Listed children

You've heard about parents registering their children for particular schools at birth, but how about immediately after the scan? That, according to one principal, is exactly what happened in her school. Once the sex of the unborn child was confirmed, its parents were able to put her name down on school waiting lists.

If this sounds a bit farfetched, then you obviously haven't been trying to get your offspring into certain schools, particularly in Dublin. The news from the chalkface is that school waiting lists are growing. Anxious parents have already put their children's names down for second-level places in 2012. At both primary and second level, schools can find themselves with long waiting lists. If a school is perceived to be "good", whether it's fee-paying or not, parents race to register their children's names. In Dublin, many parents of young families make multiple registrations all over the city - even before they know where they'll be living when their children are old enough to go to second level.

Fee-paying secondary schools, in particular, report an increased demand for places in recent years. Double income families, where parents are working long hours, appreciate the pre- and after-school care and extra-curricular activities offered by the fee-paying schools, they say. Some children - the "day boarders" - are now spending up to 12 hours each day at school and are dropped and collected by parents on their way to and from work. The result: ever-growing waiting lists. "We have up to 20 people on the waiting list for 2012," confirms Ronnie Hay, who is deputy principal of St Andrew's College, Booterstown, Dublin. "It's a substantial number when you consider that we can only admit 150 pupils into first year."

"Our waiting list has really grown in the last three years," comments Patrick O'Mahoney, principal of Newbridge College, Co Kildare. "People coming back from overseas are getting major shocks - they're finding they can't get their children into schools. That wasn't the case in the past." When it comes to secondlevel schools, Dublin is particularly hard hit. "There are a number of areas in Dublin's southside where there are not a lot of places in the State sector," comments Barbara Johnston, PRO for the CSPA (Congress of Catholic Secondary School Parents' Associations). "People are forced into fee-paying schools and so you have long waiting lists." Because of the fees they charge, private schools can offer better facilities, smaller classes, a wider curriculum and more extra-curricular activities. This, she says, is another reason increasing numbers of parents are being attracted to the private sector.

Many fee-paying schools charge a once-off administrative fee for waiting list registration. This can range from a nominal £5 up to £75, in the case of St Andrew's. Schools say that waiting lists are costly to maintain. Many schools are in regular contact with their listed families and offer open days and information evenings. For some schools, the waiting list is, they say, the beginning of a family/ school relationship. In general, second-level schools in the State sector are allocated a particular catchment area and pupils living in that area get priority. State schools, which are highly regarded or are in areas where populations are on the increase, can often find themselves with huge waiting lists. At the same time, however, schools in adjacent areas may well have falling enrolments.

"We can take just over half the students who apply," comments Mary Hurley, deputy principal of Christ the King Girls' Secondary School, Cork, which is one of the city's largest schools. "We take a fixed quota from each of our four feeder schools, the sisters of pupils and the daughters of past pupils, people from the parish and then we go to the waiting list and take people according to their registration dates. We're in a growing area, with new housing springing up in all directions. Unlike other schools we don't have to worry about falling numbers."

Not too long ago, getting children into second-level in Limerick was a nightmare. Much of the grief was taken out of applying to second level when the city's schools got together and agreed common dates for receipt of applications, offers of places and registration.

"We don't operate a waiting list," comments Karin Fleming, deputy head of Crescent College Comprehensive School, Limerick. "No school in Limerick does." At Crescent, priority is given to siblings of pupils, children of staff and boys from Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School. Other students are admitted by random selection. As a comprehensive school, Crescent is obliged to admit pupils from a wide geographical area, including the city and suburbs of Limerick and surrounding areas. "We ensure we have a social, geographical and academic mix," Karin Fleming says.

If you want to get your child into a particular secondary school in the private sector, your best bet is to enrol them in the primary section - if they have one. This way your child will have automatic entry to the secondary school. After that, siblings of pupils already in the school get priority, followed by the children of past pupils. Once these places have been filled, schools revert to the waiting list, drawing off pupils whose names have been on the list longest. In co-educational schools, the situation is even more complicated because they have to keep a balance between the number of boys and girls admitted.

In Protestant schools, Protestant pupils have automatic right of entry. However, Barbara Stanley, who is principal of Alexandra College, Dublin - a multi-denominational school with a Church of Ireland board of management - notes that no one can turn up at the last moment and expect a place. "They have to give us reasonable notice," she says.

Some schools reserve the odd place for pupils whose families may have moved recently to Ireland or for children who have suffered certain difficulties - a bereavement or an unhappy experience in another school, for example. In these cases, schools like to be certain that the pupil will benefit from their education and ethos.

According to Harald Meyer, principal of the Kings Hospital, Palmerstown, Dublin, parents are well advised to register their children early. "You've nothing to lose," he says. "It's essential with the first child - if you get the first child in, the siblings will get preferential treatment."

Nowadays, the sorting and sifting of school waiting lists and the rounds of offers made resembles nothing more than the CAO system, which carves up the first-year places in the universities and institutes of technology. One of the problems faced by schools is that parents usually put their children's names down with three or four schools. Circumstances change, people move around and there's always a very good chance that parents, who have registered a child at birth in a particular school find, when it comes to the crunch, they no longer want a place.

Most parents know by the Christmas before their children are due to start second-level, whether they have a place. "Because of the numbers involved, we're asking parents to make firm decisions the autumn before their child is due to start," comments Alexandra College's Barbara Stanley. "To secure a place, we ask them to pay a substantial deposit, which is deducted from the fees." While some schools start making offers one year before pupils are due to start, others are now working two years ahead. By the end of November, St Andrew's College had sent out up to 40 regrets for school entry in 2002.

Belvedere College is one Dublin school which doesn't operate a waiting list - but this doesn't stop anxious parents applying for places once the child is born. "We operate a system in which anyone who applies before the application date - 15th October of the year prior to admission - will be considered," says Oliver Murphy, Belvedere's admissions officer. "We have an interview system. We're looking for the people who most want the type of education we offer." Already, the school has received 12 applications for admission in 2012.

Although many schools seem to be operating in a sellers' market, there is a downside. Schools say that long waiting lists are "a double-edged sword". Inevitably some students are turned down for places. As a result, families can feel hurt or offended. At the very least, they are disappointed.

According to Mary Killeen, information officer of the National Parents' Council - Primary, the best case scenario for students and parents is one in which primary schools feed into local second-level schools. "It takes the pressure off everybody," she says.