President Visits Coláiste Feirste

“On Thursday, April 22, 2010, Ms. Mary McAleese, the President of Ireland (Uachtarán na hÉireann), made a historic visit to West Belfast and Coláiste Feirste, the North’s flagship méanscoil, to commemorate the opening of the school’s learning support service. While there, she met with the founders of Bunscoil Phobal Feirste and children from every class and Gaelscoil in the North.

The attached photo shows President McAleese entering Coláiste Feirste and the Mary’s Gift Foundation banner commemorating the official launch of Mary’s Gift at the school in September 2009. Also pictured entering the school are Ms.McAleese’s husband, Martin, and Gerry Adams, the President of Sinn Féin.”

Torthaí na Gaelscolaíochta níos fearr i mBéarla agus i Máta

Irish-Medium Schools in Northern Ireland excelling in English and Maths.

International evidence has long indicated that children who are being educated through a second language tend to do as well, if not better, in their first language (in our case English), while also becoming fluent in both languages. Information based on research carried out in countries throughout the world consistently indicates enhanced performance of children who are educated bi-lingually. This advantage is observed across a wide range of subjects.

“Recent figures from the Department of Education, in relation to scores in English and Maths, over that last three years, have demonstrated that this advantage may also be the case in Irish language schools” said Dr Réamaí Mathers from Iontaobhas na Gaelscolaíochta, The Trust Fund For Irish-Medium Education.

“When we looked at data from the years from 2005/6-2007/8 in relation to Key Stage 2 results in English (primary 7), Irish-medium schools have achieved higher score averages every year, both at the level 4 category and the highest level 5 category, than non Irish-medium schools. Indeed in the last two years Irish-medium students’ results, which are heavily biased towards a lower socio-economic group (due to the high number of inner city schools), have produced a higher outcome for level 4 and level 5 when compared to the average across all Northern Ireland primary schools.

“In relation to Maths it also seems that Irish-medium schools are out-performing their English medium counterparts in the same category, according to these Department of Education statistics. These results, when reviewed along with international research from all over the world give us the strongest indication yet of the efficacy of learning through Irish”. said Dr Mathers.


Why are children in immersion schools doing better?
There has been much discussion on the question as to why children in schools such as Irish-medium are doing better. Parental involvement with children in Irish-medium schools may be higher and our teachers are especially motivating, having in effect two vocations. One vocation is firstly providing the highest levels of education and the second vocation is transmitting a love for and fluency in Irish and English. However, once again research may be pointing us to more deep seated and permanent advantages that bilingualism brings. In recent years research on children who are bilingual from an early age is showing advantages both in areas of understanding and mental agility. Indeed evidence is now so strong that Professor Colin Baker, Pro-vice Chancellor of Bangor University, Wales and one of the worlds foremost authors on bilingualism recently stated at an Irish-medium conference " The benefits that Irish-Medium Education must not be underestimated by society at large, be that parents, educators, business and government. The question is not should there be Irish-Medium Education but, because of the proven success, the question now should be - is any child not educated bilingually in Ireland being disadvantaged?

Mary’s Gift Executive Director Michael K. Breen honored at the 2009 Irish Echo Forty Under Forty Awards

The Irish Echo Forty Under Forty Awards, sponsored by Mutual of America, Kalikow, the Presidents Club and Cavan Crystal is a salute to forty men and women who have distinguished themselves in their careers and community efforts. Congressman Michael McMahon, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Ireland's Deputy Consul General in New York, Breandan O Caollai provided keynote addresses. Pictured above are Mike and Sheri Breen

Naíscoil and Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh, Ballymurphy, Belfast soar ahead

Pilib Misteil, Priomhoide, Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh, outlines his plans for the future.

Naíscoil and Bunscoil an tSléibhe Dhuibh have for years been known as providers of excellent Irish Medium Education, and recently the Education and training Inspectorate have agreed (see http://www.etini.gov.uk/), highlighting our high standards, our special needs, our ICT capabilities, and our reputation as being amongst the best schools in Belfast. A majority of our staff are products of the Irish Medium system, evidence if it were needed of our sector’s ability to produce the highest quality.

We also have a great wrap around service of breakfast club (8-9), lunch club for preschool (12-2), gap club for P1 and P2 (2-3), extended schools provision (3-5), and a floodlit polymeric sports pitch with changing rooms and showers which is open for school use or can even be hired. We have Easter and Summer Sports camps, and parents services. In short, we have a great site, a great school, great services, great staff, and great kids, but only a few spaces left in our Naíscoil.

We have a new building which is state of the art, fully equipped with all that a modern school needs, in a beautifully designed building. All that we have was started from the desire and belief and commitment of our parents.

The Naíscoil has been open since 1989, with the Bunscoil opening in 1993 with 6 children. We now have 180 with about 40 in the Naíscoil over 2 years. We have invested time, energy and money in creating a very vibrant and successful provision. Our main targets are now three-fold:

Build a new Naíscoil. We have £200,000.00. We need at least another £150,000, 000 if not more to build a purpose-built building, and then secure mainstream funding to secure the staff wages. We are submitting a development proposal to the Department of Education to achieve Nursery status, allowing us to employ a permanent full time teacher and assistant.
Develop our sport and recreational provision. We’ve done the hard part, invested over £600,000.00 in creating the infrastructure, now we want to develop the people in getting Irish speaking kids active, skilled up, trained and qualified and working. We want to employ qualified people to work with our youth, and offer placement to those wishing to chose a Sporting or Recreational employment route, resulting in Irish-Speaking coaches, youth workers, sporting and lifestyle officers, and community development officers.

Develop our community. From that which we grew, we now need to give back. Our parents paid for the very wages of the teachers who started this school raised every penny in the early days. We have always had a great relationship with them, now it’s our turn to show some leadership and help develop and grow a vibrant, economic, peaceful, harmonious, Gaelic society.

Encouraging tone and helpful facts about Irish Medium Education

A chairde, please see below an interesting article that appeared in Belfast’s Irish News.

Le meas, Mike Breen

There have long been discussions about the Irish language, the revival movement is over one hundred years old and there has been some fantastic work carried out promoting events, adult classes, Gaeltacht summer schemes.

All these activities and more have allowed the language to survive, with a small but committed number of language activists able to carry the torch from generation to generation. However, it was not until the founding of the first Gaelscoil or Irish-Medium school, almost 40 years ago, that the language movement in the north really took off.

There is much discussion about the sector and as with everything in the north everyone has an opinion, but here are the facts.

Some 246 pupils sat A-Level last year. Most A-Level students will have a reasonable command of Irish and a percentage of them will continue on to study Irish at degree level. These people are important custodians of the language and will ensure that it continues.

But to be honest, that is a long way from creating a community of speakers that the revivalists foresaw.

Nowadays, due to Gaelscoileanna we have more five-year-old speakers of Irish that we had for over 150 years. These five-year-olds for the most part do not come from homes with Irish. This year there are 458 of them in Primary One, almost double the number of people that sat A-Level. Almost all these little Gaels already have reasonable fluency, indeed in many cases, a greater fluency that many of the students sitting A-Level.

On top of this a rough 'guesstimate' would suggest that about a third to a half of current students sitting A-Level Irish have Irish as a home language or have attended a Gaelscoil at primary and/or post primary level. Indeed, next year, 68 students from Coláiste Feirste alone (the north's only full Irish Immersion post primary College) will be sitting A-Level Irish.

This is set to rise markedly as some 4,000 pupils are attending Irish-Medium Education and this is on the increase.

New communities of active Irish speakers are springing up.

One such community in Carntogher, County Derry has gone from almost no children with Irish 20 years ago to some 70% now fluent in the language. The reason is simple - the community group set up an Irish medium preschool and primary. The same community now has up to 20 families who are raising their children through the language, unthinkable only a few years ago. The revival of the language has revitalised this rural community which now boasts a parent a toddler group, two pre-schools, adult education programmes, a bilingual post office, gift shop, a media company, translation services and other emerging business and community development initiatives. Irish language is now the major source of employment in the area.

A giant step for parents is only a natural progression for children.

There is no doubt that for many parents, the idea of their children being educated through Irish seems crazy. The importance of educational standards and academic results drives the agenda so why would a parent go for Irish-Medium, does it not just add more pressure. Surprisingly the results of this type of education say something else.

Professor Colin Baker, one of the world's foremost experts on bilingual education, recently said that ongoing rigorous research on immersion education as practised in Irish-medium schools shows that children who attend them have significant academic, intellectual and social advantages. Becoming bilingual from an early age literally changes that way we think and perceive things, it effects how the brain is hardwired and it enhances our ability to think. These benefits are lifelong.

Research carried out recently on behalf of the World Bank indicates that children who are educated towards bilingualism from an early age receive a wide range of advantages. Indeed these advantages are so significant that the benefits are likely to be economically advantageous to the whole community as highly educated flexible thinkers are a vital ingredient in the work place.

The parental role for non-Gaelic speaking parents of children attending Irish-Medium schools is not only important but if approached positively is likely to be an enjoyable experience. Do you need to learn the language? Well, that would be good, but what is far more important is that you are supportive in your attitude to your child's experience and that you nurture a healthy attitude to reading and speaking be that in English and/or Irish. Language skills transfers as do positive mindsets!

A recent programme has been piloted to aid parents - it is called Opening Doors - and it deals with issues parents may have and equips them, through fun and easy format, as to how they can nurture their children and really enjoy the journey with them. This programme is now being rolled out throughout the north.

Irish Medium Education offers much more than most of us realise. The sector is now almost 40 years old here and the unique mix of community education it offers looks set to see it continue to grow.

An education backed by the strongest of international research, Irish-Medium Education offers the opportunity for your child to become bilingual, the opportunity for them to come to a real awareness of a Gaelic culture while receiving extra academic and social benefits that will take them through life. In today's world of educational choices surely Irish-Medium Education must be a real option.