Educate Together vs National Schools 2025- Junior Infants

Agree with others that you need to find a way of assessing the individual schools, drop in, speak to neighbours etc. The principal is particularly important.

Our eldest goes to a local ET primary school and we love it. Less formal so feels warmer, he learns about all religions equally and his class is diverse (like the real world!). Could not recommend it highly enough.

The local national school is deeply religious, from the website through to the entrance hall where there is no kids work up, just photos of priests and crucifixes and we were left in no uncertainty that lots of time would be spent on religious activities and our child would be ignored down the back during.
 
@mathepac that’s interesting as the local RC secondary describe their ethos as RC

“Catholic Ethos” in the context of a Catholic voluntary secondary school means the ethos and characteristic spirit of the Roman Catholic Church,


Ours didn’t got to catholic secondaries, but we did look at a couple. The local ones were all single sex which I didn’t want for my kids so that ruled them out. But it’s so hard when you've a pre school child to work out what they might need aged 18.
 
mathepac said:
Just to point out that this is an externally imposed designation that members of the Catholic Church do not identify with, nor does the church itself, apart from which it is contradictory. The English word is from Greek: καθολικός, romanized: katholikos, lit. 'universal' so it cannot be both Roman and Catholic. FYI.
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Just to point out that there are 24 different Catholic Churches, or churches sui iuris, which acknowledge the Pope are their spiritual leader. The Latin Church (or Roman Catholic Church) is the biggest. The other 23 are Eastern Catholic and have their own rules, laws and traditions.
There are Latin Catholic Patriarch in Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Antioch. The Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople and Alexandria are now largely honorific titles without residential patriarchal responsibility. Eastern Catholics also have patriarchs for various rites, such as the Maronite, Melkite, and Syriac Catholic patriarchs based in Antioch. It all dates back to the time of the Crusades. They are all Catholic but they aren't all Roman Catholic. ;)
 
I agree with others you really need to be comparing specific schools. While the curriculum will be the same there is a lot to be said for the approach of individual teachers.

As to the nationalities you'll find in schools it'll be a mix no matter where you go given the increasingly multicultural nature of Ireland (and the slow rate of divestment in schools by religious orders).

Annieindublin said:
It’s 30 minutes a day in my nephews school. He’s not RC so he’s allowed read or do his homework.
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The above jumped out at me. There's a lot of learning/personal development one can do with an extra half hour a day. Especially if it's structured correctly.
 
The time spent on doctrine could easily be spent on less church specific matters and be used to talk about human rights, the planet, age appropriate of course. I know religion class has moved on a lot from learning questions and answers by rote and with a bit of tweaking it could be doctrine free but still allow for teaching morals, ethic and all the stuff that we were told was 10 commandments related but isn’t exclusively Christian

Or it could be used to teach Spanish
 
Annieindublin said:
The time spent on doctrine could easily be spent on less church specific matters and be used to talk about human rights, the planet, age appropriate of course. I know religion class has moved on a lot from learning questions and answers by rote and with a bit of tweaking it could be doctrine free but still allow for teaching morals, ethic and all the stuff that we were told was 10 commandments related but isn’t exclusively Christian
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No time spent on doctrine in Secondary school, it's all the core curriculum which covers the major religions, ethics and other things.
 
Peanuts20 said:
No time spent on doctrine in Secondary school, it's all the core curriculum which covers the major religions, ethics and other things.
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That may be the ambition, but thinking back to my secondary school days (and I don't think this has changed in the school I attended in the intervening couple of decades) many of my RE classes were given by the priest in his full gear usually shortly after he's finished giving a sermon and prayer to the full school morning assembly. A Jewish or atheist child was unlikely to sit there feeling engaged that they were learning about the religions of the world in an impartial way. Which goes back to the point made earlier; you unfortunately still need to assess it on a school by school basis.
 
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I know the secondary school programme is different.
The 30mins a day is primary schools plus additional time in certain years.

I have heard arguments that keeping this is the school reflects the wish of the parents, the majority one assumes. And since we are all paying for the schools their needs should be met. TBH I don’t care either way now that mine are finished in education.

But I am amused that so many people manage to organise their own religious education and ceremonies without troubling the teachers and interrupting the school day but I’ve heard so much whinging from catholics about it. Yes it’s your school too but you take your kids to karate lessons and dance classes couldn’t yiy manage Sunday school too?
 
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Annieindublin said:
But I am amused that so many people manage to organise their own religious education and ceremonies without troubling the teachers and interrupting the school day but I’ve heard so much whinging from catholics about it. Yes it’s your school too but you take your kids to karate lessons and dance classes couldn’t yiy manage Sunday school too?
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Do people do that?

Are there many who go to ET but do communion outside of school?
 
I think it is that people are used to some things being done at school/by the teacher as it traditionally was, and in a lot of cases it is hard to find an alternative person to take on the work. I am sure this will change over time and people will get used to it being their family responsibility as opposed to the state/education system.
 
misemoi said:
About 50% of my kids school do the sacraments, with tuition (if that is the correct term) arranged by the parents on weekends.
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Interesting. Are you talking catholic sacraments? (I’m not sure what you call others)

I expected the percentage to be lower.
 
faketales said:
Are there many who go to ET but do communion outside of school?
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In my/my son's experience 10+ years ago, quite a few, but not a majority, of his class did so.

One of his Catholic classmates told my son that he (my son) didn't actually/officially have a name because he hadn't been baptised. He still laughs about that to this day... :D
 
Our ET school had about 1/3 of the class doing it outside school. It was easy to organise, hire a teacher from the local parish school. Grand wee nixer for them. The popped over after the school day and spent an hour a week on it. They already had the class prep done for their day job and had access to the priest etc via the day job too. 10 kids x €10 per head.

The school let them use a classroom similar to other after school activities and parents took it in turn to supervise.
 
no the tacher, there was no priest I think a nun dropped in once and asked the kids to pray for some sain they wanted canonised

The school board of management weren’t happy about renting the room for this purpose but relented when 2 parents on board had skin in the game
 
faketales said:
Do people do that?

Are there many who go to ET but do communion outside of school?
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There were about 9 out of 24 in an our class in an ET last year. There are plenty of parents who raise their children as catholic for example but don’t feel religious orders should have any hand, act or part in running a school, whether it’s controlling the board of management or picking principals. So they send their kids to ET but raise them in their own religion, a bit like most other religions have to do.

The local parish has weekly classes organised for them etc, all very easy and parents more involved too and it’s kept separate from their actual education.

Our local catholic school has a reasonably good sensible reputation for principals and teachers but the board of management led by church appointees has rejected a number of mildly progressive proposals from staff and principal and pta over the last few years.
 
Zenith63 said:
That may be the ambition, but thinking back to my secondary school days (and I don't think this has changed in the school I attended in the intervening couple of decades) many of my RE classes were given by the priest in his full gear usually shortly after he's finished giving a sermon and prayer to the full school morning assembly. A Jewish or atheist child was unlikely to sit there feeling engaged that they were learning about the religions of the world in an impartial way. Which goes back to the point made earlier; you unfortunately still need to assess it on a school by school basis.
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No priests/nuns teach in most schools these day, religious teachers are almost always lay people. In our local Catholic ethos school, the female RE teacher is happily married to a female colleague and no one blinks at it.
 
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