Or is the school?

[schoolissues]

Name changed for this

DD had parents evening the other day, she's in year 10 and goes to a Welsh school. DH and I don't speak any Welsh but we want to be able to help her with physics because she's struggling. We asked the school to give us some translations of what they've been learning and they said no because she'll be sitting her exams in Welsh. They said that if she needs extra help she has to give up her lunchtime. AIBU to think that she shouldn't have to give up her lunchtime when we could easily help her at home?

@iolaus

She also advised your daughter to go on the Bangor university site for the GCSE revision guides they have on there (in Welsh)

Is she the teacher? (Are you the teacher?) I’m pretty sure that the OP is ‘that parent’.

My son and I were discussing Einstein's theory of relatively and his views on nuclear weapons on the school run yesterday. Happy to be from that kind of family too.

Materials even for welsh exams will be available in both languages - wjec exams happen in welsh and english. As others have said there is alot of stuff on the website and you should use that. Frankly even if its all english teachers don't go around providing syllabus stuff you have to go look it up for yourself. It is slightly different to most language situations as dual language is the stance rather than welsh being a priority.

The thing is also that if your child has any interest in doing science or indeed any subject to a higher level and making a career out of it, there's going to be a point that she is going to have to learn the terminology in English. There's no point being able to wax lyrical about microbiology in quantum mechanics in Welsh if she wants to work anywhere else in the world.

if you choose to send your child to a Welsh school when you don't speak the language then you need to find a way to help your child, there are many translation sites out there.

Sorry this is basically saying, in large parts of wales, if you want to send your kid to the only bit shit school in the area you need to learn a new language. In many areas the welsh school is where the academic kids go as if you want to work for welsh gov or council you need to be bilingual.

Op they should at least signpost you to some support. They very well know they have the more able kids they should be facilitating them to do their best.

OP, she needs to know the English for all these terms--otherwise her post-18 options are going to be limited. English is the main language of the UK, and also the world's lingua franca.

One point though--what does the school do to support immigrant parents who don't speak good English? Not every parent is able to provide this kind of support at home.

n many areas the welsh school is where the academic kids go as if you want to work for welsh gov or council you need to be bilingual.

and presumably the parents of the more academic children (which the OPs child doesn't seem to be as she can't be bothered with science as she doesn't think it's important) are capable of making the effort to learn Welsh to support their children?

I would not live in a country and not make the effort to learn the language. I used to live in a country which, whilst not legally bilingual, had two significant languages and made the effort to pick up relevant parts of the language.

I don't understand why half the people on Mumsnet seem to be mean, judgemental weirdos.

and presumably the parents of the more academic children (which the OPs child doesn't seem to be as she can't be bothered with science as she doesn't think it's important) are capable of making the effort to learn Welsh to support their children?

Not liking science doesn't mean you aren't academic. You could get good grades in evert other subject...

Science and maths is part of the normal mealtime conversation. I presume a non-scientific family would spend time discussing literature, art, philosophy etc.

Really?

It's not implied, it's stated quite clearly by the OP when she said:

she won't go at lunchtime because she doesn't care about her science grades (we tried to explain how important they are, she didn't listen)

Again, not liking or valuing one subject doesn't mean you don't aspire to much, maybe you just don't aspire to anything in the science field. Could be amazing at say history, so I think writing someone off on this basis as non-academic and not aspiring to much/anything is awful, science isn't the only way to be academic or intelligent.

Not liking science doesn't mean you aren't academic. You could get good grades in evert other subject...

It's not the not liking science that I was referring to, it's the not seeing it as important. My DCs had subjects they didn't like but that didn't stop them as recognising their importance and putting the effort in.

I get what you're saying... I think it depends. Context things are taught in is very important - my tutor for my psychology degree for example, I asked her during a taster session if a psychology degree was for me since I didn't value maths/science at school and only got Cs. She said she was the same and not to worry - science and maths at school bored her to death and she didn't try very hard, but once she started studying it in the context of psychology and neurobiology etc, she loved it, and now teaches the subject to degree level.

I couldn't be bothered with French at GCSE, but I happily enjoy learning Russian as a hobby.

how often do you discuss Einstein's theory of relativity as a family

Surprisingly often. DD (9) is currently disproving the existence of Santa using it.

Google it. That's what anyone I know does where they are helping their child with a different language. Why would you expect the school to translate it when you can do it yourself or even pay for a translator to translate it.