IRELAND’S MOST EXPENSIVE school is set to open its doors in Dublin this September, with fees of up to €24,000 a year, and its students won’t have to follow the State curriculum.
The Nord Anglia International School in Sandyford, Dublin will instead offer both Irish and international students the International Baccalaureate (IB). The qualification is recognised globally and students receive a diploma upon completion of the course.
The school will initially allow enrollments from children aged between three and 15.
Yearly fees per student begin at €15,900 and range up to €24,000.
“The fees are eye-catching, but you can’t compare the school to any school you’ve got in Ireland currently. There are only 200 schools on the planet that will offer the curriculum that this school is offering,” Paul Crute, principal at Dublin’s Nord Anglia told RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Sean O’Rourke.
International education
There are more than 50 Nord Anglia schools around the world. Crute said that the schools are a suitable education option for parents who re-locate around the world as a result of their jobs.
“The IB curriculum is the preferred curriculum of international parents. We’re hoping the school will help sell Ireland to international companies wanting to relocate here,” Crute said.
“These parents are looking for a school they can stay in for three or four years and pick up the same curriculum when they move to Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Singapore,” he said.
Crute said that the school will offer Irish as a subject, but it won’t be compulsory. Instead, Crute said the school will focus on internationally-taught subjects.
“[The school] will have bespoke collaborations with some of the world’s best universities who have helped design the curriculum, like Julliard in New York, for example,” he said.
The school will offer facilities to students to make them feel connected to its sister schools around the world, according to Crute.
“When the child gets off the Luas and walks into the school there’s going to be a huge screen, for example, life-size screen, they’ll be able to see kids in real-time in one of the other Nord Anglia global campus schools,” Crute said.
This is a global campus, it may be in Sandyford but it is everywhere in the world.
Irish education standards
In terms of operating under the guidance of the Department of Education, O’Rourke asked would the school be engaging with the department, which was met by a long pause before Crute asking “in terms of what?”.
He said the school wouldn’t be evaluated by the Department of Education because it “will not be taking any public funding whatsoever”.
He did, however, confirm that the school will be subject to child protection laws and employment laws.
The school has had over 1,000 unsolicited applications for teaching posts. It will be recruiting teaching positions soon. The three main senior roles have been filled.
The school will open its doors in September 2018. While Crute said they are hoping for a strong complement of students in its first year, he couldn’t confirm how many will be enrolled.
This story has been amended to note that not all teaching positions have yet been filled.
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