Accepting a place at primary school

chriski

My son has been accepted at one of the primary schools in our area but the school we really want him to go to has not yet started it's admission process.

The deadline for accepting the place is before the date the school we really want closes it's application process.

It seems my only option is to accept the place and then cancel if my son gets into the school i want (it has only 15 places a year so i am VERY nervous about him getting in).

Is there any national database that means the school we want to get into will know he has taken a place somewhere else?

paddydriver

What you are doing is very common - we have done it for both our kids so far but should be OK for 3rd as siblings get preference.

When they come around to the final checks then schools, in same locality, do commonly talk to each other and find out who is on both lists. We had this for our daughter and had to just make the call and cancel the other; which was our intention anyway but we just had to do it quicker.

Wouldn't worry about a national database as there is no common systems that schools access and all are effectively run independently; nearly like a business as they need to self fund etc.

Baky

There should be a national database for school enrolment - the current system is ridiculous. Parents hedging their bets, accepting all offers. Meanwhile, children who haven't gotten places waiting for cancellations and not knowing where they might get in until June or July before school starts! Department of Education takes no responsibility for ensuring children get into their local schools. It's up to the schools themselves to define their enrolment policy and to decided if they have a catchment area or not. I live outside the catchment area (by one street) of my nearest national school. So tough luck. As it stands, I have nowhere for my child next September even though I have had his name down for every school within a 8 mile radius since he was 3 weeks old. The D o E's answer? Hold your child back until 2013! Well 1) He will then be almost 6 having been born at the end of 07 and 2) Is the department going to fund the €10,000 or so in pre-school fees for the extra year he is waiting?? What a mess.

I don't blame parents for waiting in your situation - you want the best school for your child and don't want to fall between two stools. But I also know of parents who have been offered places in two schools, have accepted both, and are going to give it some thought before they decide which to take in the end. That could be next summer before they bother to pick up the phone and inform the school. Meanwhile my child has not been offered a place in either of those schools because he was born 2 months later than theirs. The system is completely archaic and needs radical reform. It must be related to church patronage. The Department has a completely stand off attitude, acting as if it's nothing to do with them.

aisher

Baky wrote: »

There should be a national database for school enrolment - the current system is ridiculous. Parents hedging their bets, accepting all offers. Meanwhile, children who haven't gotten places waiting for cancellations and not knowing where they might get in until June or July before school starts! Department of Education takes no responsibility for ensuring children get into their local schools. It's up to the schools themselves to define their enrolment policy and to decided if they have a catchment area or not. I live outside the catchment area (by one street) of my nearest national school. So tough luck. As it stands, I have nowhere for my child next September even though I have had his name down for every school within a 8 mile radius since he was 3 weeks old. The D o E's answer? Hold your child back until 2013! Well 1) He will then be almost 6 having been born at the end of 07 and 2) Is the department going to fund the €10,000 or so in pre-school fees for the extra year he is waiting?? What a mess.

I don't blame parents for waiting in your situation - you want the best school for your child and don't want to fall between two stools. But I also know of parents who have been offered places in two schools, have accepted both, and are going to give it some thought before they decide which to take in the end. That could be next summer before they bother to pick up the phone and inform the school. Meanwhile my child has not been offered a place in either of those schools because he was born 2 months later than theirs. The system is completely archaic and needs radical reform. It must be related to church patronage. The Department has a completely stand off attitude, acting as if it's nothing to do with them.

Agree with you totally. I am all for parental choice but I find it very inconsiderate of people who hold a place in one school - accept in another school and then wait weeks/months to cancel the first school if at all! I work in a Secondary school and have had parents cancel their place on the first day of school claiming their circumstances have 'just' changed - try filling a place when all the other interested families have bought books/uniforms for the alternative school - so unfair and to my mind selfish :mad:

Bagel

Shame the schools in the area don't co-ordinate their offer process so that all offers issued the same week. At least then parents would know where they stood and not accept multiple places.

Sweetpea101

I agree about the national database or co-ordinated approach, but I am one of those parents who has accepted a place in one school in the hope of sending my child to another school. The other school runs enrolement in the month of February and until we know that our little man has a place there we are holding our place in the first school. We will lose €10 of our deposit, which I accept, and will contact the school as soon as we know. I hate doing it, but the second school will be more convenient and will solve a number of problems in the long-term. Bad mammy!

Baky

€10 deposit isn't bad - we had to pay €125 x 2 for two children in Monkstown Educate Together in order to secure their places while waiting for the school of our choice to offer a month later. We got the offer we wanted and have to wave goodbye to the €250. System is crazy.

useless

It's €750 per child to accept a place in the Teresian school in Donnybrook... you'd REALLY want to be sure you want to send your kids there before accepting the place!*



*or be minted

byhookorbycrook

nice way of keeping the riff-raff out:mad:

Sweetpea101

Baky, to have to lose €250 is crazy ridiculous etc, but useless was saying €750 for a school - are we seriously talking about €750 for a primary school?????? I'm shocked, horrified - what's that money for??? Do they have gold-plated letter head??? In our school we're constantly looking for better deals on our paper, art supplies etc - we keep everything as cheap as we possibly can for the parents. We recently revamped our enrolement policy and the principal sent out the first draft with a €30 deposit that parents were going to lose if they did not take up the place and I hopped up and down on that one. Way too much money. What is all that money used for????

Orion

Baky wrote: »

€10 deposit isn't bad - we had to pay €125 x 2 for two children in Monkstown Educate Together in order to secure their places while waiting for the school of our choice to offer a month later. We got the offer we wanted and have to wave goodbye to the €250. System is crazy.

You're due that back. It's not a booking deposit - it's the stationary fee. You should request it back as it won't be used for your child. ET have a policy on that iirc.

useless wrote: »

It's €750 per child to accept a place in the Teresian school in Donnybrook... you'd REALLY want to be sure you want to send your kids there before accepting the place!*

That's a private school. If you want to send your kids to a private primary school then you deserve to be thumped in the wallet imo. They teach the exact same curriculum as any other primary school - just with more expensive uniforms. :rolleyes:

Orion

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

nice way of keeping the riff-raff out:mad:

That's only the deposit - it's just under 5k a year to attend it. If people are stupid enough to pay it let them.

useless

Orion wrote: »

That's only the deposit - it's just under 5k a year to attend it. If people are stupid enough to pay it let them.

Thats right- and thats just the 'Fees'- Im told that all the extra-curricular stuff is additional to that; l'd be surprised if there was any change out of 6k a year per child...
AND- get this- the school closes for the entire month of June. So, you pay a ton of cash for your kids to have a SHORTER school year than the a "free" (I use that word advisedly- theres no free education in Ireland) school.

byhookorbycrook

Didn't realise it's private.Ok, back on track, public vs private a whole different thread!!

Kathnora

The only way to stop parents booking children into two or more schools is to do what some secondary schools do and have the enrollment for ALL schools in a specific area on the SAME day. I know that may be easier for secondary schools to do than for primary as the children usually sit an assessment test for second level so they can only turn up at one school. Primary schools would nearly need the parents to register their children at the same time on the same day and bring the child with them so that Mam couldn't register at one school and Dad at another! Sounds a bit daft maybe but it could well be the only solution and a FAIR solution to this problem.

Orion

Kathnora wrote: »

The only way to stop parents booking children into two or more schools is to do what some secondary schools do and have the enrollment for ALL schools in a specific area on the SAME day. I know that may be easier for secondary schools to do than for primary as the children usually sit an assessment test for second level so they can only turn up at one school. Primary schools would nearly need the parents to register their children at the same time on the same day and bring the child with them so that Mam couldn't register at one school and Dad at another! Sounds a bit daft maybe but it could well be the only solution and a FAIR solution to this problem.

Only a little daft.

For starters only private schools have assessment tests. And not even all of them do.

As for the second suggestion: you turn up with your child at your desired school and don't get a place. Does that mean that your child can't go to school that year because they turned up too late at one school and therefore can't even attend at another school?

As I mentioned on another thread there is no completely 'fair' way to do this. There will always be people disappointed. It would certainly make sense for all schools in an area to make offers at the same time but that would involve a level of co-operation that I just can't see happening.

I wouldn't agree with a national database - that just leads down the road of the state deciding which school you get into and removing parent's preference. However, it would be great if there was a national, mandatory, admissions policy. That could include (or remove) catchment, sibling, recent arrivals, etc policies. At least then parents would know where they stand.

Sweetpea101

Orion wrote: »

I wouldn't agree with a national database - that just leads down the road of the state deciding which school you get into and removing parent's preference. However, it would be great if there was a national, mandatory, admissions policy. That could include (or remove) catchment, sibling, recent arrivals, etc policies. At least then parents would know where they stand.

I wasn't disagreeing with the national database idea but when you say it like that it becomes like an OVERLORD situation!!!

byhookorbycrook

All the secondary schools locally do their assessment tests on the one day.

Baky

Orion wrote: »

You're due that back. It's not a booking deposit - it's the stationary fee. You should request it back as it won't be used for your child. ET have a policy on that iirc.


That's right Orion, it's a stationary fee - but I called and they said they would not refund it under any circumstances. Kind of puts me off the school.