Tips for enrolling your child in school in Ireland
Choice of Schools
If you are moving to a well-populated area in Ireland you won't have any problems finding a selection of schools to choose from for your child to attend. However, finding the right one, or the best one, is a little more challenging.
If you know where you'll be living when you move to Ireland, then I suggest you use that information and go online to schooldays.ie. If you have primary/elementary school age children I suggest going straight to the Find Primary Schools in Ireland by County page. For older kids who'll be attending high school (or secondary school as we call it in Ireland) go to the page for that. From there, you'll be able to navigate to the school that you're interested in
There is some incredibly useful information on the school profile pages. Here's an example of the kind of information that is available.
For Primary schools:
- Contact info
- Principal's name
- Ethos
- Number of children enrolled
- School inspection reports
- Some of the inspection reports on the site are a few years old but they are very worthwhile reading and will give you a general idea of the quality of the school. The few that I read were very detailed and covered a lot of topics. If one is available for your chosen school, it'd be a good idea to read it.
For secondary schools:
- Contact info
- Principal's name
- Ethos
- Number of children enrolled
- School inspection reports (by subject and overall)
- College progression stats (very important!)
If you choose to make use of the information on this website take a quick read also of how and where they get their stats. It'll give you a clearer picture.
Also, there is plenty of other topics covered on that website: Gaelscoileanna (Irish speaking schools), Educate Together schools, Special Needs information, Independent Fee Paying schools, Home Education, Pre-Schools, articles on bullying (every parent should read these), parent resources, teacher resources & more. A truly great resource!
Frustrating
Having decided to move back to Ireland, one of the major considerations I had to make was what school to send my own child to. I had a good idea (based on where we wanted to live), so started getting in touch with the schools in that general area. (I did this mostly via email, but I recommend calling them if you can.) What I found to be very frustrating was that each school I called mentioned that there was a 'waiting list', and it would be some time before they would know if my child would have a place. Trying to get to the bottom of what this waiting list meant, I found out that it is very common now in Ireland, that as soon as a child is born the parent's register them at the local school (and often times at a few schools). This creates a huge list of names that the school staff must trawl through each year and find out if the parent's still want the child to attend that school. To me it seemed like such a terrible system. It would make more sense to me to have a week each year where the parents who are really serious about their child attending, register them at that time, and not 5 or 6 years in advance. The way it is now, it seems to cause unnecessary work for the school, and stress for the parents of kids who are way down the list. But that's how it's done. Not everything about Ireland is perfect 🙂
Registration details
When registering, the school will ask you for details about your child. I needed birth certificates and a filled in, very basic, application form. It's probably likely that most schools ask for similar information. This was for primary school. (note: if someone has information about registering secondary school kids and would like to contribute, please get in touch)
If you're not sure that you're child will get a place at your first choice school, I would recommend applying to more than one. You don't want the school year to start and then have to start scrambling for a place. And (unless the Irish way of registration changes), register any non-school age kids you have too.
Free ECCE Scheme for pre-schoolers
"The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Scheme provides a free year of early childhood care and education for children of pre-school age. In general, children are eligible for the ECCE scheme if they are aged over 3 years 2 months and less than 4 years 7 months on 1 September of the year that they will be starting. The upper age limit can be extended in some cases." source citizensinformation.ie
I am currently availing of this program for my younger child. It is a wonderful thing that every young child in Ireland has an equal opportunity, regardless of their family's financial situation, to attend pre-school. I can't be certain that all pre-school's offer this free year, but from what I've seen most do.
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If moving to Country/Rural areas with younger children it is easier to get into the local National schools.. the school across the way has about 25 pupils with 2 teachers and a couple of part time assistants, we had no problem putting the grandson in there when we had him for 3 months at the start of this year,, Chris is currently working as a classroom assistant in a National school a couple of valleys over by Lough Derg with 12 pupils.
hi tony, thank you for the info. i have always been active in my childs school- art is my specialty- even when emmalee was in preschool, i worked at her preschool, in different class rooms. we dont want to isolate ourselves and find a home waaaaay out away from folks- and i dont know about a car yet, i dont mind a few miles out of a town or village, we dont mind smaller class size or even mind larger ones. we just want a school…. somewhere. we are very interested in county wexford and bangor area in northern ireland. we want to buy a home- but find we most likely be able to get a mortgage company, and will maybe run across issues with renting because iwe are not leaving the usa without our dogs- a chihuahua and two mixed heeler cattle dogs. by the way, when you say national schools…what do you mean??
who has info on secondary schools?
i have heard that it is very hard to get into secondary schools- its easy if a sibling, parent or if a person has gone to that secondary school, or if the primary school is affiliated to the secondary school. there are waiting lists. i also read that there are different types of secondary schools! very confusing…..
Most secondary schools are more or less the same, but you will find some private schools, and schools that are tied to churches etc.
Generally speaking most local kids are accommodated in the nearby school, but I would call the ones you are looking at and ask specific questions related to waiting lists, preferential sibling places etc.
Also, when I attended secondary school here in Ireland there were ‘entrance exams’. The intent was to give the schools an opportunity to assess a child’s competence level in a few core subjects. You may want to also ask about this for a child coming from another country.
hi liam, and thank you again for answering my many many …. many- questions. i just want a school for my daughter that offers some type of drama, choir, the arts. close to where we want to live- but it seems we need to find a school first that will accept her- before we find a home….heavy sigh…
My advice would be not to completely write off a school because they don’t offer everything you need. @redhead If they get you some of the way there, then maybe a local club/class can help with the rest. In Ireland it’s very common that activities are not always part of their schooling, so you might want to research what’s available in the local area too. If you call the schools they might be able to help. Failing that, there’s Google, Facebook groups, and the Golden Pages directory e.g. a search for Drama in Wexford.
p.s, over 6 months ago i sent an email to a school in county wexford- never heard from them, is there a direct person i can email in ireland county wexford area to find out more about schools- meaning an actual person to whom i can directly email??
I’d recommend calling them. Unfortunately (as you’ll find more and more) a lot of Irish companies/schools/etc don’t do a great job of responding to emails.
here is an update- i did write the dept of education, and i received a response from guinne mcConnell. yay! seems she will pass along the info and questions about schools in wexford and i should expect an answer in a few weeks!
months ago i checked out community theatre in the wexford area- and even had my daughter check out the websites. there are 2 schools in wexford area that do offer drama as an xtra curricular activity.
Hi @redhead,
I’ve been following your posts. We also have a daughter (14)who is interested in attending school in Ireland. Just curious whether you found a school and where. We were also looking in Wexford.
Hi! I am also very interested in gathering more information pertaining to enrolling our daughter in secondary school somewhere in Ireland. We are a family of 4 currently living in Oregon. I have my Irish Citizenship through my grandmother but have never lived in Ireland. Our youngest daughter(14) has expressed a great deal of interest in attending school for transition year which would be in a year and a half. She loves theater, music and European history and has traveled through Europe, living and attending public school in Spain for a year while my wife and I taught English. My wife and I have looked at several schools throughout Ireland and have written to a few but have only had a response from one school in Kinsale, near Cork. We have also heard that a phone call might be necessary in order to get a response. I guess my first question would be how difficult would it be for a US citizen to enroll in an Irish school and would my Irish citizenship help with that process?
Andy, I don’t think you should have any problems enrolling your child in school in Ireland, once you can prove eligibility to reside in the country. When we registered our kids from the US, it was never a question. I don’t think having citizenship will necessarily help or hinder. You might find some areas/schools will be sort of clan-ish, and look after “their own” first. Growing up in the area, or being catholic might play a part in that.
Please take my advice and call the schools you’re interested in. You might need to stay up til 1 or 2 am a couple of nights, but it’ll save you a lot of frustration.
Thanks Liam. Can you get into more detail about eligibility to reside in the country? Is this about finances or employment?
Andy,
I was speaking generally. For you specifically, I’m guessing you have an Irish passport, as you mentioned you had Irish citizenship. You would need nothing more than that. If you don’t have an Irish passport but are eligible for one, then taking care of that will make life a whole lot easier.
Liam
Ok, thanks!
There is a double figure %percentage of non Irish living in Ireland so being Irish by birth or ancestry is not a prerequisite. Residence within the catchment area either long or short term will be a consideration at many schools.
As Liam has indicated you will get a better response by personal phone call than email. For some reason email has not caught on in many aspects of Irish life 😉
Thanks Tony. Sounds like phone calls are in our future.