Schools in north dublin

MadMoss

Hi all,
My son is moving to north Dublin in August of this year, so myself and his mother are trying to find a suitable school. He is doing the Junior cert this year, so i reckon it may be useful if the school did transition year to allow him to settle in a bit before he starts 5th year - but its not something that is crucial.

Would any one have any opinions on the following schools in North Dublin?

1. Coláiste Choilm, Dublin Road, Swords (does transition year)
2. Fingal Community College, Seatown Road, Swords (no transition year)
3. St Finian's Community College, Swords (no transition year)
4. Balbriggan Community College, Chapel Street, Pineridge, Balbriggan. (don't know about transition year)
5. Skerries Community College, Skerries Co. Dublin(don't know about transition year)

Which would be the best academically?
What level of education can you get compared to the others?
Do some of the school get involved in music?
Do some of the schools have a rough reputation?

etc....


Any help or opinions would be very much appreciated.

Cheers.

Madmoss

chughes

Given the geographical spread of the schools you listed, I would like to recommend St Josephs in Rush. They do have a transition year. My son is in 5th year and did transition last year. I can't recommend the school high enough.

The Black Oil

I went to Skerries CC for 6 years. It was De la Salle for a while before changing over so there was a nun in charge before the current principal took over..bit of a difference in leadership styles, methinks. The nun would walk in, cue deathly silence, the principal after was less charismatic. Some of his ideas seemed a bit odd, not to say ineffective, but maybe silly - if you wore runners you had to swap them for slippers. Guess it was worth a try.

TY was good enough, though still relatively new (I think) when we went through it. Obviously it has some advantages and disadvantages, I liked being able to explore the 3 sciences before picking one (some people picked 2 or 3!), work experience was OK, nothing special, but that's up to the student, really. Modules laid on were generally OK including home ec, horticulture etc and you keep up with Irish, English and Maths. We also put on a play The Shadow of a Gunman...I think public speaking was also in there, unless it was in our earlier years, sorry I can't recall precisely. I wanted to do Economics rather than Business in 5th year, but not enough people were interested so they didn't go ahead with it, guess it's just the luck of the numbers, really. If I'm honest it did take me a while to pull up my socks once I moved to 5th year, readjusting to the senior cycle workload following the more relaxed setting of TY was a bit tricky, but I coped on. I do think TY offers you some space to mature a bit as well, which might be handy when you go on to college. I don't think it was a rough school, no, obviously there were a couple of characters like anywhere, but if you know what you're doing you can avoid them. Personally, I was more concerned about something like bullying (which did go on) than having the crap kicked out of me.

Teaching staff were for the most part engaging, hard working, approachable and enthusiastic. Some woeful ish ones, no denying that. Of course they all put on the pressure about the LC and nationally I suppose there's a lot of hype, but if you work with your friends and practice past papers, have a good system and are motivated you'll be fine. We had the PPF, 30%, benchmarking crap on during our LC so that was a bit..
Thankfully you can opt of P.E. in the LC years unless it's an exam subject now? Evening study is facilitated as well so that's useful if you want to get a few hours in and there's too much distraction at home. 1,000 or so people went to school when I was there...new infrastructure was in late planning stages when I left (nearly 8 years ago) so they have a gym now and fairly new science labs (I think, that was the plan..the tap beside an electrical socket was a bit daft in our day). Some of the subjects were changing whilst we were there, we were the guinea pigs for the new English curriculum, and Chemistry was also changing, for example.

I don't pay attention to them now, but you know those tables The Irish Times etc print of school leavers who get into X college(e.g. 20 into TCD), I recall Skerries CC being up there. Not a huge fan of those type of tables, personally, but perhaps there's some value in them.

Any more questions just ask.

Fyr.Fytr

Malahide community school also, good few of my friends went there and speak highly of it, only a brand new building too

The Hill Billy

OP - Generally speaking, each school will have a geographical catchment area for pupils to be eligible to attend them. For example, if your son lived in Skerries, he would come under the Skerries Community College catchment area & schools in Rush, Swords & Malahide may not accept him as he is not within their areas.

That said, if for some reason (e.g. lack of places) SCC couldn't take him then you would have a chance in the other areas.

I'd advise that you get on the phone now & start calling these schools to see if they can/will take him.

Lady_North

Only one I can comment on is Fingal Community College.

OK, no transition year. Would like if they had it but never the less I feel it is an excellent school.
Daughter in 5th year and son going to 1st year this Sept. My son finished there 3 years ago. Lovely ethos and great atmosphere in the school.
The teachers know all the children by name. How I don't know......

They are academic if that is what your child needs. However if your child has special needs they are brilliant with them too. They don't have music on the curriculum however.
Rough reputation?? I don't think so. I have never heard my children complain and they are very strict dealing with bad behaviour, bullying etc. My children have been very happy there.

Irish Halo

The Black Oil wrote: »

TY was good enough, though still relatively new (I think) when we went through it.

It's been a while since I left Skerries (it changed to CC after I left) but I can tell you the first year of TY was the 1996/7 school year as that was when I was moving from 3rd year to 5th year but didn't take the option as it was voluntary at the time. So the programme is 13/14 years old so is relatively mature I suppose.

When I was at the Young Scientists Exhibition in the RDS earlier in the year I did notice there was 8 different projects from Skerries CC there which at least shows some support for science/extra-curricular activities which is a good sign.

spiderman1885

Scoil Iosa, Malahide
&
Portmarnock Community school are probably way better than all those other ones!

chosen1

spiderman1885 wrote: »

Scoil Iosa, Malahide
&
Portmarnock Community school are probably way better than all those other ones!

On what basis?

Would love to hear this.

LeoB

chughes wrote: »

Given the geographical spread of the schools you listed, I would like to recommend St Josephs in Rush. They do have a transition year. My son is in 5th year and did transition last year. I can't recommend the school high enough.

Agree fully. St. Josephs is a super school. They have won numerous awards and despite the location where a lot go into farming with families the vast majority go on to 3rd level education.

As for that post from SPIDERMAN 1885. Would love to hear the explanation for that.

Have you thought about what the child wants?
Does the child want to learn?

The Black Oil

Irish Halo wrote: »

It's been a while since I left Skerries (it changed to CC after I left) but I can tell you the first year of TY was the 1996/7 school year as that was when I was moving from 3rd year to 5th year but didn't take the option as it was voluntary at the time. So the programme is 13/14 years old so is relatively mature I suppose.

That timing sounds about right. I went through TY in 98/99. Is it compulsory now, then?

The Hill Billy

The Black Oil wrote: »

That timing sounds about right. I went through TY in 98/99. Is it compulsory now, then?

It isn't compulsory now in SCC. Students need to apply as there are only a set number of places - 40 I believe - for TY (due to education budget cutbacks).

I wonder if other schools have been similarly affected?

P_1

No TY in Balbriggan CC.

Also having attended this school tbh not the best place for acedemic excellance. A few too many gurriors if you know what I mean.

spiderman1885

Well my theory on Portmarnock being better is just complete bias, as I went there. But I know while I was in the school it was consistently ranked as one of the highest providers of pupils to Third level education for a non fee paying school. TY was pretty good when I was there, Trip to south Africa to help build schools and such, also students get the chance to do the ECDL. Sports teams have always been strong too if that's what the child wants.

Scoil Iosa, well I pass it everyday and it's brand new and has all the facilities anyone could want in a school.

Both schools are easy to get to aswell, plenty of frequent buses. And private buses from Donabate and other areas around there to Portmarnock, and I'm pretty sure Scoil iosa does too.