It is a big responsibility.
Choosing a school for your child that will reflect your ethos as a family and that will suit your child on a social level as well as an academic level is flipping hard.
Bullying, fitting in, exam pressure and making friends are among the biggest things we fear for our children when they start secondary school.
Now,
The Sunday Independent has published its school league tables and from the 700 schools nationwide. And fee-paying schools continue to dominate when it comes to the number of students that are sent on to third level colleges.
We all know that a college degree isn't exactly a perfect way of gauging whether or not somebody is intelligent.
While some people might be incredibly book smart, they could also be lacking in other areas like critical thinking, spatial awareness or basic arithmetic or even sociability.
But schooling is about education too and there's no denying that schools do pride themselves on certain statistics, college admissions being one of them.
Out of the 700 schools featured - only six schools have maintained their 100% record of sending students to third level.
It's no surprise to see that a lot of these schools also featured on a similar piece of research that was conducted by
The Sunday Times.
Here they are:
Glenstal Abbey, Limerick
Presentation Brothers College, Cork
Mount Anville School, Dublin
Choláiste Íosagáin, Dublin
Cistercian College, Tipperary
St Mary's College, Dublin.
Since 2009, here are the best performing schools in Dublin and the provinces of Ireland.
Dublin
Mount Anville, Goatstown.
Choláiste Íosagáin, Stillorgan
St Mary's, Rathmines.
Blackrock College, Blackrock.
Holy Child, Killiney
St Michael's College, Ailesbury Road.
Loreto High School, Rathfarnham
Gonzaga College, Ranelagh
Catholic University School, Leeson Street
Coláiste Eoin, Stillorgan
Munster
Leinster (excluding Dublin)
Connacht
Ulster
What do you think? Is the measure of a 'good' school whether or not students go on to college or not? What do you describe as a 'good' school? 
