Primary School in Dublin
The initial two years of primary school in Ireland are organized into two categories of Infants: Junior and Senior. The older years are called Classes; these range from first to sixth in the final year.
Primary class sizes
The class size of primary schools in Ireland is one area of concern to many parents. The website Schooldays.ie recently reported that most Irish classes in Ireland have more than 30 students, often making for overcrowded learning environments.
This is in spite of an influx of new teachers over the last few years and is directly related to funding shortages in the education sector. Parents get around this by finding smaller local schools or specialised schools that focus on a particular core subject area.
Subjects in Irish primary schools
The primary education is a general one with all subjects covered during the week by a generalist teacher. Some schools will bring in a specialist for sport or maybe religion. The main subjects are: English, Irish, Maths, History, Geography, General Sciences (for the older years), Music and Sport. Some schools offer European languages as well.
Types of primary school in Ireland
The Irish Times newspaper reported in January 2010 that 90% of the 3,169 schools in the country were under the patronage of the Catholic Church. This means the local bishop appoints the Head Teacher, nominates two of the board members and in theory must approve all appointments made by the board. However the same report revealed that 61% of parents want this to change. And the teacher’s union, the INTO is also in favour of creating community schools.
Primary school teachers also report that this impact is often theoretical with many teachers saying they never see the local clergy. Religion is taught daily. Still, it is up to the individual teacher whether or not they educate the children on other religions during this time.
Educate Together is a growing group of multi-denominational primary schools.
