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Glendale Primary

8 replies

Kenrob1000 · 09/04/2014 23:20

Hi, is Glendale Primary any good? I've heard a lot of the kids around this area don't have English as a 1st language. Presumably this means a lot of time is taken up getting them up to speed?

OP posts:
prettybird · 11/04/2014 09:56

There are quite a few kids at Glendale that don't have English as their first language: the school has about 60% ethnic minorities. However, it is brilliant at dealing with it and is an exemplar of how to do so, not just within Glasgow but in the UK. The previous headteacher (who got an MBE and OBE for her services to education) fought for a bi-lingual teacher (the first in the city), who, as well as the EAL teacher(s?) (English as an Additional Language) "team teaches" across the school, working closely the all the teachers. The new headteacher (not that new, she's been there 6 or 7 years) has kept the same ethos going.

As a result, ds often had two or three "teachers" (including class room assistants) in the class.

For those for whom English is their first language (like ds), no time is lost. Their time at primary school is enriched by learning about all the different religions and havig a wide range of friends. The only time I ever noticed "pandering" (and that's too strong a word), was at the Nativity Assembly when they sang "The little Lord baby Jesus" in "Away in a Manger". Over the year, they also do a Diwali Assembly and an Eid Assembly.

It's a school with a great atmosphere - if you visit, you'll see that every square inch of it is used (multiple times) and it is very welcoming. The only caveat I would add is that the school is about to be re-built (it's bursting at the seams), so there will no doubt be a degree of disruption while the building process is going on. There is going to be a Gaelic medium primary school (feeding to the Gaelic Secondary) attached to the new school.

Ds is now in S2 at Shawlands Academy (placing request as Glendale feeds to Bellahouston) along with few of his classmates. They're all doing well and ds feels he got a good start at Glendale.

Great school. :)

prettybird · 11/04/2014 10:24

Should also mention that any child that needs extra help gets it: ds was a late developer in reading (didn't "get" blending till towards the end of P2/age 6.5). He'd spent P1 learning the books off by heart as he is bright. The depute head spent 6 weeks at the beginning of P2 giving him 1:1 tuition before we agreed to drop him in to the middle language group for his confidence. He moved back up in to the top group at the end of P4 or 5. He is now in S2 and in the top set for English at Shawlands in a class that his scary English teacher says is extremely capable and which is currently being given Nat 4 assessments. More importantly (from my perspective) is that he is a boy who free reads even if it is not as much as I'd like WinkGrin

Kenrob1000 · 14/04/2014 20:14

Hi prettybird thanks for the info. So he got in to Shawlands Academy? That's where we would like to go next. Mind you ours is only just 1 so looking quite far ahead!

OP posts:
prettybird · 14/04/2014 22:11

Shawlands says so far it's always been able to accept placing requests, so you should be ok! Smile

prettybird · 15/04/2014 14:21

Not sure which school you're in the catchment for but we'd assumed we were in Pollokshields Primary catchment as it is the closer school and that we were going to have to put in a placing request for Glendale. Turned out that its catchment area has some weird "dogs' legs" and our half of the street is actually in Glendale's catchment.

By that time we'd already wasted £20 on putting ds through the pre-admission process for Hutchie as a back-up - he "failed" it anyway (as at 4, he wasn't yet reading Hmm). I didn't really want him to go there anyway - and he's following in good footsteps as I too "failed" to get into Jordanhill at a similar age (and for a similar reason) - and I went on to get 6 As for my Highers (in a single sitting in 5th year) Grin

Kenrob1000 · 16/04/2014 21:12

Thanks for the info and nice one on the Highers! We
are in Bruce Rd, 5 mins walk so assuming Glendale. Got
a few years to wotk it out! Cheers Kenny and Maria

OP posts:
Kenrob1000 · 16/04/2014 21:15

Thanks for the info and nice one on the Highers! We
are in Bruce Rd, 5 mins walk so assuming Glendale. Got
a few years to wotk it out! Cheers Kenny and Maria

OP posts:
vioso · 26/05/2014 23:16

Our DS1 (6) has started at Glendale last August, so has nearly finished his first year. Altogether it was a great experience and he has settled very well. Yes, there are lots of children with other first languages than English, but it's a good mixture and excellent atmosphere. One teacher mentioned there are 130 languages spoken ? Not sure if this is true as I have trouble to think about more than 30 myself ! We had a successful placement request from Pollokshields Primary. I can only recommend Glendale and we are quite excited about the new building going up in the foreseeable future.

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