New Gaelic Primary in Glasgow

[Sevendown]

In addition to SGG and Glendale from August 18 there will be a new annexe of SGG first in Whiteinch then at Cartvale Scool in Govan from 2019.

Apparently this means every parent who requests a Gaelic place will be given one.

It sounds like good news but will mean disruption and possible sibling splitting for those in the south west of the city.

Quite disappointed in this news. EAL support has been cut to the bone, as has ASN support. Why are GCC prioritising Gaelic?!

It's a separatist way of pushing difference. Like all those Gaelic signs in case a Gaelic speaker suddenly forgets English.

Learning any second language is very good for a child's brain development, and for their ability to learn another language in the future.

So why not concentrate on a useful language like Mandarin or Polish - far more chance of running into a speaker of one of those in Glasgow than a Gaelic speaker.

At least one academic believes cultural damage is being done as 25% of the teachers spoke the Lewis dialect and 17.5% spoke Gaelic from South Uist. But only 9% of Scotland's Gaelic medium teachers spoke Skye Gaelic, 8% North Uist and 7% Barra.

It costs the same to educate a child in Gaelic medium as it does in English medium. Gaelic teachers aren't paid more. The school doesn't use expensive Gaelic resources.
And cdtaylor ... my relative lost all her acquired second language English after a brain injury. I've also known people who have had a stroke to lose their second language and return to their first. It's a distinct possibility with people living longer.

MaybesAye - your relative could just have easily lost Gaelic.

I'm not complaining about the cost of teaching Gaelic just that for the same money they could be taught a useful language.

What do you mean by useful? These children will have access to a whole body of works (gaelic literature, media, arts etc, etc) that would otherwise be unavailable to them.

Maybe teachers who can speak Gaelic are more readily available.

I have a Polish friend who was a teacher in Poland and speaks excellent English. She would like to teach here, whether in English or Polish, but has to acquire more qualifications before she will be allowed to do so.

There is a shortage of Gaelic teachers to the point it has been suggested that other entry requirements be waived for Gaelic teacher training.

Useful... hmm. My first language. The first language of my entire family ... friends ... colleagues... so yeh, pretty useful.

Qualifications for teaching HAVE NOT been relaxed to allow Gaelic speakers easier entry. So that's bollocks. There is talk of allowing simultaneous acquisition of maths/English quals IF you have the requisite degree to teach a subject. That would apply to English only speaking teachers as well. I feel like I'm playing 'Crap that people spout about Gaidhlig' Bingo. Next someone will start on about the so-called millions spent on road signage into Gaidhlig.

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/further-blow-island-school-qualified-12066708

Here is a report of a Canadian teacher of Gaelic being refused permission, by the home office, to take up a post offered to her after no UK candidates were found for it.

The point still stands that EAL support is being cut. The Gaelic schools are overwhelmingly white and middle class. They have extremely low levels of SEN.

I believe that support for ASN children and EAL children (and indeed, ASNEAL children!) ought to be prioritised over Gaelic.

Presumably, the children at the SGG would need to be educated somewhere if they weren't at a Gaelic School? This is not 'extra' money - it's the same money that would be used schooling these children regardless of language. Your problem with EAL budgets being cut is valid but has nothing to do with providing a bilingual education. It's not one or the other.

I don't think it's a case of either or vis a vis EAL. Personally as a native speaker of Gaidhlig I like that I can send my kids to be educated in their first language. Something denied me and my parents. WRT the GME sector -small as it is - there is absolutely nothing to stop anyone placing a request for GME other than numbers and that's life in most successful schools. Gàidhlig is popular because it successfully teaches children in two languages conferring a ton of intangible benefits.

Personally as a native speaker of Gaidhlig I like that I can send my kids to be educated in their first language.

Do all children not deserve to have some education in their first language? We've got huge (historic) communities with different languages in the city. There was a report the other day about how homogenous the teaching profession is and how it doesn't reflect school populations.

I personally think more special schools would be more valuable.

Interesting info graphic here, although it might be a little out of date (2014). www.understandingglasgow.com/indicators/children/education/overview

2000 children in Glasgow are asylum seekers while the Gaelic school population is under 1000.

Do all children not deserve to have some education in their first language? We've got huge (historic) communities with different languages in the city.

Of course they do but to the best of my knowledge Polish, Lithuanian, Arabic, Urdu, Italian etc are not minority languages and not under the cosh of the majority language. If you want to be taught in Gaidhlig then pretty much Scotland is it. All these other languages are not in any danger of dying out and that is very much a part of what GME in Scotland is trying to achieve.

Gaelic is alive and well in Canada and Australia. I object to Gaelic is Scotlands language though. It was imported, parts of Scotland never spoke it. Where is the support for Scots or Doric? They aren't different enough from English for the SNP.

Cd. Gaidhlig is minuscule in these other countries and not native. WRT Doric and Scots? That's not my fight that's someone else's. And FYI and just to be clear... not all native Gàidhlig speakers are nationalists or SNP voters. I should really shout HOUSE because you've rocked up up with a metric *f ton of anti Gaidhlig crap in the Anti Gaidhlig Bingo Card. You hate it and that's obvious.

"At least one academic believes cultural damage is being done as 25% of the teachers spoke the Lewis dialect and 17.5% spoke Gaelic from South Uist. But only 9% of Scotland's Gaelic medium teachers spoke Skye Gaelic, 8% North Uist and 7% Barra."

That's really interesting - do you have a link? I often think there's a new dialect emerging - Glasgow Gaidhlig. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, imo, it's how a language evolves and develops.

Yes. I'd like to know who the academic is/are. Link please. You can't force a representative number of islanders with Gàidhlig to teach to make sure that each Gàidhlig accent is covered.

All this Gaelic is good for the brain stuff...

The Gaelic School in Glasgow has almost 0% children on free school meals. Perhaps that’s what helps the school results rather than the Gaelic language?

Tinycitrus...and? So what. Neither does St Ninians in East Ren. What's your actual point. As I said above; not one single Glasgow family is barred from putting in a placing request to GME.

No that’s true...but not many families on low incomes speak Gaelic it appears...