Below you will find some information on what Gaelic Medium Education is and the Comhairle’s ‘Gaelic First’ Policy. Please refer to our Gaelic Education Policy for full information on how Gaelic Education is valued within Sgoil Ùige. Gaelic Policy Jan 25

FOGHLAM TRO MHEADHAN NA GÀIDHLIG (GAELIC MEDIUM EDUCATION)

Gàidhlig language and culture are key to the local community and identity. As a school, we embrace and promote the language and culture in a wide variety of ways. The majority of our pupils are taught through the medium of Gàidhlig, and those who are not join their peers in experiencing aspects of the culture and learning the language. Sgoil Ùige is a ‘Gaelic Rich’ environment where Gaelic can be seen throughout our school wall displays, celebrating children’s work and achievements, and can be heard across the school through whole-school events and a broad range of experiences across the four contexts of learning. We encourage all our children to explore and experience the Gàidhlig language out with the classroom and school environment as much as possible. We have strong links with our local Comunn na Gàidhlig (CnaG) officer who runs a local Sradagan youth club and supports the school with a range of Gaelic activities such as sports festivals and FilmG. Promoting the Gaelic community of our school is vitally important and we ensure this through Gaelic Singing lessons for all, a Gaelic Ceilidh band and participation in local Gaelic sports activities and the Mòd. Our Comataidh na Gàidhlig have recently started up a ‘Cupan agus Ceilidh’ Gàidhlig Community Café which we hope to run once a month to bring together all members of our community to enjoy the Gaelic language and culture in a relaxed and enjoyable way. These cultural events and extra-curricular activities give the parents and pupils opportunities to meet with other GME learners and help strengthen Gàidhlig as a family language. We recognise that the majority of children who go through GME do not have Gaelic at home. Therefore, we encourage parents to listen to Gaelic radie and watch Gaelic TV programs.

WHAT IS GAELIC MEDIUM EDUCATION?

Gàidhlig medium education involved 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 (known as Gaelic Learners). 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 ‘total-immersion’.

GAELIC TEACHING METHODOLOGY

From Sgoil-Àraich/P1 until the latter stages of 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 towards the end of P3/the beginning of P4 that English is introduced. In P4 and P5, 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 Gaelic and we make daily use of Active Learning straetgies to develop the children’s language skills. Teachers utilise all available opportunities to develop pupils’ Gaelic skills – through songs, stories, rhymes, games and structured play. Learning is promoted through eye contact, body language, facial expressions and head movement. An oral Gaelic language framework is in place from the Sgoil-Àraich to P7. This is in accordance with the CfE outcomes and helps us monitor and assess the progression of the children’s Gaelic language skills.

GAELIC FIRST POLICY

Our local authority has adopted a ‘Gaelic First’ policy, where there is a presumption of pupils being enrolled in GME unless parents specifically request otherwise. Over the past six years, 100% of new entrants to P1 in Sgoil Ùige have enrolled in GME. We support parents who are not fluent speakers in a variety of ways.

Pupils who are not in Gaelic Medium Education are known as ‘Gaelic Learners’. This is to bring unity to the school, where all children receive their entitlement to learn the Gaelic language and engage in Gaelic activities and experiences together.

Parents who are interested in educating their children through Gàidhlig are welcome to contact the school and learn more about it from the Head Teacher.