German Primary Teacher moving to ireland

wardwil

Hi All,
I am writing this post on behalf of my girlfriend.
She is a qualified primary teacher in Germany who specialised in German, Maths, Sport and Biology.
We have no idea where to start on getting info on this.

We have read that she needs to pass an irish exam within 3 years. Is this mandatory? I know many primary school teachers who can barely say their name in Irish so this is a bit surprising.

How is placement in a school determined?

Any help would be appreciated or if you know any German primary teachers living in Ireland that we could contact that would be much appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Will

byhookorbycrook

We don't have specialized subject teachers here in primary,science is taught, but not biology, likewise German is not permitted on the curriculum since the abolition of the modern language initiative. Sport is PE here, so she'd need to be familiar with the Irish PE curriculum. Yes, she will have to pass the Irish exam, it's a core subject here, so she has to learn it.

Firstly,I'd encourage her to contact the Teaching Council and see that her qualifications will be accepted here.Jobs are allocated from advertisements, which means open competition ,presuming the panel is clear. See this link for panel rules:
http://irishprimaryteacher.ie/supplementary-panel-20172018/
Jobs are usually posted on educationposts.ie

juneg

You know many primary teachers who can barely say their name in Irish? Really? Is that so?

Big Bag of Chips

wardwil wrote: »

I know many primary school teachers who can barely say their name in Irish so this is a bit surprising.

This is the surprising bit! You say you know 'many' teachers who can barely say their name? How 'many'? Roughly?

She will need to pass an Irish exam, as mentioned above. If she cannot do Irish at all then maybe she could look into furthering her education to become a secondary teacher where she could specialise in maybe German and PE? One way or another she will need to complete further courses to teach here, so her choice would be which path to take.

I'm not sure if she'd get substitute hours without Irish, one of the teachers might advise that. But she definitely will not get any sort of long term job without it.

James Bond Junior

wardwil wrote: »

Hi All,
I am writing this post on behalf of my girlfriend.
She is a qualified primary teacher in Germany who specialised in German, Maths, Sport and Biology.
We have no idea where to start on getting info on this.

We have read that she needs to pass an irish exam within 3 years. Is this mandatory? I know many primary school teachers who can barely say their name in Irish so this is a bit surprising.

How is placement in a school determined?

Any help would be appreciated or if you know any German primary teachers living in Ireland that we could contact that would be much appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Will

Séamus Ó Bondaigh is ainm dom.

Big Bag of Chips

James Bond Junior wrote: »

Séamus Ó Bondaigh Óg is ainm dom.

Fixed your post

Bob_Marley

wardwil wrote: »

We have read that she needs to pass an irish exam within 3 years. Is this mandatory?

People may or may not like the mandatory Irish requirement, you can complain about it and the logic of it till the cows come home but all that is going to do is hold you back. The best thing to do from a mental health point of view is just get on with it, learn Irish, embrace it, and pass it. Someone from the continent should think nothing of learning another language anyways.

Cash_Q

I'm also extremely surprised that you know any - never mind many - Irish primary school teachers who cannot say their own name in Irish.

No matter what route is taken to train as a primary teacher in Ireland, an honours level C grade in Leaving Cert Irish is mandatory entry criteria, whether at undergrad or post grad level.

Your girlfriend should contact the Teaching Council who can tell her what she needs to do to work as a teacher here.

silverharp

as a general point she could try st. killians in clonskeagh , they employ german national teachers, as its a private school she wouldnt need to be registered here to teach

v638sg7k1a92bx

St. Kilians "German School" in Clonskeagh would be worth a try. As a previous poster mentioned they're are not regulated by the Government so she wouldn't need to be registered with the teaching council, which is a separate issue in it's own right (as a parent rather than a teacher)

From what I've been told there is a a shortage of German teachers in that school and that the German is mainly focused on the kids who have German speaking parents so I'm sure they would be anxious to get their hands on a German teacher.

I know two sets of parents who had their kids in that school for about 4 years. They started in Kindergarten and were still learning basic vocabulary and counting in German after 4 years. Apparently many parents in the primary school are actually spending alot of time teaching the kids themselves at home with the basic reading and writing or sending them to extra curricular German classes outside of the school. As a parent you wonder why you would send the kids there in the first place especially when you consider that it's a private school which you're paying for, I mean why else would you send you're children to a Deutsche Schule other than to learn German, but for your gf I imagine it would be ideal for her as she wouldn't need to register with the teaching Council and I'd say the school would also be very interested in have a teacher from Germany.

Best of luck

Cash_Q

Therein lies your answer; parents in the area have a choice between Alex/ Mount Anville/Teresians for girls or Michaels/ Conleths for boys, there aren't many/any mixed private schools. For many parents it's the prestige of attending a private school in itself rather than the particular curriculum on offer that appeals.

silverharp

Cash_Q wrote: »

Therein lies your answer; parents in the area have a choice between Alex/ Mount Anville/Teresians for girls or Michaels/ Conleths for boys, there aren't many/any mixed private schools. For many parents it's the prestige of attending a private school in itself rather than the particular curriculum on offer that appeals.

thata a bit unfair, it doesnt have the "snob" value of the schools you mentioned so if that was the priority you would send them to those schools, at a guess i would say the school is made up of 1/3 kids with irish parents, 1/3 with German connections and the remainder where at least one parent isnt irish so that would be an attraction in itself, also it attracts families that are in dublin on contracts where they would find it difficult to get into local schools at short notice. Despite what the other poster said you will get a better education in German than a regular irish school, in secondary school the former primary kids have their own german class, whereas the new kids coming in start from scratch.
the real question is why arent there any non fee paying model german , french or spanish schools in dublin? there would be an easy market for at least one of each

v638sg7k1a92bx

silverharp wrote: »

thata a bit unfair, it doesnt have the "snob" value of the schools you mentioned so if that was the priority you would send them to those schools, at a guess i would say the school is made up of 1/3 kids with irish parents, 1/3 with German connections and the remainder where at least one parent isnt irish so that would be an attraction in itself, also it attracts families that are in dublin on contracts where they would find it difficult to get into local schools at short notice. Despite what the other poster said you will get a better education in German than a regular irish school, in secondary school the former primary kids have their own german class, whereas the new kids coming in start from scratch.
the real question is why arent there any non fee paying model german , french or spanish schools in dublin? there would be an easy market for at least one of each

Leaving cert results indicate that they don't get a better education in German...

Cash_Q

Being friends with several people who attended that particular school my comments are not baseless. They are all Irish, from very financially comfortable families with particular expectations on education and career choices. Totally at odds with my own experience of attending a mixed community school in Tallaght. Yes Killians is a different type of school altogether to those others I listed but sending your kids to a private school is a choice, not a necessity, and it is not always down to the curriculum on offer.
I say this with 7 years experience working as an Sna/teaching in a variety of private schools.

silverharp

Eleanor Muscular Screenwriter wrote: »

Leaving cert results indicate that they don't get a better education in German...

do you have a link , i didnt think you could search a particular subject against a school? also the main benefit is going through their junior school, the secondary school takes in the kids from the french primary school in dublin and it takes in new pupils so for them its just another subject

Cash_Q wrote:

Being friends with several people who attended that particular school my comments are not baseless. They are all Irish, from very financially comfortable families with particular expectations on education and career choices. Totally at odds with my own experience of attending a mixed community school in Tallaght. Yes Killians is a different type of school altogether to those others I listed but sending your kids to a private school is a choice, not a necessity, and it is not always down to the curriculum on offer.
I say this with 7 years experience working as an Sna/teaching in a variety of private schools.

its not always the curriculum for sure but you might be willing to pay for smaller class sizes or that your kids are surrounded by other "like minded kids" and non fee paying schools that have a very good reputation can be difficult to get into

Johngoose

Your girlfriend doesn’t need Irish. She can work as a resource teacher in any school in Ireland. She would be a learning support teacher, taking kids out of class or helping the class teacher. She can’t be a class teacher, but can still get a teacher’s wage. She could also be a teacher in an autistic unit in a primary school here. No need to panic about the Gaeilge.

Cash_Q

Johngoose wrote:

Your girlfriend doesn’t need Irish. She can work as a resource teacher in any school in Ireland. She would be a learning support teacher, taking kids out of class or helping the class teacher. She can’t be a class teacher, but can still get a teacher’s wage. She could also be a teacher in an autistic unit in a primary school here. No need to panic about the Gaeilge.

What johngoose refers to is known as "Route 4" entry, formerly "restricted recognition" but would still need to be checked with the Teaching Council to see if her training is recognised. If approved under thus registration, she could teach in the settings described, and also as a special class teacher in any special school.

v638sg7k1a92bx

silverharp wrote: »

do you have a link , i didnt think you could search a particular subject against a school? also the main benefit is going through their junior school, the secondary school takes in the kids from the french primary school in dublin and it takes in new pupils so for them its just another subject

It's called the aggregated performance level data, it's not publicly available but every Board of Management in Ireland gets one and as a parent you're entitled to that information. However, from what I understand, some schools (cough cough) are reluctant to share this information with parents.

silverharp

Eleanor Muscular Screenwriter wrote: »

It's called the aggregated performance level data, it's not publicly available but every Board of Management in Ireland gets one and as a parent you're entitled to that information. However, from what I understand, some schools (cough cough) are reluctant to share this information with parents.

all statistics need to be interpreted, firstly its a mixed school, I had a quick look and girls get around 40% more A's than boys in the subject, secondly not a lot of kids take German so I'd guess the group that take the subject are strong in languages naturally. Thirdly lead a horse to water and all that, I studied Irish for 13 years and could barely write my name in Irish, I know Irish families at the school that have never taken their kids to Germany. If I was in that position as a parent I would have made sure they go to Germany, go on exchanges etc. If Gael schools work its because a lot of the parents back up what the kids are doing in school.

v638sg7k1a92bx

silverharp wrote: »

all statistics need to be interpreted, firstly its a mixed school, I had a quick look and girls get around 40% more A's than boys in the subject, secondly not a lot of kids take German so I'd guess the group that take the subject are strong in languages naturally. Thirdly lead a horse to water and all that, I studied Irish for 13 years and could barely write my name in Irish, I know Irish families at the school that have never taken their kids to Germany. If I was in that position as a parent I would have made sure they go to Germany, go on exchanges etc. If Gael schools work its because a lot of the parents back up what the kids are doing in school.

Sounds like a selective way to interpret the results, as the only German school in the country I would expect the results to be better considering that they are supposed to be using the language every day!!!

It wasn't my intention to get into the merits of a particular school but it sounds like you are doing a serious amount of work with your kids outside of school hours, which begs the question as to what are they actually learning while in school and what are you paying for?

I'm of the philosophy that let kids do the learning during school hours and let family time be family time. I understand that there is an expectation that kids should have homework but teaching your kids maths, reading and writing and sending them to extra classes while they are in primary school seems extremely disruptive to family life not to mention the pressure being put on kids at such a young age. Are the kids really benefiting from all this school work?

silverharp

Eleanor Muscular Screenwriter wrote: »

Sounds like a selective way to interpret the results, as the only German school in the country I would expect the results to be better considering that they are supposed to be using the language every day!!!

It wasn't my intention to get into the merits of a particular school but it sounds like you are doing a serious amount of work with your kids outside of school hours, which begs the question as to what are they actually learning while in school and what are you paying for?

I'm of the philosophy that let kids do the learning during school hours and let family time be family time. I understand that there is an expectation that kids should have homework but teaching your kids maths, reading and writing and sending them to extra classes while they are in primary school seems extremely disruptive to family life not to mention the pressure being put on kids at such a young age. Are the kids really benefiting from all this school work?

You always need to dig into the numbers, its not a German medium school , the primary was essentially a regular school that teaches German instead of Irish, that's about the height of it. As it happens the German government weren't happy with this (they give funding to the school) so now the school has introduced the equivalent of a German "Junior Cert" from 5th class to 4th year. This suits my older son fine so far and he is getting a great education as he is doing both systems. He works on his own and doesnt have any excessive homework. The teachers have always said they should read German books out of school , which he doesnt do enough of , other then that they spend 2 or 3 weeks at their grandparents during the summer so that's a win win.

v638sg7k1a92bx

silverharp wrote: »

You always need to dig into the numbers, its not a German medium school , the primary was essentially a regular school that teaches German instead of Irish, that's about the height of it. As it happens the German government weren't happy with this (they give funding to the school) so now the school has introduced the equivalent of a German "Junior Cert" from 5th class to 4th year. This suits my older son fine so far and he is getting a great education as he is doing both systems. He works on his own and doesnt have any excessive homework. The teachers have always said they should read German books out of school , which he doesnt do enough of , other then that they spend 2 or 3 weeks at their grandparents during the summer so that's a win win.

Yes but it doesn't call itself a "regular school that teaches German instead of Irish" it calls itself as a Deutsche Schule which is probably why the German government had a problem with it an needed to introduce the German Junior Cert. How many kids who don't have German parents get the opportunity to sit this German Junior Cert? I'd imagine the answer is very few because rather than the school teaching German to the kids, they are relying on parents like you to teach the kids German or send them to their Grandparents for a couple of weeks every year.

The other thing I don't understand is, how do they start teaching the Kids the German Junior cert in 5th class if all the German teachers are in secondary school? I know when we went to the open day the primary school had one German teacher. That just seems like alot of kids for one teacher to manage considering that she also has to teach German to the rest of the kids from 1st to 6th class who are not doing the German Junior cert?

silverharp

Eleanor Muscular Screenwriter wrote: »

Yes but it doesn't call itself a "regular school that teaches German instead of Irish" it calls itself as a Deutsche Schule which is probably why the German government had a problem with it an needed to introduce the German Junior Cert. How many kids who don't have German parents get the opportunity to sit this German Junior Cert? I'd imagine the answer is very few because rather than the school teaching German to the kids, they are relying on parents like you to teach the kids German or send them to their Grandparents for a couple of weeks every year.

you're right it wont be many but there are some who don't have German connections. Otherwise they still get the benefit of learning a European language in Primary school doesn't happen in most schools here. Otherwise its just a nice school with low class sizes which doesn't care what religion are or aren't , at the end of the day nobody is forced to go there, the school is getting bigger so there is demand for it.

Eleanor Muscular Screenwriter wrote: »

The other thing I don't understand is, how do they start teaching the Kids the German Junior cert in 5th class if all the German teachers are in secondary school? I know when we went to the open day the primary school had one German teacher. That just seems like alot of kids for one teacher to manage considering that she also has to teach German to the rest of the kids from 1st to 6th class who are not doing the German Junior cert?

I cant remember exactly but they had an additional German teacher who came over for the Science and Maths, I cant remember now who taught the History and German but the classes were split so there had to be 2 German teachers in the school at a minimum.

byhookorbycrook

Johngoose wrote: »

Your girlfriend doesn’t need Irish. She can work as a resource teacher in any school in Ireland. She would be a learning support teacher, taking kids out of class or helping the class teacher. She can’t be a class teacher, but can still get a teacher’s wage. She could also be a teacher in an autistic unit in a primary school here. No need to panic about the Gaeilge.

This isn't correct, apart from anything else, learning support as a post is now amalgamated with resource under the new model of support teaching. An SEN post isn't for life, she may be rotated into other classes or her job may be lost to the panel and she won't be able to manage without Irish.Same applies to a teacher in a unit.

Cash_Q

Yes you're right about the SEN post nw replacing Resource/Learning Support roled but she's qualified for it. Of course principals prefer to hire someone that can be rotated elsewhere in the school but if they can prove that they couldn't get someone and need to hire someone registered under Route 4 then they can do so.

Playmobil

Have a look at educationposts.ie. Most (all?) teaching jobs are advertised there, and there is a forum.