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Preschool education

Get advice from other Mumsnetters to find the best nursery for your child on our Preschool forum.

Croileagan/Gaelic Nursery

2 replies

sleepymum12 · 22/11/2022 00:15

Was just wondering if there was anyone else on here who had issues with their child going to Croileagan from an predominantly English speaking household?

We have had an ongoing issue with DS at nursery not doing what he is told or being uncooperative in a way that does not sync up with his behaviour at home. He is usually well behaved with us.

He attends Croileagan because we live in the Highlands and Islands and our local authority has deemed this the default language for schools, so we have no other option. He is in speech therapy and the therapist has stated that one of his issues is processing and following instructions. We have noticed this at home, that we have to give him instructions one at a time or he will just do the first thing you asked and forget the rest. I am concerned that this issue, combined with these instructions being given to him in Gaelic, has just been too much for him and might explain him 'not doing what he is told'. It would also explain why this is only a problem when he is at Sgoil Araich. The speech therapist is in agreement, and is going to discuss with school, but she warns that they will likely refuse to detract from the curriculum in any way by speaking English to him instead.

I will have the option for him to go to English when he starts P1 next year, which we will take as we don't have much Gaelic ourselves and would not be comfortable supporting him through Gaelic Medium. This does not help us this year though!

I suppose I am just wondering if anyone else has similar issues with their child struggling through Gaelic education and faring better with English ultimately? I overall have no problem with Gaelic education being pushed but I don't think it suits every child from every household and I think it is having a negative effect on children with speech delays etc

OP posts:
Libelula21 · 22/11/2022 08:03

I think when you say Croileagan you maybe mean Sgoil-Araich? When did he join S-A?

I can see that this would be a concern for you. Have you shared with the Sgoil-araich nursery workers that the best care style for your son is by giving one instruction at a time?

Certainly it is a known thing that children learning in two languages will initially lag behind in written and spoken Gaelic, before catching up. So maybe the same is true of speech. I didn’t know that speech therapists concerned themselves with language acquisition?

I suggest contacting Comann Nam Parant, set out what you’ve just said, and that you want to make the most of your son’s one year in pre-school GME, and see what they say:

www.parant.org.uk/contact

Hopefully they will have some experience to draw on.

i hope things improve.

Daftmum47 · 22/11/2022 13:44

Also, maybe if he’s at Sgoil-araich still, you could request a stay-and-play, to judge better for yourself?

If he only started in August, he still be adjusting, but you’re doing absolutely the right thing by keeping an eye on it.

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