Private schools what are the rules?

hunnybunny

I am a teacher in England in the state sector and wondering about life in private schools. In England it doesn't seem like teachers need to be qualified to work in private schools. Some of the practices in some of the Islamic schools can be rather eyebrow raising at times but they seem to get away with not teaching from the national curriculum and teaching some rather unusual things. Teachers pay and conditions seems to vary greatly. Some are paid more than the state sector and some considerably less. They seem to get longer holidays but obviously not the pension benefits (that said they are about to take that away from us too :mad:)

Something I never hear much about in Ireland are teachers who work for private schools.

Are there many private schools in Ireland?

Do they have to abide by the Irish national curriculum (if such a thing exists)?

Can they pay teachers whatever they like?

Is Irish a requirement like it is in the state sector or they can just make up their own rules like they do in England?

Are the teachers qualified? Do they have to be approved to teach?

ArtSmart

hunnybunny wrote: »

I am a teacher in England in the state sector and wondering about life in private schools. In England it doesn't seem like teachers need to be qualified to work in private schools. Some of the practices in some of the Islamic schools can be rather eyebrow raising at times but they seem to get away with not teaching from the national curriculum and teaching some rather unusual things. Teachers pay and conditions seem vary greatly. Some are paid more than the state sector and some considerably less. They seem to get longer holidays but obviously not the pension benefits (that said they are about to take that away from us too :mad:)

Something I never hear much about in Ireland are teachers who work for private schools.

Are there many private schools in Ireland?

around 15, most in dublin

Do they have to abide by the Irish national curriculum (if such a thing exists)??????

most definitely, but some offer the international bacc. as well.

Can they pay teachers whatever they like?

hmmmm. within certain boundaries

Is Irish a requirement like it is in the state sector or they can just make up their own rules like they do in England?

from what i know, it's not a requirement.

Are the teachers qualified?

not all

Do they have to be approved to teach?

? if you mean child protection rules, yup.

in general there a bit less autonomous than the uk.

ps, howevr new rule re: registered with the Teaching Council of Ireland may have changed all that. prob best to email them, or the ASTI

Nadser

Eh, there's a few more than 15 in the country - see here http://www.educationireland.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=26

evolving_doors

hunnybunny wrote: »

Are there many private schools in Ireland?

It depends what you mean by private. 'Private' schools receive 0 funding from the state and as such are independent businesses, they usually teach the bare essentials to the final two years, and are sometimes referred to as grind schools. I think your post is referring to what we call 'fee paying' schools.

'Fee paying' schools do receive some monies from the government and are usually in conjunction with a religious order, the average fee in ireleand per year for a day pupil is around 5,000eur, much less than the UK.

hunnybunny wrote: »

Do they have to abide by the Irish national curriculum (if such a thing exists)?

Yes

hunnybunny wrote: »

Can they pay teachers whatever they like?

Yes as long as it's above the minimum wage.

hunnybunny wrote: »

Are the teachers qualified? Do they have to be approved to teach?

Most, if not 100%, but in 2010 a ruling in a legal case stated that it was at the discretion of the school as to what sort of qualifications (if any) were required.

Fuinseog

hunnybunny wrote: »

I am a teacher in England in the state sector and wondering about life in private schools. In England it doesn't seem like teachers need to be qualified to work in private schools. Some of the practices in some of the Islamic schools can be rather eyebrow raising at times but they seem to get away with not teaching from the national curriculum and teaching some rather unusual things. Teachers pay and conditions seems to vary greatly. Some are paid more than the state sector and some considerably less. They seem to get longer holidays but obviously not the pension benefits (that said they are about to take that away from us too :mad:)

Something I never hear much about in Ireland are teachers who work for private schools.

Are there many private schools in Ireland?

Do they have to abide by the Irish national curriculum (if such a thing exists)?

Can they pay teachers whatever they like?

Is Irish a requirement like it is in the state sector or they can just make up their own rules like they do in England?

Are the teachers qualified? Do they have to be approved to teach?

I have worked in various private schools and there is a variety out there. you can be department paid or school paid. some of the teachers are qualified to teach their subjects and some are not.
some private schools are very academic while others are rugby schools.

you tend to get paid for doing sport activities, but that includes Saturday mornings.

helicopter parents can be very demanding regarding academic performance.

implausible

As someone has already said, there are two types of "private schools" - fee-paying secondary schools in which the majority of teachers are paid by the Dept. of Education and "grind" schools who typically only offer an intensive Leaving Cert course and are run as businesses i.e. self-funded and not in receipt of monies from the Govt.

The fee-paying schools are mostly located in the cities with some boarding schools and/or Protestant schools being down the country. Most of the teachers are on the national teachers' salary scale with the terms and conditions associated with this. However, the schools use the student fees to pay extra teachers, who are referred to as being "privately" paid and here the situation with pay and security of tenure is worse. Privately paid teachers are more likely to be unqualified as in the non-feepaying sector, it is recently nearly impossible to get a job without being fully qualified, Garda vetted and Teaching Council registered.

Irish is only a requirement if you are teaching the subject or if you wish to teach in an Irish language school (gaelcholáiste).

Higgzy

There is a private school sector in Ireland it breaks down to two extremes. The "private" schools and the independent schools. The independent schools do not get state funding and are free to set their own curriculum, and pay their teachers as they see fit. These independent schools are much more akin to the private schools in England.

A lot of the Irish "private" schools have the their teachers' salaries paid for by the state. The downside for them is that they are also regulated by the state and have to conform to the department curriculum.

hunnybunny

Thanks the for the responses. Its good to know for future refernece.
By the way I was wondering just out of curiousity if there is a school in Ireland that follow the national curriculum for England (British schools)? As there are plenty of these types of international schools in other countries including the US and all over the world.