Moving from an English-medium to an Irish-medium secondary school?

gaiscioch

I've just seen an advertisement on educationcareers for a Spanish teacher in a gaelcholáiste in Waterford. It says "Teacher of Spanish (fluent in Irish an advantage)". I would have thought fluency would be essential in an all-Irish school, even if they are teaching another language. Anyway, it has me wondering what the norm is.

Would it be normal for people to move from an English-medium secondary school to an Irish-medium one and have access to specific language courses to improve the fluency of such teachers? There's a comparatively large number of jobs being advertised in gaelcholáistí at present and I would be very interested in making the change even though I've full hours and a CID in my existing school. Are there any supports from gaelcholáistí or the Department to ensure new teachers can improve their Irish and make that move? With three months break coming, I'd like to take advantage of them if they exist. Thanks.

RealJohn

I'm teaching in a Gaelcholáiste and while the majority of teachers have good Irish, a small number don't and I feel it undermines the ethos of the school. The teachers in question make little or no effort to improve their Irish and frankly, I find it very annoying, not least because they're receiving an extra €1500 a year for teaching through Irish even though it's extremely debatable that that is in fact what they're doing.

That being said, there are courses you can go on to improve your Irish. In a previous school I taught in, two teachers with very weak Irish started the year after I did. They spent the following summer making an effort to improve their Irish and came back for their second year far better than they were in their first.

So there are courses you can go on and ways to improve your Irish if you're motivated to do it. I doubt that there's much, if any, support from the department of education or the government though. They're not supporting much of anything when it comes to teachers wanting to improve themselves these days.

I hope it goes well for you though. Go n-éirí leat.

TheDriver

reason why it isn't insisted upon is because there is a shortage of certain teachers out there so unless someone is naturally fluent, they're not going to bother unless its a lax rule. From friends in Gaels, its impossible to get anything like sciences, HE, languages etc as gaeilge......and even more so subs

linguist

I was up in the Donegal Gaeltacht over the October mid-term - always a joy despite the rain:) I was talking to a local whose children are attending one of the local secondary schools there which is supposed to be all-Irish. However, due to a sizeable proportion of the students not having sufficient Irish, a lot of the teaching is apparently being done through English.

I wonder what the Inspectorate would make of that - or have they an awful lot of children locked in cupboards when the cigire calls?:-)

gaiscioch

RealJohn wrote: »

I'm teaching in a Gaelcholáiste and while the majority of teachers have good Irish, a small number don't and I feel it undermines the ethos of the school. The teachers in question make little or no effort to improve their Irish and frankly, I find it very annoying, not least because they're receiving an extra €1500 a year for teaching through Irish even though it's extremely debatable that that is in fact what they're doing.

That being said, there are courses you can go on to improve your Irish. In a previous school I taught in, two teachers with very weak Irish started the year after I did. They spent the following summer making an effort to improve their Irish and came back for their second year far better than they were in their first.

So there are courses you can go on and ways to improve your Irish if you're motivated to do it. I doubt that there's much, if any, support from the department of education or the government though. They're not supporting much of anything when it comes to teachers wanting to improve themselves these days.

I hope it goes well for you though. Go n-éirí leat.

Excellent; thanks very much for that insight. Would you have any idea what courses they did as it's something I'm looking into seriously now with summer holidays upon us. The Gaelchultúr evening courses are starting this Monday 12 May, 2 hours per week for 10 weeks, with the emphasis on spoken Irish (€200). I was thinking of doing that and then using their ranganna online learning facility (€49) for the grammar element, but I don't know how good either of them are. They also have a Dianchúrsa Ullmhúcháin i gCruinneas na Gaeilge, which is for 12 weeks over the summer and seems pricey at €450. That's also starting soon. Again, if I knew it was good I'd definitely pay the money.

I have a lot of grammar resources from other classes so it's really conversation Irish and somebody to explain corrections to my grammar work that would benefit me most, I think.

RealJohn

I don't know to be honest. It was several years ago and I'm no longer in contact with either teacher. I'm sure that there are lots of courses there though and I imagine most of them will be able to give you a good idea of how much use they'd be to you.

Either way you have the advantage of being a language teacher yourself so you already know the sort of things you need to do to become fluent so it's just a matter of finding courses that will enable you to do that.

savvyav

I took a French teaching job in a Gaelcholaiste a few years back- they found it impossible to get an Irish-speaking French teacher, hence me being hired. My Irish was awful going in, it had been my worst subject in school but by the end of my 2 years there it had improved.
At that time (2010-12) there were no Irish courses available specifically for teachers who are teaching in a Gaelcholaiste. I did the Gaelchultur evening course and it helped a bit but I could have done with something more specific.Because you spend all day working in another language, your Irish won't progress as quickly as with another subject- or so I thought anyway.
My major issue was the lack of French teaching resources available through Irish- I think there was one or two books available for JC (and the one we used was far too hard) and none for LC- I suspect Spanish would have a similar lack. I ended up mixing Irish English and French in my classes when explaining things but students had to write translations/notes in Irish. I don't think the teaching through Irish allowance applies if you are teaching a language- or at least I never got it.
I did enjoy working there and it was nice to experience Irish being used as a real working language but I would advise anyone taking a job in such a school to be very respectful of the language- no matter how lovely your colleagues are, you will feel like an idiot several times a day for the first while. Plus students think they can pull the wool over your eyes...but a teenager who is up to mischief is usually easy to spot!

gaiscioch

savvyav wrote: »

I took a French teaching job in a Gaelcholaiste a few years back- they found it impossible to get an Irish-speaking French teacher, hence me being hired. My Irish was awful going in, it had been my worst subject in school but by the end of my 2 years there it had improved.
At that time (2010-12) there were no Irish courses available specifically for teachers who are teaching in a Gaelcholaiste. I did the Gaelchultur evening course and it helped a bit but I could have done with something more specific.Because you spend all day working in another language, your Irish won't progress as quickly as with another subject- or so I thought anyway.
My major issue was the lack of French teaching resources available through Irish- I think there was one or two books available for JC (and the one we used was far too hard) and none for LC- I suspect Spanish would have a similar lack. I ended up mixing Irish English and French in my classes when explaining things but students had to write translations/notes in Irish. I don't think the teaching through Irish allowance applies if you are teaching a language- or at least I never got it.
I did enjoy working there and it was nice to experience Irish being used as a real working language but I would advise anyone taking a job in such a school to be very respectful of the language- no matter how lovely your colleagues are, you will feel like an idiot several times a day for the first while. Plus students think they can pull the wool over your eyes...but a teenager who is up to mischief is usually easy to spot!

Thanks so much for that insight. To be honest, until this thread I never knew there was an allowance for teaching in an all-Irish school. I just want to make the move for cultural reasons and to help me in bringing up my own children through Irish. The issue of a lack of books available through Irish in particular subjects is hopefully addressed by now given the growth of gaelcholáistí. I make most of my class resources anyway so technically it shouldn't be beyond the organisation skills of the gaelcholáistí governing body to get a few teachers of a particular subject together to write the first book in Irish for their respective subjects. Thanks again.

Moody_mona

The allowance exists, but a teacher moving now won't get it. You had to be in receipt of the allowance before a certain date, think it was January 2012 but you'll need to check.

Can't offer any advice or insight other than that!