Exempt from Irish- subject short on exams

FiBs

I have a number of questions around the one issue.
My daughter was brought up in the UK and so is exempt from Irish. I asked the school to provide something during the Irish lesson for her to do. They said they'd try but she's been doing homework in these classes all year.
She is now choosing subjects for next year and will be one subject down for junior cert.
My questions- she has always wanted to do high point university courses. I know this may always change but having 1 less subject will have to make this much harder? She is worried as she is very focused on a particular career path.
Should I be scraping the money together to do grinds to give her another subject? Should I keep asking the school in the hope that they will agree to another language subject if I annoy them enough? Should I accept that this is the fallout from me deciding to move back home?
This is now causing me sleepless nights as I know she is worried and I wanted to make her life easier by moving to Ireland, not harder.
Any advice gratefully accepted.

Grawns

Dont worry. 7 subjects is the norm but only 6 are counted for points. She's at an advantage over her peers.

http://theleavingcert.com/leaving-cert-points-system/

silja

Why is she a subject short? Can she not just choose another subject, or even two? I was excempt as being brought up in Switzerland, but still did 7 subjects for the Leaving. Many students do one "extra" subject for the leaving cert, especially if for example they think they may not do well in one of the mandatory ones.

Moonbeam

Junior cert is normally 9 subjects but some kids do less some do more.
Once she has at least 8 she is fine.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Junior cert will be fine its leaving where points is determined and languages aren't exactly easy subjects to get marks on. I would consider allowing her to do grinds while in leaving cert to pick up an extra subject IF she thinks an extra subject would make sense for her

FiBs

Thank you for all the replies.
It's unfortunate but the school feel they are unable to facilitate her doing another subject. They feel if I want her to have a 'spare' for the leaving then I should get grinds to do the extra subject. An expensive route as grinds from first year to leaving cert would cost quite a bit.

Moonbeam

FiBs wrote: »

Thank you for all the replies.
It's unfortunate but the school feel they are unable to facilitate her doing another subject. They feel if I want her to have a 'spare' for the leaving then I should get grinds to do the extra subject. An expensive route as grinds from first year to leaving cert would cost quite a bit.

I would look at other schools for leaving cert. I can't believe that there is no class that she can attend instead.

vamos!

Moonbeam wrote: »

I would look at other schools for leaving cert. I can't believe that there is no class that she can attend instead.

All 5th and 6th year Irish classes are generally timetabled to be on at the same time in most schools. This allows the students to be split into the 3 levels. They can then move down a level if they need to, without it affecting their timetable and other subjects. The vast majority of students who are exempt from Irish study, do EAL, resource classes or Polish/Russian/Romanian at this time. OP if your child is good at maths could they do applied maths after school? Or music? I picked that one up as an extra subject in 6th year and did well. I would try to have a 7th subject just in case one paper goes wrong on the day

CookieMonster.x

FiBs wrote: »

I have a number of questions around the one issue.
My daughter was brought up in the UK and so is exempt from Irish. I asked the school to provide something during the Irish lesson for her to do. They said they'd try but she's been doing homework in these classes all year.
She is now choosing subjects for next year and will be one subject down for junior cert.
My questions- she has always wanted to do high point university courses. I know this may always change but having 1 less subject will have to make this much harder? She is worried as she is very focused on a particular career path.
Should I be scraping the money together to do grinds to give her another subject? Should I keep asking the school in the hope that they will agree to another language subject if I annoy them enough? Should I accept that this is the fallout from me deciding to move back home?
This is now causing me sleepless nights as I know she is worried and I wanted to make her life easier by moving to Ireland, not harder.
Any advice gratefully accepted.

The students who don't do Irish in my school just do homework during the class as Irish is on at the same time for everyone (as in most schools). Your daughter could take up an extra subject. She could either to homework during Irish giving her more time for the other subject at home or study the other subject during Irish. What would she like to do after school? Depending on that, see what subject she would like to do as an extra. Some subjects can be done on their own with no teacher but she would need to be motivated to put time into it. Also if she decides to do another subject make sure she does the 'easiest' outside of school. For example, business is a subject to could do without a teacher. Leave harder or project involving subjects for school. Unfortunately the school can't offer her another class during Irish as I presume Irish is on at the same time for everyone. You could also have a meeting with the guidance counsellor to help you and your daughter. Also, junior cert is fine. In my school we do 11 subjects, I did 12 but a girl I know only did 9 (didn't do Irish or religion). So don't worry about that!

CIARAN_BOYLE

FiBs wrote: »

Thank you for all the replies.
It's unfortunate but the school feel they are unable to facilitate her doing another subject. They feel if I want her to have a 'spare' for the leaving then I should get grinds to do the extra subject. An expensive route as grinds from first year to leaving cert would cost quite a bit.

You don't need to do grinds from first to sixth year for her to do a spare for her leaving cert.

She can just keep up Geography, History or an extra Science or Business class that she wouldn't have kept up otherwise.

CookieMonster.x

FiBs wrote: »

I have a number of questions around the one issue.
My daughter was brought up in the UK and so is exempt from Irish. I asked the school to provide something during the Irish lesson for her to do. They said they'd try but she's been doing homework in these classes all year.
She is now choosing subjects for next year and will be one subject down for junior cert.
My questions- she has always wanted to do high point university courses. I know this may always change but having 1 less subject will have to make this much harder? She is worried as she is very focused on a particular career path.
Should I be scraping the money together to do grinds to give her another subject? Should I keep asking the school in the hope that they will agree to another language subject if I annoy them enough? Should I accept that this is the fallout from me deciding to move back home?
This is now causing me sleepless nights as I know she is worried and I wanted to make her life easier by moving to Ireland, not harder.
Any advice gratefully accepted.

Sorry, what year is she in now? The only thing she may need Irish for is primary teaching in Ireland. I'm not sure about exemptions so you may need to check that if she hopes to do teaching.

spurious

I'm sure the school would love to offer her an extra subject, but the slashing of staffing levels in the past three years is starting to have an effect that parents can notice. The school I work in is losing ten percent of our current staff while we have an extra class to be covered next year. It is chaotic.

There are children who sit 7 or less subjects for Junior Cert. and go on to sit 7 at Leaving Cert.. It is not unheard of to take up a new subject at LC, though of course the cuts will be affecting the choices schools can offer too.

Your daughter will be fine.

FiBs

Thanks everyone.
She is only in first year but has always wanted to do veterinary/pharmacy/medicine which is why I was worried about LC points at this early stage. She is more determined than I ever was so I want to do what I can to help her. I know she may well change her mind as soon as the school work gets harder. I was hoping to avoid doing more outside school hours as she does a lot of homework and sports. She would have to drop some sports which would be a shame. Just seems a waste that she's doing homework during all these Irish classes.

IMightKnow

I did an extra subject outside school for my leaving. I chose business as it doesn't have any project or anything like that. I took it up in 5th year when I did 1.5 hours a week in a revision centre, costs much less than grinds, then in leaving cert I did that class plus 1 private grind a week. This worked out very well for me.
I think this would be a good option for your daughter. You shouldnt worry about this now though. She should spend her Irish classes now doing French/German/whatever she does instead and this will give her a great headstart for senior cycle.

FiBs

FiBs wrote: »

She is only in first year but has always wanted to do veterinary/pharmacy/medicine which is why I was worried about LC points at this early stage.

The only thing you need to do at this stage is make sure she does science. The junior cert is important practice for taking exams etc. but her junior cert results will have pretty much no effect on what college she goes to or what course she gets - all it's for is getting experience of the subjects and experience of exams under your belt.

If I were you I'd also make sure that she'll have an extra subject for her leaving. If she has to do homework during Irish class that's really no problem with the amount of work she'll have, but make sure she doesn't end up with only 6 subjects. You've ages before you need to worry about that though.

FiBs

I was happy to leave the decisions about extra subjects until after 3rd year but she insists on planning quite a bit ahead. I think part of it is that she's having to choose between subjects she really likes such as business and science. She wants to do both but can't.
Are there certain subjects that are best done outside school? Business has been mentioned but are there many others?

Toto Wolfcastle

If she does business or science for the Junior Cert she will have more subjects available to her in Leaving Cert of the school offers LC bisiness/accounting/economics or physics/chemistry/biology/ag science.

She will not be left short a subject. Unfortunately the school has no option but to have your daughter sitting in an Irish class. There wouldn't be a teacher available at that time to take her for another subject. Schools can only work with the limited resources they have.

FiBs

Thanks everyone.
That answers all my questions.

meg3178

As was mentioned before, your daughter can pick up an extra subject for the senior cycle. If she's intent on following the medicine/pharmacy route, then Biology and chemistry are important subjects for her. Also a language other than english is required for some university courses. A good idea is to have these subjects plus a broad mix of others just in case she changes her mind. I know it seems like a minefield, but it will work out. In third year, take a look at university courses and their requirements before choosing LC subjects and this will help her to decide.

galah

really silly question, but why can't she do Irish anyway, if she's in 1st year now? Can't be that hard to catch up, if you're otherwise considering grinds in another subject from scratch?

Chuchoter

6th year here! I think its better having one less subject and will have no effect on her points. She's at an advantage because she'll probably get a better JC than most and this will be a huge advantage if she wants to study in the UK. Lots of people in my year now all wanted to apply for UK, realized they didn't do good JCs and couldn't get in.

One thing, I'd be really careful about saying your 1st year is going to do medicine etc in 6th year. I was one of these people who decided in first year I wanted to do medicine, picked all science subjects (which I now hate) and want to do something totally different. Had I been more aware of the other options out there I would have made a more educated decision. As well as this, 2 girls in my year have ended up with serious problems with depression as they were put as 'med students' really early on and are now finding they're not up to the points.

Grawns

Why do I think it's mental to do 7 subjects instead of 6! All I see is that it's a huge advantage not being made to do Irish. ( I did honours Irish and my daughter Is in a naoinra - my choice). I have a friend who dropped it in lc year as she proved to the headmaster that it wasnt necessary to matriculate in ucd. she was able to focus on her 6 good subjects. 7 subjects is much to much in
My book. Even 6 is crazy.

confusticated

FiBs wrote: »

Thanks everyone.
She is only in first year but has always wanted to do veterinary/pharmacy/medicine which is why I was worried about LC points at this early stage. She is more determined than I ever was so I want to do what I can to help her. I know she may well change her mind as soon as the school work gets harder. I was hoping to avoid doing more outside school hours as she does a lot of homework and sports. She would have to drop some sports which would be a shame. Just seems a waste that she's doing homework during all these Irish classes.

Surely her doing homework in Irish classes is reducing the amount of homework she has to do in the evenings? And on top of that she's obviously not getting Irish homework, so I'd imagine she has more free time in the evenings than most other students.

Anyway, I'd leave it off til after the junior cert - there are way more subjects available for LC than JC, like science and business both split into 3 subjects for the leaving. She should be able to either do a 7th subject in school depending on the school's resources, or outside school once a week and work on that subject in school when everyone else is doing Irish. A Polish girl in my class used to do applied maths with me outside of school and work on it during Irish. I did it as an extra so it took me a lot more time then in the evenings.

Ms.M

There are some subjects that are easier to do by yourself than others. You don't need to get her a grind. You'll be surprised how many teachers will be willing to correct her work and give feedback if they were asked. Just get her to ask them, they'll do so for a child but wouldn't appreciate being asked to do extra work by a parent (sensitive relations these days). She'll probably know exactly who to ask. She could actually be better off than being in a classroom that maybe has discipline issues. Having a teacher look over her shoulder would keep her motivated.