Joining Our School
Admissions for First Year 2026/27 will open on Wednesday 1st of October 2025 at 8.30am.
Our Open Day is planned for Saturday 4th October 2025 from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm. It is aimed at parents and students currently in 5th and 6th class.
Please see our Admissions Policy and Admissions Notice here.
Opening date for applications: Wednesday 1st of October 2025 at 8.30am.
Closing date for applications: Wednesday 22nd October 2025 at 4.00 pm.
Procedure for 1st Year Student Entry in September 2026
The process of admission to Harold’s Cross ETSS will include a number of stages:
· Information regarding the commencement of the enrolment procedure will be communicated via the school website and social media.
· Application forms will be made available on our website www.hcetss.ie or can be emailed from office@hcetss.ie from 8.30 am Wednesday 1st October 2025
· All aspects of the application form must be completed fully by the parents/guardians of the student being enrolled. (The information sought therein complies with the regulations of the various Data Protection Acts and will be managed in accordance with these acts.)
· Application Forms must be submitted online, then printed and sent by post to Harold’s Cross ETSS accompanied by an original birth certificate and 2 proofs of address. Your application will not be processed without these documents. They will be returned to you at end of the enrolment period.
· Application forms will only be accepted in respect of first year entrants, i.e., students starting second level in September 2026. For transfers, please see the schools Transfer and Repeat Policy.
· The closing date for completed application forms is 4pm on Wednesday 22nd October 2025.
**Important **
All communication will ONLY be sent electronically to the contact email address supplied in the Application Form. Applicants must ensure that the email address supplied on the Application Form is active and monitored. Harold’s Cross Educate Together Secondary School is not responsible for letters of offer missed through the non-monitoring of accounts, junk mail filters etc.
Please click here to download a copy of our Admissions Policy and Notice.
Applications for transfer to Second, Third, Transition, Fifth and Sixth Year in our school for the academic year 2026/2027 will open in April 2026.
Please refer to our Transfer and Repeat Policy.
For all enquiries about transferring from another school, please contact our school office at office@hcetss.ie
Parents are advised to read the school Admissions Policy and Notice as well as the answers to the following FAQs.
For 2024/25 school year, there will be a maximum of 90 places in First Year. This will change and the school will eventually enrol 160 students into First Year annually.
The system is very open and transparent. Siblings are guaranteed a place in First Year. After this, places are allocated to those students who reside in the school catchment area (see Admissions Policy for a map.) If there are more applicants in the catchment area than places, then random selection will apply. If there are places left after children in the catchment area have been given places then children from outside the catchment area will be given places using a random selection process. The Principal has no role in the admissions process which is almost fully automated.
No. The concept of automatic admission to a child from any named school is not in our Admissions Policy.
Children who are not offered a place in the first round will remain on the waiting list for that academic year only. If a family no longer wishes for their child to attend the school then the place will be offered to the next person on the waiting list as identified by the original random selection process.
Applications are accepted when your child is in Sixth Class (or its international equivalent). The window for applying runs from early October to early November (See Admissions Notice for relevant year).
No. Places are offered according to the specific criteria identified in the Admissions Policy.
Your child's place may be forfeited if you accept and enrol your child in another school while retaining a place with us. We understand that parents apply to a number of schools. However, we expect that you will be fair to us and to children on the waiting list.
Our Values
As we are a developing school, our reports will be added here as our school progresses.