Any experience with Irish speaking secondary school?

[Starzinhereyes]

Hi, my dd is due to apply to secondaries next year. Dc currently attend a Gaelscoil & love it. All along we thought the dc would go to the local community college but they are really hellbent on going to the Gaelcholáiste Reachrann (bus service is available). They want to go as alot of friends are going & they love irish.... Has anyone on here kids who did exams in Irish? DH & I have a cúpla focal dc are now fluent....

Anyone? ☺️

It would be worth it for the extra points at Leaving Cert I guess. My DC didn't go to an Irish speaking secondary but my friend's DC did, and I gather they did very well. If they want to go I'd encourage it.

Thanks for replying, to be honest I can't imagine them doing Spanish or business through Irish but they are flying in their gaelscoil, we had just always assumed they would go to an English speaking secondary...

I have friends with children who have gone through and are currently attending. They love the school, the teachers, atmosphere ethos etc. A couple of small niggles, subject choices are limited very few science subject teachers through Irish. They are in temporary buildings which limits some facilities. Progressing to College has been a challenge terminology translations have proved tricky for her eldest. But the family would highly recommend it as a good fit for their kids. Mum has a little Irish but school provide excellent support to their learners.

DD will be starting Gaelcholaiste this year. Most of my friends' children went all the way through Irish as well and have gone on to take varied college courses including engineering and science. If they enjoy the language, it shouldn't be any harder than Leaving Cert through English. DD's Gaelcholaiste offers all the science subjects and honours maths, it's a large Dublin school.
I have basic Irish but I find I can still help DD with homework, I answer in English, she translates into Irish.

Thanks so much for the replies, it's a huge help.. DH & I have picked up a bit since they started school, tg4 has been a great help to me😅 @Marblessolveeverything it's a shame Reachrann is still in temporary buildings, I rang the school today to see if the permanent school has a date to begin the build & they said nothing has been finalised... Also only French or German is offered as the mfl dd had hoped for Spanish... @MissMaudSilver good look to your little one starting off, the more I think about it the pros outweigh the cons... Dd loves maths & I was hoping she would enjoy business but I do worry about the terminology & the transition to 3rd level...

The kids are learning the terminology in Irish for the first time, for science and business subjects. It’s true there is the overhead of learning the words again in English. That’s no really an issue in science subjects since the terminology is often Greek or Latin based, so similar in English.

To support on maths, I’d recommend to get the English version of the textbooks. Then read the relevant chapters and you’ll be able to support ok, the maths stuff is tedious to translate if you don’t have good Irish.

Learning French and German through Irish was no problem. In fact kids that do so, are much inclined to be better at oral parts.

@starzinhereyes, funnily enough the languages offered to DD are Spanish and German, we have French and Italian cousins, so I'd prefer those languages.
DH was educated through Irish, he maintains that it's easier to adapt when you are used to switching between languages. If your DD was interested in business studies at third level, there's always the Fiontar at DCU.

My ds is only in 1st year and it has been a bit of a weird year of school obviously but so far his gaelcholaiste has been a really good fit for him.
He is flying it and we were so worried about him starting secondary due to his ASD. I have barely any irish and his dad none but he is very academic so has never needed any help so that issue hasn't arisen. I have heard it can be difficult to get grinds when you are in a gaelcholaiste but I don't know how true that is. I don't really worry about the whole terminology thing, if they manage to sit their exams in a second language I think they will manage just fine having to learn some new terms come 3rd level.

My 2 eldest girls went to our local Gaelcolaiste and are both in university now studying Science....one is doing Biomedical science, and the other Biochemistry. They both found the transition to university, through English, easy as they said all the subjects were taught from scratch, in First Year university. They said even though some of the terminology wash learnt through Irish, the method was the same. My two younger sons are currently in second year , Gaelcolaiste ( twins) , and are doing very well. I only have good things to say about our experience, as our Gaelcolaiste is a smaller school than other secondary schools in our town. There is a great rapport between the teachers and students, and all 4 of my children have definitely benefited from their Gaelscoil education.
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