Exemption form irish for national school child?

[MamMamMam]

Ds has dyspepsia and sensory processing disorder. He was diagnosed 18 months ago privately.

Since then he has been given a half hour a day extra help. This is almost always spent on phonics and spelling. It has allowed him to stay in line with the rest of his class and given him so much more confidence in himself. He is almost 9 and about to start 3rd class.

In the last year school has really turned up the heat on irish. He had a reader home each evening as well as spelling for a test each friday and a work book. I was never taught irish so im no help to him. He is really struggling with it.

I spoke to the school about this. They acknowledge he is struggling but say its compulsory.

Ds recently had his first meeting to get assessed on the public system. They have recommended he is assessed for autism and sees an educational psychologist.

I have been told he could get an exemption from irish through the educational psychologist. Im not sure if i should push for this. Will it have an adverse effect on him if he tried for 3rd level? How would an employer look at him not having irish leaving cert?

I wasn't educated in ireland and have no idea how the system works.

Oops ds has dyspraxia not dyspepsia

Irish is an entry requirement for some but not all of the universities and institutes of technology - in some cases it's English or Irish. Or Irish or another language.

But. If he has an exemption for school, he can apply for one for university entrance also. If you go, for example, to the NUI Galway website, it should outline how to get an exemption at that stage.

Section D of this form seems to be the one that would apply

www.nui.ie/college/docs/exemption.pdf

Thank you vvviola, I'll take a look now.

I could get helpbfor him with irish. A few friends have offered grinds but it seems awful to start down this path already.

I wanted DS to give up Irish. He has a lot of resource hours and I thought it would be useful if he didn't do Irish and could be removed from the classroom during that time so he wouldn't miss any maths or English etc. When the teacher investigated the requirements we found that he had to be below a certain level in English to be allowed to drop Irish, and he was well above that level as he's quite good at English.

It's a shame really as he was born outside Ireland so isn't required to have Irish for university anyway.

DS1 got exemption from Irish on the basis of dyslexia just before he started secondary school. We got him assessed privately by an educational psychologist & it was worth every penny.

Unfortunately the dyslexia was diagnosed quite late and he did have to struggle with Irish all through primary school, but at least he didn't have to do it in secondary.

I have been told it is much easier to get an exemption in primary school rather than secondary, so in your shoes I'd be putting the wheels in motion to get assessments done.

vvviola's advice above is correct. If your son gets an exemption from Irish at school because of a specific learning disability, he will be able to get an exemption from presenting Irish at third level using the form she linked to.

Institutes of technology require either Irish or English, so he wouldn't need an exemption there. If I remember correctly, some science and engineering courses in universities don't require Irish either.

I'm just wondering if your DS was born in Ireland? If by chance he wasn't, he will automatically be exempt from presenting Irish at third level at NUI universities. You will need to fill in section B of the form vvviola linked to when he applies for third level courses.

My own three were all born outside Ireland, and my two younger DC both decided not to sit their Irish leaving certificate exams to reduce the pressure on themselves, although they did do Irish at school.

Both older DC are working and neither has found that not having Irish has been an obstacle with employers.

Ds was born in ireland so he can't get an exemption on that basis.

He came out average on his drumcondra tests at the end of this year, but thats because hes getting extra help with english. He would definitely be struggling with English without it.

He is such a bright boy. Very capable. He works so much better in small groups or 1:1.

Glad to hear your dc's got on well without irish drama

Thank you maybe. Thats so reassuring to hear. I worry so much about him but in my heart i know he'll be fine. I dont want to do something to risk his future.

I'm relaying on my dd who is a year younger to help us out. She is flourishing at irish

Thanks maryz. I've already tracked down our schools ed psychologist so if he hasn't recived a date by August he will go privately. There is no danger of him getting extra help at home. I haven't a clue as I was never taught irish and dh isn't home at homework time. Dd how has just turned 7 knows more that ds who 9 or I.

I can see what you mean about national school not being keen on the exemption but i know its the best thing for ds. I feel he has enough to deal with concentrating on english.

We have had all assessments carried out privately until now. Even though he was referred 18 months ago we have only had our assessment meeting with the public team a few weeks ago.

It so sad that if we didn't pay he would have been left lagging behind

Glad you've got things moving MamMamMam. It's so annoying that you have to pay, but sadly it's often the only way to get things done.

It is really hard but I think the gov has delegated the decision to the principal of national school now, but they don't want to do that.

I am currently attempting to get an exemption for my son. He couldn't speak 'til he was four. It's so ridiculous.

I'm not giving up yet. Last year, he threw his new irish work books in to the recycling!