Foghlam tro Mheadhainn na Gàidhlig – What is Gaelic Medium Education?

Gàidhlig medium education involves the use of the Gàidhlig Language for all teaching and learning across the school curriculum. Gaelic medium education is one of the main ways of achieving or maintaining fluency in Gaelic. This is especially true of children from a non-Gaelic speaking background. The children follow the same curriculum as their peers in the English stream of the school. It must be noted that it is not a requirement that parents must speak Gaelic in order to choose Gaelic Medium Education for their child/ren. The aim is to bring our GME pupils to the stage of ‘broadly equal’ competence in Gàidhlig and English, by the end of primary 7. Gaelic medium education is open to everyone, those who speak Gaelic and those who do not. Pupils who are not Gaelic speakers to start with, indeed who come from non-Gaelic speaking homes and communities, can be brought to fluency in the language through what is referred to as immersion.

An Dòigh Teagaisg – Gaelic Medium Teaching Methodology

From the Nursery/P1 until Christmas time in Primary 3, the children are in their total immersion phase of learning where all their class work and homework is completed in Gaelic. Therefore, it is in P3 that English is introduced. In P4&5 learning and teaching will mostly be in Gaelic as well as English, in P6 learning will be 60% in Gaelic and 40% in English and in P7, pupils will be learning 50% in Gaelic and 50% in English. All curricular areas are taught through the medium of Gàidhlig and we make daily use of Active Learning strategies to develop the children’s Gàidhlig language skills. Teachers utilise all available opportunities to develop pupils’ Gaelic skills – through songs, stories, rhymes, games and especially through structured play. Learning is promoted through eye contact, body language, facial gesture and head movement. An oral Gaelic language development programme is in place from the nursery to P7. This is in accordance with the CFE outcomes and helps us monitor and assess the progression of the children’s Gàidhlig language skills.

Gàidhlig san sgoil – Gaelic in the school

Tong Primary is filled with Gaelic/English displays of the children’s work and achievements. Display headings are bilingual and provide you with an insight into the ways in which the pupils are learning and experiencing the principle of the Curriculum for Excellence. Class displays in GME classes up to P3 are all in Gaelic. In P4&P5 displays are mostly in Gaelic and in P6&P7 they are 50% in Gàidhlig and 50% in English. The school has a Gaelic after school club which is held on a Tuesday and a Thursday.