Primary Teaching in Australia?

Jade104

Hey all!
I'm currently in my LC year. I want to do primary teaching. My plan is pretty straight forward. I plan to do an arts degree in UCC and then do a post grad course in Mary I. I'm doing OL Irish as I'm terrible at it even though I try my best. I know I won't be able to receive the C3 in Honors for teaching, so I plan to do an Irish diploma while doing my arts degree to substitute for the C3HL which is accepted in Mary I.

But I've the same questions in mind since last year. Will I be able for the Irish at all? I could teach it no problem. Primary level Irish isn't anything like secondary Irish. But its the actual getting the qualification I'm scared of. So I'm keeping all my options opinion and planning ahead. What if I was to teach in Aussie? I have family there and think I would really love it. I've heard of so many teachers now fleeing to the land of OZ in search of work. So to get to my main point, how could I go about teaching Australia? Could I do my arts degree here and then get onto a teaching degree over there? Or, would I have to have that all behind me here in Ireland? So stuck for advice!

Insect Overlord

Jade104 wrote: »

I could teach it no problem. Primary level Irish isn't anything like secondary Irish.

You still need to know the basics pretty well. And the basics are way beyond the level you think you need to know. Cop on and learn the language properly, because it seems that you're being way too flippant about it.

Aspiring

Hi, just on the Irish, I know nothing about teaching but did my leaving cert there last year and I had an attitude quite similar to you up to sixth year.

I was always poor at Irish and scraped a D in HL for my junior cert, which was a miracle in itself. I always blamed the teachers, the language itself, everything but myself. The fact is, Irish is actually easy enough to get good at. I only started working on it when I realised I might actually need to count it for my 6th subject. I started listening to as many listening exams as possible, learning vocab for the oral, the aiste, the poems, texts etc. The thing with Irish at HL is that its very predictable, very few things can actually come up. I think with a bit of work you could get a C3 in HL.

I ended up getting a B3 in HL by the way, just to show you how much Irish can be improved in a short space of time

Windorah

Primary school teaching isn't on the occupations list for Australia.
In theory you could teach for two years on a working holiday visa and then hopefully be sponsored but in reality that would never happen.
At the moment there is a huge demand for Early Childhood teachers all over Oz. Mary I do a four year BA in Early Childhood Education which I'm assuming does not require Irish. I could be wrong about that though.
Also unless your parents are extremely wealthy and can afford the huge university fees as well as the high living costs I would forget about university in Australia.

Sorry about the negativity but it's better to be informed!

D4RK ONION

Get on over to duolingo and start doing the Irish course there. Go from the beginning and read all the "Tips & Notes sections". Listen to Irish language programmes both on radio and TV and write down new vocab into a notebook. Check out the Irish forums here on boards and try to take part in some of the conversations there (watch out for the mods there though, I hear they're awful yokes ). Try to get out to a gaeltacht either before the LC or during your college course.

It doesn't matter if the Irish cirriculum itself in Primary School is rudimentary, you CAN NOT teach something you yourself are not well versed in, end of. Good luck with it though

Moonbeam

Could you live in the Gaeltacht for a year? or do your post grad in the Uk or Australia?

dirkmeister

Jade104 wrote: »

Hey all!
I'm currently in my LC year. I want to do primary teaching. My plan is pretty straight forward. I plan to do an arts degree in UCC and then do a post grad course in Mary I.

Sorry but that plan doesn't sound straight forward at all. Mary I's post grad interview isn't a slam dunk by any stretch of the imagination either.

A bit of advice...If you're sure you want to teach, aim for the B. Ed degree and don't mind p!ssing around UCC for 3 years.
Why would you do that?

Anyway, best of luck with it!