Gaelscoil

raven136

i have a young son who will be schooling in a few years.I would love to put him through a gaelscoil but have only minimum irish myself.I was wondering do you have to be a fluent speaker to help them with homework etc.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated

tmalmb

I have very little .. and my 3 children attend gaelscoil.
Homework is difficult, not the homework as such more understanding what the homework is...however a good phrase book/dictionary a bit of patience and you'll be all set

bp

I went to a gaelscoil, and although my parents had irish a lot of parents didn't have a single word and they got on fine - I would really recommend a gael scoil, maybe take some irish lessons during the day, one day a week so that when your kid get to the age of school you will have a few words, get a lingaphone or something. Your child will be learning slowly with a few words at first so you can learn at the same pace, even read their school books etc to know what they should know

ArthurDent

Something I've always been curious about - if as parents you don't have Irish how do you communicate with the school, PTA meetings, notes home etc?

noby

ArthurDent, the school will communicate to you in both english and irish. At a PTA meeting the teacher isn't going to sit there nattering away in irish, while you stare blankly at them.

OP, some schools also run evening classes for parents. Ask your local school.

luckat

A lot of gaelscoileanna have classes for parents. And the kids don't start out with very difficult stuff, so you can easily glide along with them, picking up the Irish as they do.

January

I know my aunt has sent her son to Irish gaelscoil and they take courses in the evenings to help him with homework.

Wombatman

Using English versions of school text books for homework help is a nice trick if a little costly.

Catari Jaguar

ArthurDent wrote: »

Something I've always been curious about - if as parents you don't have Irish how do you communicate with the school, PTA meetings, notes home etc?

Through the magic of staff that can speak English.

ArthurDent

Lil Kitten wrote: »

Through the magic of staff that can speak English.

But doesn't that defeat the whole point of having the total immersion approach of the ethos of gael scoileanna (sure wasn't there a recent row about the junoir classes being forced to do english at all?)

Scoobydoobydoo

I went to a Gaelscoil, but my son goes to an English speaking primary, and I believe that parents need to have more Irish to help their children who DON'T go to Gaelscoileanna, because the standard is so bad!
My dad spoke Irish but my mum didn't, so when I needed help from her, I would simply translate to English myself.
Parents don't need to be able to speak it, but to some they feel it's a good excuse to relearn.

In my opinion, it's not a reason to avoid going. The benefits are too great!

dame

ArthurDent wrote: »

But doesn't that defeat the whole point of having the total immersion approach of the ethos of gael scoileanna (sure wasn't there a recent row about the junoir classes being forced to do english at all?)

Immersion for the kids doesn't have to mean immersion for the parents as well.

nesf

ArthurDent wrote: »

But doesn't that defeat the whole point of having the total immersion approach of the ethos of gael scoileanna (sure wasn't there a recent row about the junoir classes being forced to do english at all?)

The total immersion approach doesn't need to extend beyond school hours really.


If anything, the child having to translate concepts and ideas to English to their parents would help them to get their heads around the concepts better, in my opinion. If the parents really want to they can learn Irish along with their kids, ie starting from simple primary level stuff and working their way up, but it's not necessary really. Once a child has a decent amount of immersion in a language then there will be a marked improvement in the child's ability in said language.

Catari Jaguar

ArthurDent wrote: »

But doesn't that defeat the whole point of having the total immersion approach of the ethos of gael scoileanna (sure wasn't there a recent row about the junoir classes being forced to do english at all?)

I don't believe the ethos of the schools includes "speak to all parents as Gaeilge when you see them". They enforce children to speak as Gaeilge, not the parents.

I teach in an English speaking school with 70% foreign national children enrolled and their parents can barely speak English to me, the children can speak it fine, but there are translators present for meetings and important problems etc.

You wouldn't dare force foreign parents to try and speak English and have them barely understand you and a Gaelscoil won't do the same to a non Gaeilge speaking parent.

Also, infants in Gaelscoils pick up the language in a few weeks and it's all very basic. They don't even get homework until 1st class in most schools and definietely no reading/ writing in junior band.

Parents should relax, it's an amazing gift to give your child and I am so grateful to my parents.

nesf

Lil Kitten wrote: »

Parents should relax, it's an amazing gift to give your child and I am so grateful to my parents.

+1

The best time to be learning a second language is early in life. Even from an extremely cynical view it's a good thing, you're making their lives easier for when the Leaving rolls around.

Catari Jaguar

nesf wrote: »

+1

The best time to be learning a second language is early in life. Even from an extremely cynical view it's a good thing, you're making their lives easier for when the Leaving rolls around.

I scored a handy 90 points right there!

Just to point out, there is a misconception that students who do their Leaving Cert through Irish get an extra 10%.
This is not true.
They get 10% of the marks they didn't achieve.
Therefore if they get, say, 40% in History, they get 10% of the 60% they missed - an extra 6%.

It can mean the difference between a grade, though!

I have two neices in Gaelscoils, and they both picked up French and German far easier, and speak it better, than their non-Gaelscoil educated friends.

Paddyo

Hi raven136

I have two children attending a Gaelscoil and another attending a Naoinra (irish playschool).

The Naoinra is a great way to prepare your child for entering into a Gaelscoil - why not ask your local (if you have one) Gaelscoil if there is an associated Naoinra.

I can assure you that the parents do not need to speak Irish. I am on the Board of Management of this Gaelscoil and I am not a fluent speaker by any means.

My eldest is in 6th calss now and has opted to attend an Irish secondary school. We were very surprised by this.

Good luck with your choice.

Paddyo

jimmycrackcorm

I have a child in Gaelscoil. I had forgotten all my irish from school but find it developing along now as I try to use it a little bit more each day with common day to day usage. It's not hard to build up.

Anyway it is no different a problem as being a foreign language parent sending your child to an english language school. I'm really glad we made the decision to send our child; first and foremost it was down do availability and secondly the pupil teacher ratio is a significant factor above any language issue. But for me it is a personal choice to pass on a sense of identity also.