← Back to the rankingSt Andrew's College
Blackrock, Ireland · est. 1894 · Private
Illustration · Blackrock
St Andrew's College is a private, fee-paying, co-educational day school in Booterstown in south Dublin, with a Junior School from age 4 and a Senior School up to age 18. The college was founded in 1894 by Presbyterian clergymen: it opened on St Stephen's Green with 64 pupils on the first day, moved to Donnybrook in 1937 and to the present Booterstown site in 1973; the first girls joined that same year. The college closed its boarding department in 1995. Today the school describes itself as interdenominational, while keeping its Presbyterian roots and an admissions priority for Presbyterian and Protestant children. Students come from more than 50 countries; since 2001 the school has run the European Annexe, which provides mother tongue, second and third language tuition for children of EU institution staff. The Senior School follows the Irish curriculum: Junior Cycle, Transition Year and then a choice of the Leaving Certificate or the IB Diploma, which the college has offered since 1982. The website does not state the language of instruction directly; English is inferred from the Irish curriculum, the English as an Additional Language department, which offers intensive tuition to newcomers with little English, and the English A course in the IB. The school states on its website that it is jointly accredited by CIS and NEASC.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $10 800–14 235 a year
9 560–12 600 EUR
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Irish, French, German, Spanish, Italian
About the fees Fees for 2026-2027: Junior School 12240 euro, Senior School 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th Year 9560 euro, Transition Year 10090 euro, International Baccalaureate programme 12600 euro per year. The school does not state a separate rate for international students. Fees are invoiced in July and payable in one instalment or two instalments by 1 September and 1 February, or by direct debit from October to June for an administration fee of 55 euro. Protestant families may apply for the means-tested state Secondary Education Committee grant, and there is help from trust funds and a limited means-tested bursary system.
Admissions For the Junior School a child must turn 4 by 30 May of the year of admission; the main intakes are K1 and P3, other classes admit when places become available, and there is no entrance exam. The Senior School's main intake is First Year; other years admit when there is a vacancy in a suitable class and the required subjects, after a meeting with the Principal and a request to the previous school. When oversubscribed the order is: Presbyterian children, other Protestant children, children of staff and governors, pupils completing the school's own Junior School, siblings of students, children and grandchildren of former students, pupils of feeder schools, then children of families relocating to Ireland from abroad and all others; ties are decided by lottery. The Board may allocate up to 10 places a year to international students. For the IB Diploma current students apply to the IB Coordinator in January of 4th year, new students first go through standard admissions. Applications are made online, an administration fee applies, and applications do not roll over to the next year.
Stages and year groups Grades K1-K2, P1-P6, 1-6. Junior School: K1 and K2 from age 4, then P1-P6. Senior School: Junior Cycle in 1st-3rd Year with state exams at the end of 3rd Year, Transition Year in 4th Year, then 5th-6th Year with a choice of the Leaving Certificate or the IB Diploma Programme; the school calls the IB a senior cycle alternative to the Leaving Certificate and runs both in parallel. The college has offered the IB since 1982: three Higher Level and three Standard Level subjects plus CAS, TOK and the Extended Essay. European Annexe students may sit the Junior Certificate, Leaving Certificate or IB in their mother tongue, second or third language. The website does not describe the Junior School curriculum separately.
Address Booterstown Avenue, Booterstown, Blackrock, Co. Dublin A94 XN72
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeCIS · accreditationNEASC · accreditationThe IB register lists the Diploma Programme at the school, offered alongside the Irish Leaving Certificate. The school is accredited by CIS (Council of International Schools) and NEASC.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →CISCouncil of International Schools
It accredits international schools and is a paying association at the same time. It examines governance and ownership, the curriculum, teaching, student wellbeing, staff and premises; a team of volunteers from other CIS accredited schools visits the school. Membership and accreditation are different things here, and schools confuse them more often than anything else.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →NEASCNew England Association of Schools and Colleges
An American accreditation working since 1885. For international schools it uses an approach where the visitors look first at live lessons rather than at folders of paperwork: the team works in the school for about a week. It is the only one here whose public directory honestly separates accredited schools from candidates.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field
Clubs and activities: Art Portfolio Club · Badminton · Ballet · Basketball · Chess Club · Choir · Competitive Coding Club · Debating Club · Drumming · Environmental Group · French Speaking Debating Club · Gaisce - The President's Award · Grapevine (school magazine) · Green Schools Committee · Hockey · Intercultural Week · International Economic Olympiad · Jazz Ensemble · Linguistics Olympiad Club · Maths Club · Model United Nations · Music Technology Club · Orchestra · Robotics and Coding · Rugby · Sailing · Speech and Drama · Strength and Conditioning · Student Council · Traditional Irish Music Group · Writers' Club · Young Economist of the Year · Young Scientist
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
The IB staff list names 33 teachers across the programme's subjects, from English and modern languages to sciences, the arts and physical education. The Junior and Senior Schools each have their own principal; the Junior School has class teachers and specialist teachers, the Senior School has form teachers, year heads and a guidance department.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
·Counsellornot stated on the website
✓Child protection policy
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The Senior and Junior Schools each have a Child Safeguarding Statement with a risk assessment, reviewed by the Board of Management; the school follows the national Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools 2023, updated in 2025. The Designated Liaison Person is the Senior School Principal, with deputies in both the Senior and Junior Schools. The Bí Cineálta policy covers bullying.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)82 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)95 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country