Hey all pinsters, not totally sure if posting in the correct forum. Feel free to move if need be.
Myself and my wife who are both in our early thirties and are looking at buying a house and are considering the above areas.
Does anyone have any information on the primary and secondary schools in these areas. In which area would the schools be considered to be better. We envisage putting our children through public schools and not private.
Thanks in advance.
I think Stillorgan for secondary because you can get them into one of the best public schools with a very high record of getting students into Universities (Coláiste Íosagáin/Eoin)
Primary schools there is Oatlands and Laurences (boys) Raphaelas 
(girls)
Dundrum has St. Olafs (mixed) in Balally which is a nice school and has good sports teams etc and is very close to the luas.
If it were my choice and I could afford to live in Stillorgan I would, just for the chance of getting them into the Irish Schools. There is a Naíonra up in Belarmine and then Thaobh na Coile (primary) for afterwards (nearly guaranteed to get into Coláiste Íosagáin/Eoin)
Would agree on Coláiste Íosagáin/Eoin, best public schools in SCD, but Thaobh na Coille isn’t high on the list of feeder schools,
eoiniosagain.ie/iosagain/con … tr%C3%A1la
Dáileadh na nÁiteanna
Tugtar amach suas le 84 áit do chailíní i mbliain a 1 atá ag aois aitheanta meánscoile. Má tá níos mó éilimh ná mar atá áiteanna, is san ord seo a leanas a thabharfar na háiteanna:
Deirfiúracha le cailíní atá i gColáiste Íosagáin nó a chríochnaigh a gcuid meánscolaíochta linn, agus paistí fhoireann Choláiste Íosagáin agus Coláiste Eoin.
Deirfiúracha le buachaillí atá i gColáiste Eoin.
Féadfar suas le 3 áit a chur ar fáil do pháistí iarscoláirí. Tabharfar tús áite dóibh siúd atá ag freastal ar Ghaelscoileanna agus ar scoileanna Caitliceacha.
Cailíní ó Scoil Lorcáin.
Cailíní ó Scoil Naithí.
Cailíní ó Scoil Bhríde.
Líon teoranta cailíní ó na scoileanna Béarla seo leanas, a bhfuil ceangail againn leo ó bunaíodh an scoil i 1971: Scoil Mhuire na Trócaire, Baile an Bhóthair, Bunscoil Dhún Chéirí, Scoil San Treasa, Cnoc Mhuirfean agus Bunscoil na gCailíní, Páirc an Chuilinn, má tá a gcuid Gaeilge maith go leor. (Cuirfear agallamh orthu siúd a léiríonn díogras i leith na Gaeilge, len é seo a mheas.) Tabharfar an stádas céanna do na cailíní ó Bhunscoil Oatlands toisc go bhfuil siad faoi iontaobhas ERST. Socróidh an Bord ó bhliain go bliain, ag brath ar spás, cé mhéid áit a bheidh ar fáil do gach scoil, ach de ghnáth ní bhíonn áit againn do gach cailín atá á lorg.
Cailíní ó Ghaelscoil Thaobh na Coille.
Cailíní ó Ghaelscoil Lios na n-Óg.
Cailíní ó Scoil Mológa.
Cailíní ó Ghaelscoil Chnoc Liamhna.
Cailíní ó Gaelscoileanna eile.
Cailíní ó scoileanna eile nach Gaelscoileanna iad.
Do you have kids yet House Finder?
Benildus is for boys. The Irish schools are for both boys and girls - they are taught separately but mix in the breaks
We went through the process of selecting in those areas for schools and started with the secondary school that best fit the ethos we were looking for and worked back to the primary school that fed into it. Although we ended up changing plans a bit and we’ve also gone private for secondary I’d still recommend that as a course of action - look at the schools and decide which one fits you and your wife the best - do you want the kids to be educated as Gaeilge, what brand or level of religion do you want etc.
Consistently excellent results which are affected by the bonus given to every student for taking exams in Irish. The benefit of this bonus is admittedly marginal but IMO it distorts the true educational level of the school. Real life is not conducted in Irish, UNiversity is not taught in Irish. A fine school it may be but I think it’s over-hyped a bit
I would contest this. I got 500+ points (in Col Eoin), and not one of them were from the Irish bonus. I went through all my scripts. I know of very few who actually benefited from this, and not one of those got a different CAO choice. I’m sure some do however not many at all.
I think Col Eoin is very good for some individuals, and less so for others. If you need special help, or have learning difficulties, you probably won’t get it there. Irish doesn’t help if you have these problems, in general IMO.
What does really distort the true educational level of the school is where it is situated. By that I mean, the school benefits from having a large amount of students which come from semi wealthy families. This means they can afford to put them in grinds if needs be. Not everyone does, but those who do, by in large can. Also if you are thinking of sending your kid to school through all Irish, you will typically be serious about education, and the fact that most of the parents are serious about their childreds education has a massive effect on the “output”, ie % going to college, points etc. But that doesn’t take away from many of the good teachers, or the good general ethos. However My mum would be a principle of another school in a lot less well off area, and her teachers and support systems are far better than Col Eoin. That said the % going to college is far less, even allowing for the fact that her school is a primary. I would put much of the difference down to demographic and the parents focus, rather than school standard.
I think FirstBass approach is well thought out. I would add to that though, what kind of kids are going to the school and estimate the focus of parents on education. Thats almost impossible to do however, but an important factor IMO.
I agree that it’s marginal (the irish effect), I said as much. I understand that it’s 10% of the gap between the achieved score and 100%, is that correct? i.e if you score 70, you get 3 extra (30/10)?
I also agree that it’s more about the parents, the ethos and expectation, the culture of doing well. That is why we chose to pay for private school. People who stump up 5+ grand a year for fees generally are motivated to see their kids do well!
Thank for all the replies, we don’t have any kids at the moment, but likely first will be on the way in a year or two. We obviously want to buy in an area were there will be good schools. We are currently considering buying a house within the Dundrum Parish boundary. What are your opinions of schools here. Have heard good things about Our Ladys Grove, have not heard much about Holy Cross.
I can’t help you I’m afraid, I’ve no knowledge of any of them. My selection criteria brought us towards Educate Together, Church of Ireland, comprehensives etc. The only Catholic school we looked at was Scoil St Treasa in Mount Merrion, which was nice (if chaotic) but seemed to be a feeder to Blackrock college amongst others which wasn’t something we were buying in to.
I have my own theory on this, and I’d be interested in any views teachers have on this…
I really dont think that there is such thing as ‘good schools’ and ‘bad schools’ in so far as I dont think you have one school where all the Teachers are excellent and another where the teachers are poor…they are all paid the same, and they all apply randomly for wherever jobs are available.
My own view is that you have good areas and bad areas (sorry for the crass description). That is to say, in middle class areas parents are more likely to be encouraging/ expecting their kids to get good results, are more likely to have cash to fund extra-curricular activities, are more likely to be sending their kids to school with a view of progressing on to third level. This attitude passes on to the kids. Also, middle class parents prefer their kids to be with other middle class kids.
So my own view on this issue of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ schools, it is really the distinction between which schools have middle class kids, which schools have working class kids, which schools are fee paying.
I don’t know what a working class area is near stillorgan…but assuming there is one, say sallynoggin, if there was a genuinely outstanding school there, but one where the kids all have strong dublin accents, and a lot of the kids parents are on the dole, I dont think many of the stillorgan parents would be sending their kids there.
Apologies for hijacking the thread, but for someone who with young kids who is actively sussing out which schools to send them to, I am (in my view) trying to cut to the chase on this topic.
IMO, that is pretty accurate, it is ‘good parents’ that make a school good. If you have a critical mass of parents who highly value education then that feeds through to the kids and on to the teachers. Conversely, you can staff a school with the best administrators and the most highly motivated teachers but unless the kids get the impression from home and their peers that they must buy into the culture of learning, it will not work.
The only thing that annoys me though (and this isnt directed at the OP, because I dont think he/ she is really far on in looking at schools or the school system)…
…is that when I hear parents talk about such and such being a good school or having a good reputation, it really is a euphemism for it being a middle class school.
My sentiments run along the same lines.
Basically, it has far more to do with the parents than the teachers.
If you have the money House Finder, I’d choose St Killians in Clonskeagh and make sure my child was fluent german.
I thought seriously about that but got the sense that St Killian’s was a bit of an expat school, a bit ‘apart’ from normal Dublin. It’s got the diplomat kids and has a French school on campus now too. Very nice school though, nice atmosphere and great facilities. Quite informal - no uniform for example.
They won’t have fluent german. They’ll have a situation where it is likely they’ll do well in Leaving Cert german and get an A or B in it.
I went to college with a guy who went there. No one did honours Irish - back then (15 years) school didn’t care about it. You’ll win a little on points on one language but you’ll have to do all the hours of classes for Irish and probably be taking it as a pass subject. A waste of time I think.
I did a schools debate in the Irish school in Stillorgan. It was a much snobbier vibe than any private school. Very cliqueish. I know some working class people who felt out of place in the school too.