The future of Irish boarding schools: ‘We’re seeing a trend of more UK students applying’

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Families increasingly favour a model that combines the ‘benefits of boarding during the school week with regular connection with home and family at weekends’ ...

“The boarding market in Ireland has changed considerably,” south Dublin private school Wesley College wrote to parents this month as it announced it would no longer provide seven-day boarding for students there.

“We have seen this change very clearly at Wesley where demand from our traditional market for seven-day boarding has declined significantly, while at the same time demand for five-day boarding has grown strongly,” the school wrote.

Families increasingly favoured “a model which combines the benefits of boarding during the school week with regular connection with home and family at weekends”, Wesley said.

The statement came just a week after one of Ireland’s most prestigious private boarding schools, Glenstal Abbey School in Co Limerick, announced it was closing its doors.

In a statement announcing the closure, the school said it was not alone in facing these challenges, and that “boarding schools across Ireland and elsewhere are experiencing similar pressures”.

Alongside this, private school fees here have risen by almost 25 per cent over the past five years, according to a recent Irish Times data analysis showing how this tightening financial environment has been borne out in costs to parents.

So is the model broken, and could this be the beginning of the end for boarding schools here?

“At the moment, we’re fine, and our model is working,” Mark Boobbyer, warden (principal) of St Columba’s College, also in south Dublin, says. “Ironically, our numbers for next September with Irish boarders are absolutely fantastic – probably the best I’ve come across.

“Will that still be the case every year? You know, every school adapts to demographics and fashions and things like that. And if that happens, it happens. But at the moment, our boarding numbers are holding up pretty well.”

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