Standard of irish language in second class?

Call me Al

My child is in 2nd class, and by all accounts is doing very well academically and socially. We have had cause to speak with his teacher about his spelling and writing skills but on the whole I've been told he's very intelligent and is a good and attentive pupil.
However he seems to have no Irish language skills. He can't put a sentence together, struggles to remember even basic words like colours, often can't understand basic sentences or questions I might use with him (by that I mean very basic stuff like " cá bhfuill... " Or "an raibh tú....." . He wouldn't know mé tú sé sí muid etc, never gets Irish homework, and I have yet to see any Irish writing that he's done.

My question is what standard is a second class pupil supposed to be at?

Go raibh math agat

ETA I've heard via other parents with children in older classes that the school in question has a poor reputation in teaching Irish. This becomes apparent when they go to second level and the discrepancy between where we are and the standard of other schools is huge.

D4RK ONION

There's the cirriculum, should contain all your answers.

http://www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/920c3fd9-1f53-4163-a045-90f07ebb6b71/PSEC01b-Gaeilge_curriculum.pdf

byhookorbycrook

I teach in a Gaelscoil so obviously our children would be of a higher standard. I would, however, expect a second class to know words like colours, cá bhfuil etc.
Have a look at your child's textbooks to see what should be covered.

Call me Al

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

I teach in a Gaelscoil so obviously our children would be of a higher standard. I would, however, expect a second class to know words like colours, cá bhfuil etc.
Have a look at your child's textbooks to see what should be covered.

Yes, I appreciate that. And I am from a Gaelteacht primary school background myself so this is why I am unsure of what to expect.
We don't get any text books home. He uses Sin É and prior to this year there was no text in these books, it was all pictures. It gave no indication of what level/standard to expect. If they are instead focussing on conversational language it isn't obvious here to me when I prompt him.

Thank you by the way :-)

j.l

Writing/reading of Irish is only introduced in Second Class to avoid confusion with English phonics, but a lot of teachers still introduce it earlier. It should be all oral/aural before this.

thesimpsons

I don't understand why all schools don't from junior infants upwards use everyday phrases in irish - put that in the bin, open the door, close window, pick up ..... kids will see it as a live and everyday language. OP how about doing this at home with him yourself. mine didn't go to irish primaries but their primary schools had a good respect and use of Irish throughout the daily activities and I thought this was the norm in schools. Mine then progressed onto gaelcholaiste and I was surprised that all english primaries didn't do this.

Call me Al

Thanks.
Actually I do speak a little bit of Irish at home.
They are used to hearing me with my dad from time to time. I also talk a little Irish to them every morning. My youngest responds well, and will try, usually with decent enough efforts. My eldest in second class kind of looks at me in bewilderment, stumbles to put a few words together, and because I am afraid of completely putting him off the language, I just let it go.

I see now we can't carry on as we are though and am going to be more consistent with the conversation in the future. I'm also I think going to talk with his teacher this week to see where he should be at, what is going on with him in class, and what I can do to help him.

Call me Al

j.l wrote: »

Writing/reading of Irish is only introduced in Second Class to avoid confusion with English phonics, but a lot of teachers still introduce it earlier. It should be all oral/aural before this.

It should be but I really don't see any evidence of oral/aural ability with my eldest so far. I also took the opportunity to check with the parents of a few of his friends this weekend who also say they have heard zero talk about or in Irish from their children since school started.

Which makes me ask what has been going on for the past three and a half years.