Why are Gaelscoils so popular with parents?(mod warning in op)

bigpink

Anyone else noticed this

Mod-Like every other thread in AH about Irish and the language this has descended into a crapfest. Get it back on topic or it'll go the way of all the others.

The Backwards Man

Ooooo wah, oooooo wah, ooooo wah, oooooo wah,
ooooo wah, oooooo wah

Duckworth_Luas

Has it something to do with them having children?

greenflash

At Gaelscoil Fiachra and Aoibheann won't have to mix with the potentially non white/Irish/Catholic children of immigrants.

legocrazy505

Probably for similar reasons Christians send kids to Christian schools.

Yurt2

Gotta imbue the childer with that requisite celtic soul.

Really though, smaller class sizes, less *ahem* diverse clientele and has that air of upward mobility about it.

emo72

greenflash wrote: »

At Gaelscoil Fiachra and Aoibheann won't have to mix with with the potenrially non white/Irish/Catholic children of immigrants.

i think thats it.

LightsStillOn

Back in my day we went to school in a hedge, and we were happier because of it!

Gatling

Better education ,smaller classes at least in our kids one .
And kids love it

Eugene Norman

greenflash wrote: »

At Gaelscoil Fiachra and Aoibheann won't have to mix with with the potenrially non white/Irish/Catholic children of immigrants.

No reason anybody can't go to a gaelscoil of course.

Duckworth_Luas

Gatling wrote: »

Better education ,smaller classes at least in our kids one .
And kids love it

Do you know the Hitlers?

According to AH they send their kinder to a gaelscoil as well.

greenflash

Eugene Norman wrote: »

No reason anybody can't go to a gaelscoil of course.

Apart from my unbaptised kids.

The Backwards Man

I dunno what it's like in the rest of the country, but the Protestant primary schools always produced the best Gaeilgeoirs in Donegal when I was young, probably still do.


If you want to be a good Catholic, send your kid to a Protestant school.

Allyall

greenflash wrote: »

At Gaelscoil Fiachra and Aoibheann won't have to mix with the potentially non white/Irish/Catholic children of immigrants.

emo72 wrote: »

i think thats it.

More likely Jack and Diane.
At least if they gave them Irish names they could pretend it's something they had always loved..

bigpink

Are they run private or fee based to have smaller class sizes?

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

not that popular here in Ennis, just another average school. what part of the country OP?

Gatling

Allyall wrote: »

More likely Jack and Diane.
At least if they gave them Irish names they could pretend it's something they had always loved..

He might be interested to read immigrant kids also attend gael scoils

The Backwards Man

Allyall wrote: »

More likely Jack and Diane.
At least if they gave them Irish names they could pretend it's something they had always loved..

Two American kids growing up in the heartland

bigpink

georgiecasey wrote: »

not that popular here in Ennis, just another average school. what part of the country OP?

Limerick just noticed after speaking with mainly mothers in a group im involved in

Eugene Norman

greenflash wrote: »

Apart from my unbaptised kids.

Are you confusing gaelscoil with Catholic?

greenflash

Eugene Norman wrote: »

Are you confusing gaelscoil with Catholic?

Religion is the first question after name and address on the application form for the gaelscoil less than 100 metres from my house.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

greenflash wrote: »

At Gaelscoil Fiachra and Aoibheann won't have to mix with the potentially non white/Irish/Catholic children of immigrants.

Nope.,There's a gaelscoil around the corner from me. I was greatly amused to see two little black kids out in the playground one day. Little Africans learning Irish...Deadly!

bigpink

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy wrote: »

Nope.,There's a gaelscoil around the corner from me. I was greatly amused to see two little black kids out in the playground one day. Little Africans learning Irish...Deadly!

Good to see

Eugene Norman

greenflash wrote: »

Religion is the first question after name and address on the application form for the gaelscoil less than 100 metres from my house.

Are you confusing a school 100M from your house with all gaelscoileanna?

Maybe most are Catholic. Most English schools are Catholic, but it's not 100%.

I'd get rid of religion from school though.

ballsymchugh

kids that can speak more than one language tend to pick up other languages easier later on in life.

greenflash

Eugene Norman wrote: »

Are you confusing a school 100M from your house with all gaelscoileanna?

No.

Eugene Norman

greenflash wrote: »

No.

Yes you were.

end of the road

greenflash wrote: »

At Gaelscoil Fiachra and Aoibheann won't have to mix with the potentially non white/Irish/Catholic children of immigrants.

and in a lot of cases both parents and children probably know nothing about catholicism. it's like those who are suddenly devout catholics when it comes to bashing immigrants
"jay come in ta r country and tak awa ar catholicism"

mdwexford

Baffling how at this stage people would still send their kids to an Irish speaking school.

Tigger

mdwexford wrote: »

Baffling how at this stage people would still send their kids to an Irish speaking school.

Schools can't talk silly

Skatedude

Dont know about gaelscoils, but i would have loved to learn irish in school years ago. We had many hours of irish classes, but were never taught irish. Seems such a shame .

Ruu

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Ooooo wah, oooooo wah, ooooo wah, oooooo wah,
ooooo wah, oooooo wah

Tell me, who are you?

endacl

greenflash wrote: »

Apart from my unbaptised kids.

http://www.colaistedehide.ie/

Nope.

Easca Peasca

The one in my locality is popular because of the principal who's there at the moment. Pure efficiency but a nice chap at the same time.

Would love to see more Gaelscoil's popping up.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

What amuses me is the amount of parents who send their kids to Gaelscoil, but cant be arsed learning the langauge themselves.

The Backwards Man

Ruu wrote: »

Tell me, who are you?

It was Why Do Fools Fall In Love? Ruu:(

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

The Backwards Man wrote: »

It was Why Do Fools Fall In Love? Ruu:(

Thought it was "there she was just a-walkin' down the street" just before the diddy diddy-dum diddy-do bit...?

DivingDuck

Princess Consuela Bananahammock wrote: »

What amuses me is the amount of parents who send their kids to Gaelscoil, but cant be arsed learning the langauge themselves.

I have zero interest in the Irish language and would dearly love to see the absolute removal of it for all official purposes. I would, however, send my children to a Gaelscoil if I believed it was the best school available to them.

I believe every parent should send their child to the school most likely to give them the best educational opportunities, regardless of their personal politics, beliefs, or education.

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

CrabRevolution

If anything Gaelscoils and Gaelcholáistí are less likely to have Catholic patronage since the vast majority of them have been set up in the last few decades. There's more and more opening all the time too from the looks of it.

One set up in 2014 in Balbriggan:
http://www.colaisteghlornamara.ie/Learning/Foghlaim

Another one opened in 2014 in Rathfarnam
http://www.gaelcholaiste.com/

One set up in 2015 in Derry
http://www.gaelcholaistedhoire.com/maidir-linn

All multidenominational.

I know the 3 in Meath, Coláiste na hInse, Gaelcholáiste De Lacy and Coláiste Phobail Rath Cairn are multidenominational too.

Very narrow minded of ye all to assume all Irish schools must be Catholic schools .

SusieBlue

I'm in my mid twenties and went to a non denominational gaelscoil. I picked up Irish so easily in a very natural manner and was fluent by the age of 9ish. Junior and leaving cert Irish were a breeze for me, especially compared to my friends who went to English speaking primary schools and really struggled.

My nieces go to a gaelscoil and it's so interesting to watch them pick up the language. The youngest is only 6, and just finishing senior infants.
The teacher will speak to the kids in Irish, and they'll answer in English with maybe 1 or 2 Irish words thrown in.
Basically, they understand what's being said but haven't grasped responding yet properly.
It's a very natural way of learning compared to the textbook standard found in many primary schools.

There are children of many nationalities in my nieces school, I don't know if they struggle or not but I would definitely argue that they aren't just schools for Irish kids only.

I'll definitely be sending my kids to a gaelscoil.

Toots

I'd prefer to send my kids to a European language school, especially seeing as so many jobs these days seem to look for a second language as a requirement, it would probably stand to them. Unfortunately I don't have a spare 5 grand per term lying around so it's not an option for me! :pac:

I hated Irish in school so would have no desire to send my kids to a gaelscoil. On a practical level, if they needed help with homework etc I'd be no good if he text book was in Irish.

Not sure about the rest of the country, but where I am there's a definite air of snobbery from SOME of the people whose kids go there. An acquaintance of mine was all smug about the fact that she'd got her child's name down for the local gaelscoil "everybody knows they're so much better for kids than those other schools" but came back down to earth with a bump when they didn't pass the 'interview' bit. Basically because they speak no Irish at home, priority was rightly being given to kids from families who do speak Irish, and they were over subscribed, so now her kid will have to slum it in an English speaking school.

Iwasfrozen

Easca Peasca wrote: »

The one in my locality is popular because of the principal who's there at the moment. Pure efficiency but a nice chap at the same time.

Would love to see more Gaelscoil's popping up.

As long as they don't replace anglophone schools mind.

Pherekydes

I'm curious...


...how many posters in the thread have children in gaelscoileanna?

beach_walker

CrabRevolution wrote: »

If anything Gaelscoils and Gaelcholáistí are less likely to have Catholic patronage since the vast majority of them have been set up in the last few decades.

Ah here, no place for your facts. AH has decreed that parents of children who attend these are massive racists, you can't argue with that.


If I had kids I'd send them to a Gaelscoil. Usually have better academic results, not to mention given the woeful standard of Irish language education elsewhere and its importance (however you may feel about it) in the whole education system. Sure if they want to continue with it through secondary school, they'd get a 10% bonus for doing the Leaving through Irish.

Look at me, I'm literally Heinrich Himmler.

maudgonner

greenflash wrote: »

At Gaelscoil Fiachra and Aoibheann won't have to mix with the potentially non white/Irish/Catholic children of immigrants.

That's complete and utter bullshít. I work with Gaelscoils every now and again and there's plenty of kids from non-traditional Irish backgrounds. It's great to see kids of every colour, background and belief speaking Irish with no hang-ups or negative attitudes about the language.

Gaelscoils tend to have better pupil-teacher ratios, newer buildings, motivated staff and involve parents with the schools. That's the key to their success, I believe, as well as teaching language in an immersive way.

snubbleste

greenflash wrote: »

At Gaelscoil Fiachra and Aoibheann won't have to mix with the potentially non white/Irish/Catholic children of immigrants.

I agree.

Allyall

Skatedude wrote: »

Dont know about gaelscoils, but i would have loved to learn irish in school years ago. We had many hours of irish classes, but were never taught irish. Seems such a shame .

Seachtain na Gaeilge every March

Sleepy

It's handy way of ensuring that your kids will be educated alongside the children of other socially aspirational parents rather than the little Beyonce's and Shaquilles of the Antos and Jacinthas from the bad end of your neighbourhood (and while they'll never admit it, it keeps away the children of Eastern Europeans, Africans or other immigrants who may need a bit more of teachers time than their own darlings since they don't have English as a second language).

Unfortunately, the Dept of Education encourage such social engineering by continuing to fund such institutions to the obvious degradation of the rest of the education system (since their existence increases the proportionality of socially disadvantaged or non-English speaking children in the other local schools - turning what should be a shared challenge into a more serious one for the rest).

The bonus points for sitting ones Leaving Cert through Irish are another unfair advantage these children accrue.

Their very existence is an insult to the majority of the population and a harsh reminder as to the power of the various vested interest groups of the Irish language lobby.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

beach_walker wrote: »

Ah here, no place for your facts. AH has decreed that parents of children who attend these are massive racists, you can't argue with that.

Really? Where?

aphex™

You know the foreign kids get a free subject for the leaving?

Arabic, Russian Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish..... I could go on- are all leaving cert subjects. Most of the people taking those subjects are fluent speakers.

So going to a Gaelscoil is a handy way of getting a free leaving subject (Irish) and helping them along in life.