Potential move to Dundrum, Dublin- advice!

[paulapie91]

Hi everyone,

My family hav a potential move to Dublin in the pipeline and I am really looking for any advice on primary schools and nurseries in the Dundrum area.

We have 2 boys, a 6 year old and a 1 year old.

So far, I've kind of narrowed in on my primary school search to St Attractas, but was wondering where I can find school reviews, basically the equivalent of Ofsted which I don't think exists, but in this case, trustworthy and reliable reviews from parents?

Also, I kind of currently have no ideas on nurseries?!

Any help or advice is much appreciated.

[MrsJoeDolan]

Nice shopping centre!

Ireland doesn't have OfSTED, but schools have an inspection called whole school evaluations (WSE). If a school has had a WSE the report will be available via the website for the department of education.

Be aware that we do not have local authorities similar to the UK. Nobody has a responsibility to find you a school place in the same way they would over here. Parents often put their names down for places when DC are tinies. Which sucks for people who move into the country. Best bet is to ring schools individually when they re-open in a week or so to see if they have spaces.

Schools are in the main Catholic, which means a proportion of the week spent studying religious studies. Some schools allow non-Catholic students to opt-out. Educate Together schools are the alternative/multi-denominational school body, but they are far fewer in number than Catholic ('national') school. Some schools are Irish-medium (gaelscoileanna)

We do not have school-attached pre-schools in the same way you have in the Uk. There is no OfSTED equivalent for pre-school education. Pre-schools are generally crèches/Montessori/Irish language pre-schools/general pre-schools.

Rollercoaster.ie and schooldays.ie are good sources of school information.

[AnnabelleDarling]

I have sent you a PM

[paulapie91]

Thank you! I'll definitely give a few of the schools a call and see how easily a place could be available (as I definitely don't fancy myself as a home school teacher!) thanks for the links to those websites too!