First primary international school to open

The State's first primary international school is to open this autumn, targeted mainly at the children of executives of overseas companies based in Ireland.

The International School of Dublin will be located in Ballsbridge on the site of the former Pembroke School, more fondly known as Miss Meredith's, which closed two years ago.

School head Karin Bacon says the school will be Ireland's first truly international school, in that it will follow the curriculum of the International Baccalaureat (IB) rather than the State cur- riculum.

A number of fee-paying schools already offer the IB programme at diploma level (pre-university) in addition to the State curriculum, but the new school says it is the first to follow this programme at primary and middle-year levels.

"The Irish education system is very good but it doesn't necessarily meet the needs of all students. Hopefully, an inter-national school will add to the debate on different models of curriculum," says Ms Bacon.

The school may be attractive to executives relocating to Ireland whose children are already in the IB programme elsewhere, as well as Irish families returning home with children who attended other international schools.

As a private, non-profit institution not following the State curriculum, the school will not qualify for support from the Department of Education, so fees are likely to be more than €7,000 a year.

However, the IDA is expected to provide financial support, according to Michael Deeny, chairman of the board of management.

"For the IDA, it's another box ticked in their efforts to get people to relocate to Ireland," says Mr Deeny, who is managing director of Depfa ACS Bank.

Ms Bacon had thought about setting up such a project in Dublin when she returned seven years ago from working in the international school in Munich. However, she could not raise the finance.

Depfa Bank, a German operation employing over 250 people in the IFSC, researched the project after a number of potential employees declined to come to Dublin because they could not find school places for their children.

A number of possible sites fell through because they lacked planning status for educational uses. However, the developers who bought the former Miss Meredith's school on Pembroke Road contacted the bank and a deal was struck. The building is currently being refurbished.