A school with a difference

It’s a ‘proper, normal school’, but it’s not regulated by the state. The Institute of Education is celebrating its 50th year of providing young people with grinds, full-time secondary education and ‘personal development’ - and its students and alumni rave about it.

Students at the Institute Of Education, which opened its doors in 1969

Saoirse Corbett-Fitzpatrick does not seem shy. A fifth year student at Dublin’s Institute of Education, and aged 17, you might expect her to exhibit standard teenage awkwardness. As I tell her how well she comes across, she explains how her calm confidence developed. “I put it all down to TY,” she says.

She’s talking about the Institute of Education’s fourth year programme, sometimes called transition year, or TY. Had we met a year ...