don't prepared kids for the sacraments". Another group that bugs me is the "don't give a rats @r$e about your ethos, it's just around the corner so that'll do me fine and sure if we moan enough you'll do preparation for communion / get a uniform / police our kids to make sure they are not singing/dancing/painiting pictures (some strict muslim parents) anyway". The final group is the daddies who let you know that they are Dr "so and so" and tell you that they only want their kids to sit beside Dr "such and such's" kids - again break it to them gently that this ain't going to happen
We invest a lot of time making sure people know what our school does and doesn't do before the kids start, in the hope that parents will realise that maybe it isn't what they really want for their kids - 8 years in a school you're unhappy with is a very long time.

RainyDay

Whchever is nearest (they're all the same)

dame wrote:

I'm starting to think the Educate Together and Gaelscoil are becoming the fashionable, "posh" schools or something.

So does David McWilliams. Have a read of The Pope's Children.

dame

RainyDay wrote:

So does David McWilliams. Have a read of The Pope's Children.

Never read his book but looks like our poll here is proving him right then!

Gaspode

Whchever is nearest (they're all the same)

dame wrote:

Never read his book but looks like our poll here is proving him right then!

I dont know about that, one could easily argue that the poll 'seems' to show that the state/catholic schools are not giving the majority of people who voted here what they want for their children.
I think people always want whats best - if you cant afford a private school then perhaps the ET or gaelscoils are the next best choice.
Cant say if 'posh' comes into it as you get all sorts of demographics at both of the schools my children have attended.