1st year in Primary School

LostInDharma

Hi,

My little fella is starting primary school this September and we went to an introduction day a few months ago. I was a little surprised about the number of non-English speaking in the classes.

Basically in a class of 20 at least 16 don't have English as their first language. I brought this up with some of the teachers and they said its normally not an issue as mostly the parents have very good English and as a result the kids will too. Normally only 1 or 2 of the kids will need extra attention in this regard.

So, my reason for writing is to see if there are any other people in this situation now or in the past ? Should I be worried ?

I'm also concerned about mixing during playtime, I know clicks can form in any school but when I'm sending my kid in as a minority its increasing the chance of being left out.

byhookorbycrook

16 out of 20 seems very high, but if they are fluent it should not cause too much of a difficulty.

Chuchoter

Maybe you're exchanging language for such a small class size (I did work experience in a first class, there was 35 in the class:eek:,7 of whom did not speak english or had some kind of learning disability, they all needed extra help so were at the same table and I was helping them). 16 sounds like an awful lot, but maybe not if its an ET school. I don't think cliques would be an issue in Junior Infants though.

Moonbeam

Speak to other parents of kids in the school or a teacher if you can and see what they say.
It seems like a very high percent of the class.

LegacyUser

I understand you are concerned Op, but how do you know the children are non-English speaking? Is it because they look foreign? Because you must know that many non-irish children are bi or even multi-lingual? My own son speaks 3 different languages and English is one of them.

As for the children not mixing...it was the opposite for me..my son was the minority and I was VERY worried, especially as some of the local children come from wealthy families and I had bad flashbacks to my own years of feeling left out because I did not have the latest Barbie or..god forbid..a my little pony!!

But my fears were unfounded..my son has plenty of friends and colour/ background has never been an issue. Unless you bring it up, children don't really notice these differences on their own until they are much older.

Try and talk to the other parents and see what they think. maybe your child can have play-visits and get friendly with a little buddy before school starts so they don't feel too nervous.

LostInDharma

Thanks for replies