The 'School Project' schools

iguana

I'm in the middle of enrolling my son for primary at the moment and have decided to follow the advice of enrolling him for every school we would possibly want him to go to. We rent currently and have made the decision to not buy a house before we settle on a school and have place confirmed, so as to maximise our options. At the very top of my wish list, I'd like him to have a full Montessori primary education and if I can afford it I'll keep him in Montessori for as long as I feel it is suiting him. (But ideally my husband and I would like another two children and our savings took a big hit when my husband was critically ill, so the fees for three children could be a stretch.)

As far as state primaries are concerned I want him to go to an Educate Together as we are non-religious. And out of the ET schools I am most drawn to the School Project schools. I'm from Limerick and a number of my friends' children and younger relatives attend the Limerick School Project. From what I can see they are the closest school type to a Montessori and have a strong history of child centred education. In and around Dublin I have found the North Dublin, North Bay, Dalkey and Bray Project Schools. Are there any others and do they differ much from the other types of ET schools?

byhookorbycrook

No help to you, I'm afraid. The Project schools were the original multi-denoms, I think. Not all schools of one "type" are the same, I'd visit any /all you are thinking of,to get a better insight into them. All primary schools are child-centered,just hindered by classes of 30 and more.

lazygal

The only primary school with a Montessori method is Drumnigh in north county Dublin and AFAIK its private. Montessori is a specific education method, you can't hack bits off and say a school is Montessori, even though a lot of preschools do.

All the 'school project' schools became the Educate Together model, but they are not Montessori based. Some have a policy of using the teachers' first names, no uniform, etc, but all follow the curriculum laid down by the Department of Education and skills. I love the Montessori method for preschool, and in an ideal world I'd love my children to be educated in it for primary, but it doesn't really suit us to have them attend a primary schools that's private and not near us for the sake of one aspect of their education. We're lucky to have secured a place in the local ET school, having applied when our child was only a few months old.

iguana

Drumnigh is the school I would absolutely love to send him to. All of the other 'Montessori' primaries stick to the national curriculum so I wouldn't consider them. They may be fabulous schools in their own right but if I'm going to make the sacrifices that would take in order to pay for a particular type of schooling, then I don't want a watered down version of it.

I know the School Projects don't offer a Montessori style of teaching but they seem to have a history of smaller classes, a less formal environment with emphasis placed on enjoying learning rather than on strict academic achievement. But now that they are under the ET banner I'm wondering if they have become more like the national schools and if there is much difference between the School Projects and the other ET schools.

lazygal

I really think you have to visit schools to get a feel for the ethos and philosophy . There's at least three catholic schools near us but there's only one we'd consider. To be totally none PC one has a terrible reputation and its the school you go to if your child doesn't get in anywhere else, small classes might on the outside be seen as a plus but there's other issues which mean its not on our radar for our children. Another Catholic school has a very dogmatic principal and isn't a welcome place for non Catholics, so that's out. A Gaelscoil is similar, the principal is old school Catholic and the school spends a lot of time in the church which is directly across the road from the school. We're not keen on gaelscoileanna for various reasons but the church time really put us off.
Which leaves us with one ET school we've secured a place for and one Catholic school which is our backup. I attended it, its got an excellent academic record and its welcoming of all faiths, but the sacrament and religion would be an issue for us, one we might deal with if we have to.

Sound out other parents, get a feel for the subtle, nuanced things they say. What on the surface might seem like an ideal environment might be not what your child needs. I was a Montessori teacher and had some children move on to Drumnigh. Not all the parents were 100% happy with it, and some moved their children to more mainstream schools. No school will be the perfect environment for your children, hell even siblings might suit different schools, as was the case with my husband and his brother, one academic and one not.

StudentC

iguana wrote: »

I know the School Projects don't offer a Montessori style of teaching but they seem to have a history of smaller classes, a less formal environment with emphasis placed on enjoying learning rather than on strict academic achievement. But now that they are under the ET banner I'm wondering if they have become more like the national schools and if there is much difference between the School Projects and the other ET schools.

All the School Project schools are the earliest of the ET schools - the ones which were set up in the late 70s and 80s. Then as many more ET schools opened in the 90s and since, the naming changed. My understanding is that the 'project' name was a reflection of the process of getting the first school opened in 1978 - a group of parents took on the project of starting multi-denominational education in Ireland. I don't know why the naming changed.

I'm not aware of any change in ethos or style going with the change in naming. The ET banner came in in the early 80s when there were 2 or 3 schools, as an umbrella orgainsation. I think it did become more formal over the years - there are some interesting histories written by Aine Hyland available somewhere on the ET website.

The ET schools teach the same curriculum as all the other national schools, and I don't think there is any reason why class sizes would be smaller - the pupil-teacher ratios, funding etc. are all controlled the same way as other schools. In terms of the history of class sizes - when I was at an ET school in the 80s there was usually about 35 in my class, at one point we had over 40. Any children I know in ET schools now (be they 'project' schools or newer ET schools) have fairly normal class sizes, not least because the schools tend to be heavily over subscribed.

Lastly, I would agree with lazygal above - just because a school is an ET school, that doesn't mean that it is the best school (and I say that with someone who is a massive fan of the ET system). It will depend so much on the principal and staff, every school is diferent. One of the most often ignore facts about ET schools is that they are managed by parents and teachers (as opposed to church management) - this could be absolutely fantastic if there is a great group of motivated parents involved, but that's not guaranteed.

[Disclaimer - I'm not a parent, nor a teacher. My interest in this comes form being educated through the ET system - my family have been involved since the early days and I've always blindly assumed that ET is the way to go. But Ive had my eyes opened in recent years as my partner is a primary school teacher - I now realise that while the original ethos and philosophy of the ET system is wonderful, that doesn't automatically mean that the schools are better - every school is different and there are many more factors than just the ethos. I suppose like everything, it's a question of weighing up priorities.]

byhookorbycrook

There are multi-denom Gaelscoils too. The best school is the one that best suits your child's needs.Parents of hypopathetical twins might find school x suits one twin while school y is best for the other.I always suggest parents make an appt to meet the principal and if possible see around the school.