Clarification sought on VEC school patronage
April 10, 2012
THE DEPARTMENT of Education is seeking “further clarification” from Galway’s vocational education committee on its patronage plans for the city’s first community primary school. This following concerns about the way parental support was canvassed.
Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn has already sanctioned a second Irish-medium primary school for one of the city’s largest suburbs, Knocknacarra, but has postponed final approval on its patronage pending the clarification, his department has confirmed.
The development comes as parents at the suburb’s only existing Irish-medium primary school, Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh, have pledged to seek a reversal of Mr Quinn’s recent decision to shelve their planned extension.
The growing suburb of Knocknacarra has two primary schools – Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh and St John the Apostle, both of which are Roman Catholic in ethos.
Four applications for patronage of a third school were submitted last year to the department – by City of Galway VEC, by the national Gaelscoileanna patron body An Foras Pátrúnachta, by the multidenominational patron Educate Together and by the Steiner national patron body Lifeways Ireland Ltd.
In its assessment, the department noted that Lifeways Ireland Ltd had not agreed to comply with all requirements, and that Educate Together had other schools in the catchment which were going to be extended – even though one of these two is over 3km away in an adjoining suburb, Newcastle, and the other is 15km away in the village of Claregalway in the north of the county.
It noted that City of Galway VEC had shown strong parental demand, while An Foras Pátrúnachta had not, but both proposed a multidenominational ethos and made the case for Irish-medium use.
However, it also recorded in its report that An Foras Pátrúnachta had raised questions about the city of Galway VEC application, as a letter seeking parental support for same had been sent out by a VEC secondary school which is due to move to Knocknacarra.
The letter sent from Coláiste na Coiribe secondary school sought expressions of interest from the proposed all-Irish City of Galway VEC primary, promising that “all students who have attended” it would have “automatic transfer rights to Coláiste na Coiribe”.
Fine Gael city councillor Pádraig Conneely, who is a member of the VEC, is seeking an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the issuing of the letter when there is already a Gaelscoil in the Knocknacarra area which is a feeder school for Coláiste na Coiribe.
Acting City of Galway VEC chief executive Tomás Mac Pháidín, who is on leave of absence from his position as principal in Coláiste na Coiribe, said that the letter was issued by the secondary school based on application addresses recorded for future years. It was not issued by the VEC, he said.
Meanwhile, Gaelscoil Mhic Amhlaigh’s case for an extension has been supported by all five Galway West TDs, two Senators and five councillors in the Galway city west ward, while over 3,000 people have signed a petition to have Mr Quinn’s decision to postpone work overturned.
The project to provide permanent classrooms for more than 200 children in the 450-pupil school was due to go to tender, having already received planning permission and specification approval by the department. It was dropped from the department’s list last month, however.
Concern has also been expressed by local politicians that extension plans for Scoil Náisiúnta Bhríde primary school in Lackagh, and Clifden Community School in Co Galway have been shelved.
www.irishtimes.com
Trilingual kids who will never be tongue-tied
April 10, 2012
You’d think speaking three languages would be confusing for kids, but don’t underestimate their ability to absorb
MY FIRST experience of trilingual children was living in Sri Lanka in 2005, where many of the kids I met spoke Tamil, Sinhala and English. I was astounded when I realised that they could also read and write in these languages, a feat requiring knowledge of three completely different scripts – the Roman alphabet, Tamil script with more than 200 letters, and Sinhalese which has more than 50 characters.
Indeed, to some of these children it appeared a language wasn’t real unless it had its own autonomous script. One young boy remained sceptical, despite my assurances, that French, Irish and English really were different languages.
Back then it never crossed my mind that one day I might have children growing up with three languages. Six years later I am blessed with two boys, Cóilín and Tarla, aged five and two, and thanks to their dad’s commitment to speak Irish to them, and the chance move to Brussels, our sons are growing up trilingually.
We’ve taken on board the standard advice for multilingual families to have a consistent communication system and to stick to one parent, one language. I converse in English with the boys and their dad, who in turn speaks English with me and Irish with the boys.
He made the decision to speak Irish when Cóilín was about nine months old, but the advice is to start from birth. Cóilín speaks English with us both, apart from a few words as Gaeilge that get inserted into an English sentence, eg “Come on, Dad, it’s time for iomrascáil [wrestling]!”
The number of Irish words he uses increases significantly when I am not around and he spends a lot of time with his dad.
Cóilín picked up French at his local playschool. Six months after he started at the age of two years nine months, we had some wobbly moments wondering whether it was all too much for him. But then, miraculously, he started speaking French and now he wonders why I am going to French classes: “What words do you want to know, Mum? I can tell you.”
For the first year or so Cóilín mixed words from all three languages, a phenomenon which is well documented among multilingual children. Gradually this stopped as he became aware of what he then called “Mummy’s language”, “Daddy’s language” and his teacher “Madame Mireille’s language”. The youngest, Tarla (2), is currently speaking a mixture of words. His vocabulary includes: man, péire (as in a pair of socks/gloves/shoes), pomme (apple) and au revoir.
Having grown up in a largely monolingual society I am amazed by my kids’ ability to absorb the languages they hear around them. But available data shows that, globally, monolinguals are in the minority. In this multicultural city many children are being raised with at least two if not three, four or five languages.
One time I was introduced to a Belgian teenager who greeted me with a choice of languages: “Français? English? Nederlands?” And I’ve met a Spanish/Lithuanian couple who converse with each other in English but speak their so-called heritage languages to their daughter, who goes to a French-speaking creche.
The advantages of being multilingual go beyond the obvious ones of being able to communicate and access different cultures. There are non-linguistic benefits too.
Sam Wang, a neuroscientist at Princeton University, says these include the ability to cope better with conflict cues; increasing so-called theory of mind, which refers to being able to understand what is going on in another person’s mind, a skill that relates to empathy; and delaying dementia.
It’s one thing growing up multilingually in Brussels but what about growing up with three languages in Ireland? Aonghus Ó hAlmhain and his German wife Ute, who live in Co Wicklow, speak Irish and German at home with their sons, Tiernán (16) and Fionn (15), and daughter Freddie (5). Aonghus grew up speaking Irish in Dublin and has been speaking as Gaeilge to his children “from before birth”.
“It would be a shocking waste not to pass on the languages we have available to us,” says Aonghus, for whom speaking different languages means “you are not stuck with one way of looking at the world”.
While he acknowledges that things have improved since he was a child, he says: “I think Anglophone Ireland has a long way to go to understand bilingualism, not to mention multilingualism. It’s very hard to find medical personnel who understand that a child can be bilingual or multilingual.
“If you suspect a speech difficulty you will at best meet a lack of understanding and at worst hostility. I know of people who have been told that really it’s their fault for not speaking English.”
In general, says Aonghus, people are curious when they realise that their kids are trilingual. “Sometimes [I get] questions about whether their English will suffer or whether I’m concerned that they will be confused.” His answer is an emphatic “no”.
Their boys, who were born in Berlin, “picked up English on the street” about a year after they moved to Ireland aged four and five. “There was no conscious input from us,” says Aonghus.
As is common, the children initially mixed languages and one of their favourite English/German/Irish anecdotes is of Freddie’s game that she loved to play by a stream aged three. “I want to schmiess [throw] clocha [stones].”
The language the children communicate in goes through phases, says Aonghus. “The kids spoke German all the time to me [except when they wanted something!] until we spent some time on Inis Oírr and they heard other children speaking Irish.”
Tiernán (16) says he is proud of his trilingualism. Apart from the obvious advantage of being able to communicate with Irish, English and German speakers in their native tongue, he says his trilingualism helps with his French and Spanish study.
Barbara Garrido from Spain and Olajide Ogidan from Nigeria, who met in Ireland, are also bringing up their children, Cynthia (8), Samuel (6) and Victor (5), with three languages. Their family languages are Spanish, English and Yoruba. Barbara speaks Spanish with the kids and says her eldest is fluent and that the youngest understands everything. When their dad, Olajide, is around, the family communicate in English, the language that they speak together as a couple.
Olajide spoke Yoruba (which he grew up with along with English) to Cynthia when she was born, but “somewhere along the line he stopped,” explains Barbara. He’s now back speaking Yoruba to the children every evening in an effort to keep their Nigerian roots alive.
Barbara says the reaction to her kids’ multilingualism has been positive and remembers someone, most likely her GP, telling her to “make sure to speak Spanish to them”.
Rory McDaid, education lecturer in Marino Institute of Education, echoes this advice: “The bottom line is encourage the use of all languages. Parents, don’t stop speaking to your kids in your own languages.”
He has come across a case where one family were told “to take out the Romanian TV. This has huge impacts in terms of family relationships and lots of international studies show the negative social consequences of prioritising English over other languages.”
He is particularly concerned that teachers and speech therapists should understand and encourage multilingualism.
For English speakers in particular, it’s easy to be lazy when it comes to learning other languages, and, as any mature student knows, it is hard work, so if your children have the opportunity to imbibe other languages when they are young my advice is take advantage of their good fortune. After all: Tús maith leath na hoibre. It will broaden their minds, expand their horizons and provide a lifetime of pleasure.
Resources
Growing up with Three Languages by Xiao-lei Wang, 2008, published by Multilingual Matters.
Comhluadar, the association for Irish-speaking families. comhluadar.ie
www.irishtimes.com
Quinn questions school emphasis on Irish, religion
April 10, 2012
THE AMOUNT of class time devoted to Irish and religion in primary schools has been questioned by Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn.
He said teachers had told him how up to 30 per cent of all contact time in some primary classes was taken up by these two subjects. “If we are worried about literacy and numeracy and this figure is close to being correct … then we have to ask ourselves questions.”
In an Irish Times interview, he recalled how some educationalists had labelled Irish-language policy as the “biggest single policy failure in Irish education”.
Last year, Fine Gael proposed the abolition of compulsory Irish after Junior Cert; it later abandoned the proposal under pressure from the Irish-language lobby.
Asked if he would revive such a measure, Mr Quinn said: “I am implementing the programme for government.” (This proposes no change in Irish-language policy.) He said he had “enough fronts” open at present, including the drive for major reform of the Junior and Leaving Cert exams. Mr Quinn said he would be happy to get some of these reforms “over the line”.
He stressed his own support for religious education. “I think religion is absolutely essential if you want to understand modern civilisation. But there is a difference between teaching religion and faith formation in schools.”
Mr Quinn said he had some concerns about faith formation in the new community national schools established by the VEC.
Last week , it was revealed that the Department of Education in 2008 gave a series of commitments to Catholic Church authorities in relation to religious instruction in these schools.
He hoped this issue would be addressed in a forthcoming report from the Forum on Pluralism and Patronage in primary schools.
On the general issue of school standards, the Minister said Irish people had “talked up’’ their education system when there had always been very high levels of functional illiteracy, especially among young boys. The most recent OECD report indicated that up to 25 per cent of young males are functionally illiterate.
While the system was not as good as it was cracked up to be, Mr Quinn said the overall performance of the education sector compared well with other aspects of the public service.
“Over one million people are involved every day in full-time education … and you don’t hear about trolleys in the corridors and you don’t hear about disruption. The business gets done.”
Asked about the department’s overall management of the education system, when Ireland’s rankings were falling in both literacy and numeracy, he said: “I can’t answer for the past. What I can say is that I am encountering no resistance from within the department to my reform plans.”
Mr Quinn said his priority in office was to overhaul second-level education, which, he said, “did not encourage independent thinking”. He hoped the new Junior Cert would be implemented from 2017, with a revised Leaving Cert being rolled out shortly after.
But he stressed he would preserve the integrity of the current exam system. The public still had faith, he said, in the impartiality of the Leaving Cert and the points system. He would be very reluctant to do anything to undermine the integrity of the Leaving Cert and the points system.
On teacher underperformance he said new powers given to the Teaching Council – the regulatory group for the profession – would transform the current situation.
He wanted to abolish the notion that “parents are powerless and that they are reluctant to complain for fear that it will do damage to their children going through the system. They now have a say that they never had before.”
www.irishtimes.com
No ‘big bang’ on changes to schools patronage
April 10, 2012
CHANGES IN school patronage should be implemented in a phased way with no “big bang” approach, according to the report of the Advisory Group of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in primary schools.
The report is designed to provide a roadmap for the transfer of Catholic schools to other patrons. In the first phase, it recommends 43 towns and four Dublin areas where there is likely to be substantial demand for diversity.
This will involve 18 dioceses and scrutiny of 250 schools, of which about 50 may be divested. Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has said he hopes to see 1,500 of the 3,000 Catholic primary schools divested. The report is much more cautious. It backs a three-stage process as follows:
* The department gathers information on the demand for divestment through parental surveys;
* Various school patrons provide the Department of Education with a range of options for divestment after consultations with school communities;
* The department evaluates the options and submits a report to the Minister.
For 1,700 “stand alone” rural schools – where transfer of patronage is not an option – the report says these must be as inclusive as possible and accommodate pupils of various belief systems.
Welcoming the report, Mr Quinn said: “We live in a changed and changing nation. There is a general acceptance that a greater diversity of primary schooling is necessary . . . The key issue is how best to promote and develop this diversity.”
The report notes an increasing demand for new forms of multidenominational and nondenominational schooling.
The report recommends changes to the 1965 Rules for National Schools which states religion is “the most important subject in the curriculum” and to the need for a religious spirit to “inform and vivify the whole school day”. These are considered outdated and have been the subject of much criticism, nationally and internationally.
The advisory group was chaired by Prof John Coolahan.
www.irishtimes.com
Dunne brings Irish campaign to Galway
April 10, 2012
Until recently, former WBA Super-Bantam Weight World Champion boxer Bernard Dunne was among the 98.2 per cent of Irish residents who do not speak Irish on a daily basis outside of an educational context.
When he defeated Ricardo Cordoba in 2009 to claim the world title, Dunne wanted to say a few words in Irish, but lacked the confidence to do so, having failed his Leaving Certificate Irish exam.
Showing the same tenacity and determination which marked his career in the ring, when he retired Dunne set about improving his grasp on the language, buying books and audio CDs and studying hard, so that he could raise his two children through Irish.
Two years later, the boxer was last week filming at the Spanish Arch for his new television show, Bród Club, where he encourages the people of Ireland to take pride in their language, and to take whatever Irish they have and “say it out loud”. In an accompanying web campaign, it is hoped that 100,000 people will commit to using what Irish they have every day.
“The aim of Bród Club is to encourage people to start using their language again and enjoy it. The one thing I’ve noticed since we’ve started the show is how much Irish is actually out there, how much people can actually say,” he said.
“I suppose there’s a fear out there of making mistakes, there’s a fear out there of using your language on the street, and that’s the aim now, is to get people out on the street saying hello, saying goodbye, saying thank-you, just simple things, as Gaeilge.”
Difficult though it may be for a boxer to admit, the former world champion acknowledges that he initially had “the fear” when it came to speaking Irish out loud.
“You’ve got to get to a stage where you’re going to say: ‘Look, I’m going to say it out loud. I’m going to say ‘Dia dhuit’ to somebody; I’m going to say cén chaoi a bhfuil tú?’ The more you use the more comfortable you get, and I’m at the stage now where I just want to have fun with the language, and I want other people to enjoy it as well,” he explained.
For someone who made his fame intimidating and fighting opponents, the Clondalkin man shows he is an approachable front man for the Bród campaign during his time in Galway. He welcomes all fans and well wishers alike, conversing in Irish with those who can, and gently cajoling cúpla focal from those who are more reticent about making a mistake in front of a sporting idol.
For Dunne, it’s all about “déanamh an iarracht”. “It’s just about making an effort. I try and just use it fun situations, and slag and play games with my kids,” he said.
During his visit to Galway last Thursday, Dunne also met with Laurence and Cécile Nichol from Renmore, who decided to enrol their daughter, Saoirse, in a Gaelscoil after being inspired by watching Bród Club.
“The fact that someone who didn’t speak it has now championed the cause has been an inspiration to me,” said Mr Nichol.
Mr Nichol’s wife, Cécile, is French, so the couple knew that Saoirse and their younger son, Thibault, would grow up speaking French, but although Laurence speaks some Irish, whether their daughter and son would ever speak it fluently was far from certain.
“I’ve had a chequered relationship with Irish myself, but I still have a grá for it,” said Mr Nichol.
Watching Bród Club got the Nichols debating about whether their children should grow up fluent in Irish, as well as English and French, and the fresh approach taken by Bród Club won them over.
“We were talking about it because of the Bród Club, and we just said, ‘let’s give it a try,’” said Mr Nichol.
Bernard Dunne’s six part television series Bród Club will next air on Monday 9 April at 7.30pm on RTÉ One.
www.galwayindependent.com
Lucht na teanga ag cogaint staitisticí an daonáirimh go smior
April 4, 2012
Agóid Náisiúnta ag Scoileanna Gaeltachta & Muintir na Tuaithe ag Ard Fheis Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre
April 4, 2012
Acmhainní do Scoileanna lán-Ghaeilge agus Gaeltachta ar Scoilnet
April 4, 2012
TG4 show tackles new oral Irish exam
April 3, 2012
As Leaving Certificate students prepare for this year’s Irish language oral exam, TG4 are set to broadcast a new programme, ‘Cuireadh chun cainte’ featuring actor Marcus Lamb which will ease students into the revised new format of the exam.
The programme will air on Wednesday 11th April at 11a.m to facilitate students preparing for the exam.
This is first year of a new syllabus for both the written and oral exam at Leaving Certificate level. From 2012, 40% of the marks for the Irish exam will be awarded for the Irish oral, an exam which takes place over a fifteen minute period.
This increased emphasis on the oral exam will mean that the expert advice compiled by educational experts for ‘Cuireadh Chun Cainte’ will be beneficial to students tackling the new syllabus.
‘Cuireadh Chun Cainte’ has been produced by Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge and Comhar na Múinteoirí Gaeilge, for students who will be undertaking the new Irish oral for their Leaving Certificate from 2012 on.
In the programme Marcus Lamb ( Ros na Rún, Corp agus Anam) explains the structure of the new oral exam and he takes students through a real-life scenario where a ‘scrúdaitheoir’ or examiner meets students of varying language abilities. He also explains new elements to this year’s exam which differ greatly from the béaltriail as we know it, including a new section where students have to comment on a series of pictures.
‘Cuireadh chun Cainte’ gives students the tools to successfully undertake each of the four components of the exam at either Higher or Ordinary Level.
The programme is suitable for students at both Higher and Ordinary Level, as practical advice is given on to how to avoid common pitfalls, and how to undertake effective communication with the examiner.
For those wanting to gain extra marks, extra hints are given to those with a good proficiency in Irish to help them add to their fluency, their vocabulary and their communication skills.
Extra learning resources such as a handbook and videos of individual poems are available free of charge on the Irish language news and information website http://www.gaelport.com/cuireadhchuncainteb.
GAELPORT
Bunscoil an Iúir chosen to help promote Olympic Torch
April 3, 2012
Primary 7 pupil, Tom Magill has been extremely lucky to have been chosen to represent Bunscoil an Iúir in the promotion of the Olympic Torch coming to Newry.
Boxing star, Wayne McCullough, also known as the Pocket Rocket, will be there to celebrate this once in a lifetime occasion and Tom can’t wait to meet him.
Congratulating Tom is past pupil Oisín Murphy, who was one of the senior Gaelic footballers of St Paul’s High School to have been crowned All-Ireland champions at the weekend. Tom is due to leave the Bunscoil at the end of the year and this occasion will mark one of the highlights of his primary school life.
Also, this week, Bunscoil an Iúir were delighted to receive the Inspectorate’s report and to learn that they were very happy with the work seen during their Monitoring Visit. The school Principal, Maria Caraher said, “The Inspectorate have given very positive feedback from their visit and I would like to thank the staff for their commitment towards this goal. I thank the parents and of course the children for their continued hard work and support and congratulate them all on the latest positive step in the life of Bunscoil an Iúir.”
