New Gaelic Medium Primary Unit for the Glen Urquhart area

[Rab Gordon]

It's just a small unit of a few kids so far within the main school, hopefully it will grow as more choose it. There's one Gaelic speaking teacher for the unit and we're expecting a new teaching assistant tomorrow and the idea is that the teaching will be done in Gaelic or mainly so.

Rab

Make sure to let the teachers know that you appreciate their willingness to adapt their methods and materials to Gaelic. Are they using English, too, or is the school Gaelic-only?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

The difficulty with teaching the required curriculum in Gaelic is that you end up with a situation where probably 90% of the texts are in English. This results in any number of learning difficulties for the students. For example, imagine teaching (or learning) chemistry when the lecture is in Gaelic and the text in English. Foreign languages magnify the problem; lectures in Gaelic, the text in English, and the translations in, say, German.

While I'm all in favour of the children having the ability to speak, read, and write, in Gaelic, I firmly believe that a "Gaelic only" school does in some ways reduce the quality of learning. Certainly in Ireland (where my son went to school) extra leaving certificate points (a 10% head start" bonus) had to be assigned to those students who completed their leaving cert. (similar to the British A Levels) in order to bring them to parity with those children who were taught in English, when applying to university.

[Mike_Oettle]

While teaching in Gaelic might not be practical for the entire school curriculum, I am thrilled to learn that Rab’s son is learning in Gaelic at school.
Scottish Gaelic has been at risk of dying out completely, and its use in schools will hopefully turn the tide.
I would not argue that it should be taught in all of Scotland, since the country was never entirely Gaelic-speaking, but it would be most appropriate in the Highlands and the Western Isles, perhaps also at certain schools in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and in Galloway, too.
It is to be hoped that the Isle of Man will also offer teaching in its own brand of Gaelic.
The situation MacMillan of Rathdown mentions is much like that in South Africa with regard to the indigenous Bantu languages.
There simply are not enough texts for teaching in these languages.
Sad to say, the parents of Bantu-speaking children largely prefer to have their offspring educated in English only, which deprives them of their own culture.
But it would be worthwhile to encourage the extension of education in any indigenous mother tongue.
(The question of teaching immigrant children in the languages of their ancestral countries is an entirely different matter.)
Regards,
Mike

[BobsYourUncle]

It's just a small unit of a few kids so far within the main school, hopefully it will grow as more choose it. There's one Gaelic speaking teacher for the unit and we're expecting a new teaching assistant tomorrow and the idea is that the teaching will be done in Gaelic or mainly so.

Rab

This is an intriguing development. Could you keep us posted about your son's experiences there? And how widespread are Gaelic medium programs? Are they running all over Scotland? Thanks, BYU

[Rab Gordon]

This is an intriguing development. Could you keep us posted about your son's experiences there? And how widespread are Gaelic medium programs? Are they running all over Scotland? Thanks, BYU

We went to our first parent / teacher meeting the other night which was our first chance to really talk about how the unit works in practice and our son was proud to show us round his school. We were very impressed with the teaching and how his small Gaelic unit fitted in with the rest of the school as well as how efforts were being made to make a bit of Gaelic accessible to the other pupils at the school.
I don't know how many Gaelic Medium Education units there are throughout Scotland but they're not uncommon and the numbers are growing.

Rab