Gaelsciol V's English speaking primary school

greengirl31

I'm just looking for opinions here ...
My little girl is due to start primary school next year and I have her name down in 2 schools. One is a new, purpose built gaelscoil and the other is the local primary school which has been established over 100 years. Both seem to be really good schools but I'm wondering if my lack of ability to speak Irish have any impact on my daughter when it comes to helping her with homework etc when the time comes. I know probably about 70% of parents sending their children to Gaelscoil probably have the same level of Irish as I do but I'm wondering if you have any regrets ?? In hindsight would you send you child to an English speaking school ??
Thanks
A

January

Moved to Primary & Pre-school

Nead21

The Gaelscoil in my local area run Irish classes for the parents. They are conversation based and it's a great way to get to know other parents too.

Remember your child will be using basic Irish at first so it would be easy for you to incorporate Irish vocabulary into your home life...eg using mala scoile, bainne, fuinneog etc so that your child can have a connection between the "school language" and the "home language".

Best of luck.

byhookorbycrook

Will start of by declaring that I work in a Gaelscoil,in case I get accused of bias!!Most of our parents have little enough Irish,but the attitude is the big thing.

If you want your child to be educated through Irish,a postitive attitude to the language is essential. Little things like using words slán, obairbhaile etc with your child is a great way to show this.

As to helping with homework, your child will be able to translate for you, if needs be. Most teachers make sure children understand homework before going home so this should not be an issue.

greengirl31

Hi There,
Thank you for the replies ... If I'm honest the Gael Scoil is my first choice and the reason I'm questioning it now is that my little girls best friend is crèche is going to the English speaking school. Now this other girl was away for 2 weeks holidays recently and at the end of the first week my little one was whailing telling me how much she missed her !!!!!! I know I can't base my decision on what school to send her to on where her friends are going but it never occurred to me that she's miss her the way she did - Now I may well be over-analysing this and way to far in advance but I just want the transition to be as smooth as possible :-)

byhookorbycrook

Greengirl, don't let a "friend" sway you. very often, children of that age move along to other friends as soon as they start school.

Kathnora

I remember a colleague of mine wanted to move to a bigger house once. But, her daughter was so distraught at the prospect of moving away from her best friend that the family decided to stay put and build an extension instead. Six months later....what happened?..... The "best" friend and her family moved away to a new location!! Moral of the story...... suit yourself, not your friends (particularly when the friends are only young children)

Hellrazer

All of ours have gone to Gaelscoil and neither myself or my wife would have a good level of Irish.

I have to say its been the best experience for all of our 3 that have went.There just seems to be a different attitude coming from the teachers and staff that makes it a much more friendly school than our local primary.

So absolutely no regrets from us.

greengirl31

Thank you all very much for your input and I have to say it's kinda put my mind at ease ... If she gets offered a place in the Gaelscoil that's where she's going to go. It's working out better for after school care too. This little girl lives quite close to us and already calls at weekends and stuff so I'm sure that'll be enough to keep them going ... Anyway, even if they both did go to the English school there's no guarantee that they'd be in the same class ... Wouldn't I be kicking myself then !!!