can anyone give me chapter and verse on the Gaelic Nursery in Berkeley St, please? am i really going to have to cough up 10p every time i drop dd off, for example?

[AitchwonderswhoFruitCrumbleis]

any thoughts?

I can I can!!!!

My kids (well, ds and dd2) went there and are now in the Gaelic school. Its just BRILLIANT!!

The school are trying to agree something with the traffic wardens about parking charges for pickup/drop off.

What else do you want to know?

i don't think they've agreed yet, have they? someone in the park (possibly you, lol) was saying that people park at the back (access from argyle st) to drop off, but to me it looked like that was the teachers' parking and i wouldn't want to piss anyone off.

oh, and tell me EVERYTHING else too please. teachers? who's good?

are you at the classes? it all looks so MAD with the spellingh.

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Aitch - I'm going to bed now, but will answer any questions you have.

My children loved it (dd1 only didn't go as she was already in school when we moved to Glasgow). Great facilities, fantastic staff (one of whom is actually a former pupil of mine - made me feel very old), great curriculum, real immersion in Gaelic which has stood my dcs in fantastic stead for going on to primary.

Pretty much automatic entry to the school as well, a huge benefit!

My only complaint - really, only one, and it goes for the school too - is that it can be just the tiniest bit cliquey, and exclusive against parents who don't speak gaelic, -this from the other parents, not the staff at all.

But ask away!

i don't know who speaks it in dd's nursery class at the mo, haven't identified anyone.

do people buy tix then, aimsmum? gosh there are some lovely flats round there, aren't there? i was looking at a MAHOOSIVE place on royal terrace in the summer, was hoping it would go for a low price cos it was horrible (it didn't). but are there lots of students?

Not being a Gaelic speaking parent is not really a problem - I've picked up a lot of the phonics etc from homework (children now in p2, 3, 5). I decided not ot try to learn - I tried once a long time ago when we lived in a Gaelic speaking area and its just too hard for a grown up I think - or at least for me.

Most people do park in the teacher's car park tbh - we certainly used to!! They don't like it much!!

However, I would quite happily shell out 20p a day to get the benefit of the bilingualism and the fantastic school it is.

Haven't come across a bad teacher yet, honestly!

Oh and once they are in school they get a bus, so no bother there.

I stick mine on the bus at 8.05 and they got off at 3.30. When I was ill last week, didn't even have to get dressed!!!

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i'm hoping to walk anyway but i need to get the buggyboard for the buggy and it's not available until october. plus it's dd's first week so she's knackered.

what will you do when your children start talking about you in gaelic in front of you? and... i'm a bit nervous... what happens if dd1 just disnae take to it?

At that age, I think most of them do take to it - its natural for them to pick up languages when they are wee!

I actively encourage my children to talk Gaelic. There are enough English sounding words in there for me to follow it!

Has she started then? How is she getting on? Who is her keyworker? We had Miss Campbell and Miss Macneil and they were both lovely adn also incredibly helpful with the mobility issues that dd2 has, which was very reassuring.

just on monday there. i think miss campbell is acting principal at the mo, her teacher is miss macneil who seems utterly adorable. she's 36, fgs, and looks about 25.

Miss Campbell is in charge of the nursery, she was also dd2's teacher.

Miss Macneil was ds's teacher and he was utterly in love with her. It broke his heart to leave!

Miss Macintyre who is the whole school Depute is also great.

Miss Mackenzie, the other teacher, is my former pupil - she started when ds was there and when she saw me I though she was going to sink into the floor! But as I taught in the Outer Hebrides for a few years this happens - ds's p1 teacher was also a former pupil and now she's married!

It's nice to know another mumsnetter using the school.

harrisey's kids are there as well i think. (i've probably spelt that sodding island wrong, haven't it?)

dd really likes miss mckenzie, apparently she's very good at sticking.

.... I used to be harrisey ....

ROFL.

I changed it cos I used to live in harris then moved to weegieland.

Oh and my Mum was stalking me (now I don't care).

I really am going to bed now!

nice to meet you again, we should meet for a coffee sometime. i note that the 'should i move to scotland' threat has descended into mars bars and trainspotting.

LOL I knew it would.

I love to come to the West End for occasional indulgence, so yes, would love to meet up for coffee sometime!

CAT me, harri.

Talking about CAT...weegie, I am soooo sorry I haven't replied to your message. I was away on holiday up north with no mobile coverage - my beloved iPhone doesn't work for me up there! Just back at work today and had to sort through over 360 emails...anyway, excuses excuses. I have read this thread with interest as DH and I are still havering about the gaelic school.

DD had her first session in Nursery this morning, one near our house - I was wondering if we wanted her to go to the gaelic school, would we have had to send her to the nursery there?

Thank you for the thread, Aitch, or I might have not acknowledged Weegie's message for months and then would have felt very very very instead of only very .

i think that most parents do seem to be sendinig them to the nursery now, from what i unnderstand.

Hmmm, I thought that might be the case...thanks Aitch.

Hey Aitch, so you've gone for the Gaelic Nursery - is it full-on immersion in Gaelic straightaway or do they ease them in? I've heard that all the fees/charges for our previous nursery (and I guess for all State Nurseries) have gone up. We'll have to catch up soon. I'll be heading down Byres Road way a bit more often once the boy is in full time.

only a few times a week, glas. it seems to be very gentle, especially while they're settling the new kids in. the teachers speak gaelic, but the way they do it is clever, lots of pointing and english words dropped in. so like i turned up and the teacher asked dd if i was her mum, which of course goes 'aitch's dd? blah blah blah Mum?' with an inflection to indicate it's a question. so dd's nodding, and in that sense she's communicating. it's pretty cool. and of course lots of singing...

she seems to like it but dd's red group teacher at the other place is HORRIFIED by the number of hours she's doing... we'll see...