Irish ladies - what are schools really like in Ireland?

[aimee-lou]

Hi ladies. I was hoping that any irish ladies would be able to give me some honest opinions about irish schools. We may have the opportunity to move our little family over to Ireland in a couple of years time, but my big concern about moving to anywhere, be it UK or Ireland or further, would be to get my boys into a good school.

I have family over in Eire, so I've heard from them, but what is it like now compared to the 'bad old days' that I've been told about.

All opinions welcomed....I need to know what it's really like.

Thanks

Also posted in Toddler and Pre-school.

 

[hopeandpray]

Not entirely sure what you mean by 'the bad old days' but if you mean the catholic church stuff then I certainly wouldn't be worried about that anymore. For primary school I'm pretty sure there are very few private schools, most people just go to the local public one and as in the UK I'm sure, some are better than others but most are quite good. For secondary you have the option of going private or brining them to a further away school if you feel that it's better. The only real difference that I can think of is that most of the primary schools are catholic and Catholicism is taught in them but there are some which are not.

 

[aimee-lou]

Thanks - 'the bad old days' are how the rest of my irish family and friends describe it. They tell me about beatings and victorian style class structures. All of this was 20+ years ago and mostly in convent schools, so I needed to get a more balanced viewpoint.

Thanks for the info. It sounds like most of it is pretty similar to the UK, and to be honest that's the impression I've gained from the schools I've seen while I've been there - in Dublin, Galway and Co. Cavan.

 

[Lu28]

Ignore your family, no-one likes to talk badly about Ireland quite as much as the Irish!

My dad turned 60 this year and was in Christian brother schools where he was beaten, all the usual stuff you'll have heard but that was a different era. I'm 32 now so was in primary school 28 years ago (may have to go and pour a stiff drink after writing that...) and it's nothing at all like that. Nearly all schools are controlled by the Catholic church but there are more and more Educate Together schools which aren't so they might be worth looking into depending on your religious views. TBH though, religion didn't play a huge part in my day to day life, we had religion classes and the usual bits for communion and confirmation but it's not something that permeated every day at school if you know what I mean.

The Irish school system tends to rank a little higher in the World education rankings than the UK too which is a bonus

 

[aimee-lou]

Ignore your family, no-one likes to talk badly about Ireland quite as much as the Irish!

My dad turned 60 this year and was in Christian brother schools where he was beaten, all the usual stuff you'll have heard but that was a different era. I'm 32 now so was in primary school 28 years ago (may have to go and pour a stiff drink after writing that...) and it's nothing at all like that. Nearly all schools are controlled by the Catholic church but there are more and more Educate Together schools which aren't so they might be worth looking into depending on your religious views. TBH though, religion didn't play a huge part in my day to day life, we had religion classes and the usual bits for communion and confirmation but it's not something that permeated every day at school if you know what I mean.

The Irish school system tends to rank a little higher in the World education rankings than the UK too which is a bonus

Thanks - I didn't know that about the rankings tbh. A lot of people have told me that it's not how it used to be, but none of them have or are children so I just wasn't sure.

Its only a possibilty but I'm a lot less scared of the prospect now lol.