Gaelscoil - Tips

chases0102

Hi all,

We enrolled our son into the local Gaelscoil, due to proximity of school, initial reports in the community, has a multi-denominational FORAS ethos that appealed to us, etc. We also both liked the idea of our son being much stronger at our native language that we are.

Neither myself nor my wife are particularly strong Irish speakers. We, like many, have LC Irish.

We would love to be able to help him along at home and would love to hear of anyone else who has experienced something similar, and perhaps approaches they used.

Also, we understand that there may be an initial delay in his English reading and writing. Again, what are people's experiences with this? Is there a way that we, as parents, can help him here too?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

byhookorbycrook

Most parents in a Gaelscoil have very little Irish, if any. Is there an option through the school to do Irish classes- not a necessity but can give the parent a little more confidence in themselves. I wouldn't push too hard on English reading , many of the skills transfer between languages. Things like letter tracking, punctuation, learning about the conventions of print, left to right etc.

Continue to read to him in English,encourage him to follow along, ask questions discuss illustrations etc. You want to encourage him to have a love of reading, whatever the language. Try to use a little bit of Irish with him if you have it- slán , cóta/mála etc. There's a great booklet from Gaeloideachas that you can get by contacting them https://gaeloideachas.ie/about-gaeloideachas/contact-us/

https://gaeilgedonteaghlach.com/ is a nice one as well.

https://gaeloideachas.ie/i-am-a-parent-pupil/starting-in-the-gaelscoil/