New Dad: questions about schools

censuspro

Can anyone give me some general advice for choosing primary school for my daughter. She's 3 months old but have recently been told to put her name down on school lists now!

I'm just looking for some info on fees (primary and secondary), does the primary school determine which secondary school you go to, what if we want to send her to a school that is not in our catchment area.

Any advice appreciated.

ThePiedPiper

Censuspro,

There's no one answer for your question, it'll be different in various parts of the country, especially between cities and rural locations. In our area, which is rural, the school puts a notice in the mass bulliten in May or June asking parents of children coming in in September to contact the school. In comparison, I've known people in Dublin who've their child registered with the school before they've the umbilical chord cut practically!!

I don't think the primary school you choose would affect what secondary school your child will attend either. The best thing you can do to find out the exact position in your own area would be to talk to a friend/neighbour with kids in school and see what the story is.

Congrats on the new arrival, and hope you're getting some sleep finally!

bulmersgal

you can also put her name down for as many schools as you like. Elisha name was down for the best two schools in our area at 6 weeks and i was told i was late putting her name down. She was born in April though. Will decide the year before which school as one is Irish and other is English speaking

Nevyn

Ring and ask the primary schools to send you out a copy of thier charter, rules and thier enrollement policy. That way you can read over them and then go have a look at the schools. you can but her name down for all the ones you want and then as you rule them out for what ever reason remove her name from them.

Chuchoter

Put her on the list for loads of schools until you decide, but the sooner the better really, in and out of your catchment. I wouldn't bother with private primary schools to be honest, but I would put her in a mixed school if you can(I think they make girls less boy crazy later on, some of the girls I know who have been in single sex education all their lives are really insane around boys and are more bitchy).

Some schools are feeders to other secondary schools, but that doesn't mean you can't get into others. Congrats on the new baby and good luck