Post
by Brigid from Ireland » Sun Aug 11, 2013 7:58 pm
All schools are instructed to request a PPS number for each child, as well as a birth cert. They use the pps number to identify the child on school computers and Department of Education documents. So it is important. I think that the school must supply the pps numbers of the children in order to calculate the pupil teacher ratio for that school, so it is important for the school to have the pps number for each child, otherwise they may have fewer teachers and bigger classes. Just a guess, but all schools want this number.
A school will accept 'we have lost the pps number or we have just applied for the pps number' for a few months, possibly longer in the case of a rural school, as schools in the country tend not to be as good with paperwork.
I guess (not sure) that the pps number is used by schools when a child moves from one location to another. The Education Laws (Ed Act 1998 and Ed Welfare Act 2000) require the new school and old school to contact each other when a child moves location (obviously this is not done in the infant classes). But for older children say age 7 and over, if the child leaves School A in Cork because the familiy moves to Dublin and the child goes to School B in Dublin, the schools are required by the law to contact each other and to share information on the attendance record of the child and any problems with attendance that the child may have had in the first school.
Your child is not required by law to receive education until the age of seven years, but most children begin school at age 4 or 5 years.
It is legal to educate your child at home in Ireland, but the law requires that you register the child (using the pps number) as being educated at home, if this is your choice.
BL
