Obair bhaile (sa Gaeilscoileanna)

muineachan

Hi,

Me and my partner are discussing sending our child to the local Gaelscoil but both our Irish is poor, although I am actively learning and hope to be at a good standard by the time it comes to send her off.

Her main concern is that she won't be able to help our child with her homework, I told her that many parents wouldn't have Irish and there are systems in place to help with this, but I am not actually sure what they do for parents who don't have Irish, any ideas?

uch

Most Gaelscoileanna will run basic courses for Parents, but to be fair it's not the school's problem, it's yours, when my daughter started in Gaelscoil 8 years ago I couldn't speak a work of Irish (as I was exempt from languages in school because of dyslexia), so I started night classes myself and carried on from there, I now can converse reasonably fluently as Gaeilge, I'm not being smart here but you are better off sorting out classes yourself and not rely on the school as they have no obligation to you, only your child.

muineachan

Yeah I am doing classes and have been for a year or so. The issue is my partner has no interest in speaking Irish herself but would like our child to be bilingual. At the same time she wants to be able to help with stuff like homework and not feel excluded from her daughters school life.

I really want my child to go to Gaelscoil, my partner would prefer it but she won't budge on this homework issue. Looks like the Béarlscoil is going to gobble up another young life.

treass

Regardless of language Maths is always going to be the same, and there wouldn't be much of a problem with explaining science/religion/in English so help could be given with that side of the homework.
Making an effort with the homework is all that is needed, a gaelscoil would be best for your child to achieve bilingualism especially if neither of the parents are confident of speaking/teaching it to the child at home.
Another way to achieve bilingualism might be to get your child after school Irish language clubs or something like that in your area, having the support system of other children to converse with in Irish would be great for learning the language as she will be using it in a fun way, or maybe Irish books or CDs/DVDs.

Don't give up on bilingualism yet!

muineachan

Thanks! No I wouldn't give up and those are great idea's, I just know going to a Gaelscoil would be the main thing in giving our child Irish, just hope my partner will budge a bit, and that the local Gaelscoil is helpful to our situation

uch

I'd just send her to Gaelscoil and don't worry about your partner, my wife can't speak a word of Irish but is very proud of our daughter for being able to speak Irish, another thing worth mentioning is that if you do send her to Gaelscoil when she goes to Secondary school she will find Spanish/German/French a hell of a lot easier to learn than the other kids, my daughter isn't the brightest academically but she was able to converse quite well in Spanish after 6 weeks of secondary spanish lessons because she was used to two different ways of language construction.

muineachan

Thanks, really reaffirms to me the benefits of attending the Gaelscoil other than being proud of speaking the native tongue. Hopefully when it comes to enrolling in a school we will have agreed it.

mr chips

I have been involved in the development of Gaelscoileanna and have come across this question a number of times in the past. To be honest, it is often seen as being beneficial for a child not to receive too much parental help with homework, in the sense that mistakes, blank spaces etc enable a teacher to spot far more quickly that the child is having difficulty with a particular subject area and can address it with the child at the time, rather than having the problem continue or grow for longer than necessary. Mummy or Daddy helping with homework can often gloss over the fact that the child is struggling to understand a particular topic, and if the teacher checks homework to find that all the answers are right, they can be misled into believing that the child has fully understood the work being covered - only for the lack of understanding to rear its head later on!

Of course, this doesn't mean that the parent's role as the child's primary educator should be diminished or that a child shouldn't be read to etc. But in any case, any child going to a Gaelscoil is perfectly capable of asking an English-speaking parent "Mammy what's 24 plus 15?", and by the time they get onto trigonometry, I for one wouldn't be able to help them anyway!

I do understand why any parent might feel that this could be a cause for concern, especially when it's a parent who wishes to be more involved in their child's education, but in reality it honestly isn't a problem - even here in the north, where something like 95% of the children starting out in a Gaelscoil have parents with zero knowledge of Irish.

muineachan

mr chips wrote: »

I have been involved in the development of Gaelscoileanna and have come across this question a number of times in the past. To be honest, it is often seen as being beneficial for a child not to receive too much parental help with homework, in the sense that mistakes, blank spaces etc enable a teacher to spot far more quickly that the child is having difficulty with a particular subject area and can address it with the child at the time, rather than having the problem continue or grow for longer than necessary. Mummy or Daddy helping with homework can often gloss over the fact that the child is struggling to understand a particular topic, and if the teacher checks homework to find that all the answers are right, they can be misled into believing that the child has fully understood the work being covered - only for the lack of understanding to rear its head later on!

Of course, this doesn't mean that the parent's role as the child's primary educator should be diminished or that a child shouldn't be read to etc. But in any case, any child going to a Gaelscoil is perfectly capable of asking an English-speaking parent "Mammy what's 24 plus 15?", and by the time they get onto trigonometry, I for one wouldn't be able to help them anyway!

I do understand why any parent might feel that this could be a cause for concern, especially when it's a parent who wishes to be more involved in their child's education, but in reality it honestly isn't a problem - even here in the north, where something like 95% of the children starting out in a Gaelscoil have parents with zero knowledge of Irish.

Many thanks for the information, we have talked about it some more and I've explained those points, I want us to be both happy with the choice and want her to feel involved, I think thats the main thing for her, hopefully she will see that she will be just as involved as me.

Aard

Hi OP. My siblings and I all went through Irish schools for all our schooling, and neither of our parents is any good at the language. OK, by now they've picked it up somewhat, but at the start they were in the same boat as you. None of us had problems with the language; the only times we would have really needed a hand with things would have been for maths, a subject that's kind of language-non-specific.

As you say too, there's often supports for parents. I think our school offered night classes in Irish for parents who were so inclined. But really it's not necessary. All communication with the school can be done in either language, and most of the other parents will be the same as you. The teachers know this, and would be accommodating.

I'd highly encourage you to send your daughter to a gaelscoil.

deirdremf

muineachan wrote: »

Many thanks for the information, we have talked about it some more and I've explained those points, I want us to be both happy with the choice and want her to feel involved, I think thats the main thing for her, hopefully she will see that she will be just as involved as me.

A question for you: did your partner learn Irish as a child? If so, she is already way ahead of your child, and will have no difficulty in keeping up during primary school. Remember how simple the stuff is that the child learns in Infants classes - they are starting everything except the home language from zero.
Reading is introduced very, very slowly, for the first several years it is really, really basic. Even the Irish is no problem to anyone who has learnt any Irish in school themselves.
For maths, there is usually an English-language version of the book available, I think, so if it becomes an issue, you can always get the English version to be able to follow and tutor in that way.

I hope that is of some help to you?

muineachan

deirdremf wrote: »

muineachan wrote: »

Many thanks for the information, we have talked about it some more and I've explained those points, I want us to be both happy with the choice and want her to feel involved, I think thats the main thing for her, hopefully she will see that she will be just as involved as me.

A question for you: did your partner learn Irish as a child? If so, she is already way ahead of your child, and will have no difficulty in keeping up during primary school. Remember how simple the stuff is that the child learns in Infants classes - they are starting everything except the home language from zero.
Reading is introduced very, very slowly, for the first several years it is really, really basic. Even the Irish is no problem to anyone who has learnt any Irish in school themselves.
For maths, there is usually an English-language version of the book available, I think, so if it becomes an issue, you can always get the English version to be able to follow and tutor in that way.

I hope that is of some help to you?

Thats a great help thanks, yeah she learnt Irish in school telling her that will ease her mind.

But to let ye all know we have talked about it some more and shes agreed to Gaelscoil and L a lot of the information above went some way to easing her mind id say.

Thanks a mill