Subject Inspection - Gaeilge

NoelleTh

Hi all,

So we got a call on Wednesday from the department that we have a subject inspection on the 21st of this month. Has anybody had an Irish inspection recently or any subject inspection? My second year out teaching and I've never been inspected by the department. We are a new school in a temporary site this is our second inspection so a lot of the staff are unsure of what to expect. I am subject coordinator so I'm feeling extra pressure, total fear of the unknown!

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

Míle buíochas!

gaeilgebeo

First and most important tip : don't stress! It is not worth it.
The inspection will come and go.

Be sure to have a good, up-to-date department plan.
Make sure that the Irish language can be seen around the school, ie ; signs, posters etc...
Try to incorporate some IT in your lessons. This was a huge hit with our inspector.
They will expect you to be teaching fully in the target language, so if there are some classes that you are not teaching fully through Irish(I don't do it with all of mine), try practising it with them a bit more in the coming weeks.

Best of luck, it will be fine.

Miss Lockhart

Make sure your subject plan is fully in Irish - this was the biggest gripe when we had a recent Irish inspection.

spurious

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

Make sure your subject plan is fully in Irish - this was the biggest gripe when we had a recent Irish inspection.

This. That's the level you're dealing with.
Unbelievable, isn't it?

I'll try get a colleague of mine to PM you OP, we have had two Irish inspections in the last short while.

gaeilgebeo

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

Make sure your subject plan is fully in Irish - this was the biggest gripe when we had a recent Irish inspection.

What part of your plan was in English? Just curious.
I just assumed it would have to be in Irish.

Miss Lockhart

gaeilgebeo wrote: »

What part of your plan was in English? Just curious.
I just assumed it would have to be in Irish.

I'm not part of the Irish department so I don't know exactly. I know that it was in English because the principal wanted it that way as her level of Irish is not great. The learning objectives etc and term plans were in Irish but I think some of the parts on cross-curricular links, differentiation, literacy and numeracy strategy may have been in English.

This also became an issue in the meetings with the inspector, principal and subject department because the inspector refused to conduct any of the meeting in English for the benefit of the principal.

Overall she was very unprofessional in her dealings with staff and students.

That said, I wouldn't stress OP. I fully agree that it is not worth it. Most of the inspectors we have had have been nothing but supportive and professional.

RH149

Learner outcomes, learner outcomes and learner outcomes!

........and whatever Learner Outcomes are in Irish.

mick kk

Hi
We had one a few years ago. The big thing is that for your classes, they want to hear the students speaking the language to eachother if possible [not just answering your questions]. They like to see the 4 skills addressed in a lesson as well [reading, writing, listening, speaking] ..again, with the emphasis on speaking. They don't like to see kids doing too much writing in the lesson. I like the karaoke videos on lurgan.biz very useful...they are very good for covering the four skills IF the students will sing along and you can also use them to do a little grammer. A bit of informal references to grammer are good but don't do a class on grammer. This is a big no-no.

As regards your plan, if there is a lot to do on it then it should be done by all members of the department. You could divide it out by year. Alternatively come up with a list of topics or learning outcomes by topic: Scoil in sept., Caitheamh aimsire in Oct., etc.....one list of topics and use the same list for all year groups [with maybe a little tweeking for individual year groups].

Some headings that should appear in the plan are:

Mission statement of the dept.
literacy and numeracy [what novels/stories do you do that are not course related.....the e-leathanach on froebel.ie is useful for this
cúrsaí ama
seachtain na gaeilge
how students are allocated to classes
aims and objectives for each year group [the same list can be used for each year groups with some tweaking for each individual year]
Use of ICT..what websites do you use [you could name some videos on youtube, beo.ie, lurgan.biz, edmodo, tg4,],- there is a CD-rom called WinGléacht which is great for literacy and numeracy. Maybe you have it but if you don't its a dictionary that you can put up on the screan...if you right-click on a verb it gives the lists for each aimsir. If you right-click on a noun it gives you the tuiseal ginideach. It is very useful. I find I use it in almost every class for something.
Dept. Resources
How weaker students are catered for
Assessment of learning [xmas and summer tests, mock orals]
Assessment for learning [e.g. use of peer assessment]

For transition year, they like to see students doing fun projects like singing songs, making videos, reading shortstories/books that are NOT on the LC course]

Don't lie in the plan...if you say you use the internet in every class then they will ask the students who will tell the truth...if you don't do something, then don't say you do it.

For very good posters, there is a co. called spraoi. For about €50 you can get loads of nice colourful posters. They like you to refer to posters during the lessons and I find these very useful.

Make sure to let us know how you get on.

NoelleTh

Thanks for all the responses...this has calmed me a good deal...

We've had our plan and schemes done fully in Irish since September so thats not something I'm too worried about, so lucky our Príomhoide is an Irish teacher too so she's a great support.

We are in temporary accommodation at the min. so its a bit of a nightmare with regards putting stuff up on the walls etc, its gets destroyed! But I'm sure this will be taken into consideration...

I've heard mixed things about teaching entirely as Gaeilge, a friends school was inspected and the inspector said he thinks there should be a mix of English and Irish. If I'm honest with the standard of students I have even at higher level teaching completely in Irish isn't a possibility for me.... I do try but I can see half the class switching off, its a very multicultural school many who started Irish nearing the end of primary school.

I am very stressed don't think I'll relax till its over!

An Bradán Feasa

All very good advice.

I know at this stage the inspection will have been done and dusted, but my suggestion would have been to look up previous subject inspection reports on the DES website to get an idea of what the general criticisms are!

puddles1987

NoelleTh wrote: »

Thanks for all the responses...this has calmed me a good deal...

We've had our plan and schemes done fully in Irish since September so thats not something I'm too worried about, so lucky our Príomhoide is an Irish teacher too so she's a great support.

We are in temporary accommodation at the min. so its a bit of a nightmare with regards putting stuff up on the walls etc, its gets destroyed! But I'm sure this will be taken into consideration...

I've heard mixed things about teaching entirely as Gaeilge, a friends school was inspected and the inspector said he thinks there should be a mix of English and Irish. If I'm honest with the standard of students I have even at higher level teaching completely in Irish isn't a possibility for me.... I do try but I can see half the class switching off, its a very multicultural school many who started Irish nearing the end of primary school.

I am very stressed don't think I'll relax till its over!

Can I ask how the inspection went?? I too am in a very multicultural school and struggle with 100% Target language at all times...
Was the inspector sympathetic to this?

NoelleTh

On a whole the department got very positive feedback however the inspector was very particular about things we weren't expecting her to be- she was very interested in whole school initiatives like our AFL policy and Language, Literacy and Numeracy policies that are being rolled out she asked very specific questions on them in general not just relating to Irish.

My TY class were very intimated by her and struggled with her canúint and as such were too afraid to open their mouths so it looked like they were reluctant to participate - which is genuinely not usually the case, she said she can only comment on what she saw when I tried to explain this which I understood but I couldn't help but feeling very frustrated by the whole experience!

I'll be very interested to see the written report as I was so wound up by the feedback part of the visit that I don't think I took a lot of it in.

A lot of the feedback and recommendations were very much in an ideal world type suggestions that realistically wouldn't work in our school setting.

I am so glad it is over now, not a very enjoyable experience I have to admit!

Frankly frank

What precisely is required for
a) incidental inspection and
b) subject inspection ?

What level of detail ? Broad plan /scheme of course being covered ?
Eg language core topics plus sub elements ?
Particularly, interested to hear from lang teachers who have had either/both?

Thanks in advance.

TheDriver

Incidental is only observation, even if they find the worst teacher in Ireland, they cant do much about it on the day except suddenly have a subject inspection.
that of course is where all plans, meeting records etc must come out