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Blackleaf

A group of English people, and Gaelic-speakers, living on the Isle of Skye say they want a ban on teaching in English at a primary school.

This decision is not as popular as you may believe - these people have been accused of "fascism" by many of the islanders.

The Times February 03, 2006

We want our school to be Gaelic only, say English

By David Lister in Àird a Bhasair, Shleite

ENGLISH outsiders are among a group of parents being accused of tearing apart a small island community by calling for a ban on teaching in English at a primary school.

Gaelic-language enthusiasts in the Isle of Skye, including “incomers” from England, have been accused of “fascism” after proposing that the school on the Sleat peninsula be made Gaelic-only.

Sleat, known as “the Garden of Skye” for its lush countryside and breathtaking views, has a reputation for being a friendly place where 800 people live in harmony.

“This is a superb community,” said Neil Robertson, 51, whose ten-year-old son is at the school. “But this proposal isn’t just causing simmering anger. It’s more like an open wound. We don’t want to close the door to people who might want to live here by segregating education and limiting choice. We don’t want to be seen as just a quaint Gaelic corner of Skye.”

Although the proposal has only just been put forward for consultation by the Highland Council, already the rows in the local pub have come close to ending in blows. At a meeting ten days ago, about 100 people, not the 15 expected, turned up to express their disapproval.

Bill Fulton, a councillor, said: “I’ve had more than a few phone calls on the issue using words like ‘fascist’ and ‘mafia’.”

Like many schools in the Highlands and Islands, Sleat Primary School, or Bun-Sgoil Shleite, runs a “dual-stream” system, giving parents the option of having their children educated either in Gaelic or in English. Forty-three pupils are taking all their classes in Gaelic and 28 in English.

Donnie MacKinnon, 70, who has spoken Gaelic all his life, said: “It’s the incomers who are behind this, not the locals.” The pensioner, whose eight-year-old grandson is taught in English but speaks Gaelic at home, said that he was “sickened” by the suggestion that children would have to travel 20 miles to a school in the village of Broadford to learn in English.

Emotions have been high since a group of parents discovered last month that Gaelic-language enthusiasts had asked the Highland Council to consult the community about making the school Gaelic-only.

The Comann nam Pàrant (Parents’ Group), led by Murdo Macleod, 41, a teacher at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic college in Sleat, argued that it was impossible for pupils to become fluent unless they underwent “total immersion” — meaning that all school activities had to be in Gaelic.

Lucy Threlfall, 41, who is from Leeds but has lived in Skye for 13 years, has two boys at the school, one taught in Gaelic and the other in English. “I can see both sides,” she said. “As far as I’m concerned the status quo is fine but if it had to be one way or the other I’d be pro-Gaelic. The only way we’re going to keep the language alive is by encouraging it at every opportunity.”

DYING LANGUAGE

*Scots Gaelic, or Gàidhlig, is spoken in the Scottish Highlands and islands

*As “the Catholic tongue”, it was suppressed for decades

*According to the 2001 census, there were 59,000 Gaelic speakers. In 1901 tere were 231,000

*The stronghold of the language is the Western Isles, where 61 per cent speak it

*More young people are studying the language as Gaelic culture has become fashionable

thetimesonline.co.uk

SLG · Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:18 am Post subject:

Can you supply a link to the actual article?

azzuri · 'Our Scotland' Fossil Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 3792

This is a joke. I'm all behind kids learning Gaelic, but they also need to learn the fundamental basics of English if they are ever going to have a life beyond that Island. People get ratty when foreigners emigrate here without a grasp of English, and now the kids at this school aren't even going to be taught it!
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Rinty · Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:50 am Post subject: h

I dont think they are saying that kids shouldn't learn English, more that the classes should be taught by teachers in gaelic. I went to a school, like most of us, where every class was taught in English, it didn't stop me learning Franch and Spanish (my poor attendance of lack of intellectual power caused that).

If your kids go to school in a country where they speak Spanish the teachers will take the class in Spanish. In the Western Isles the first language is gaelic and I dont see the problem with the school being gaelic while having English classes.

Any time I have been in Skye I have noticed hostility to incomers who take part in their community. I think its quite a good thing that English speaking parents are willing to bow to the local language rather than insist on dual streaming which adds greatly to costs of running schools.

SLG · Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 11:35 am Post subject:

Rinty's spot on. The school is proposed to be Gaelic-medium, that's all. They will be taught subjects other than Gaelic. That would be a bit silly. The kids and teachers will all be familiar enough with English that I imagine they will be taught English in English, just not the other classes. Just like a really good Gaelic class in an English medium school will be taught mainly in Gaelic.

There is a lot of scaremongering going on here. The only reason it is being suggested in the first place is because there are so few pupils in the English stream and a growing Gaelic stream. The English nursery has already shut down due to lack of interest. If it was the other way round, and little interest in the Gaelic stream, they wouldn't hesitate to send kids to the other side of the island. Most kids who go to Gaelic medium education in the rest of the country have to travel as their aren't the numbers to support it in every school. This is based on cost. I don't see why parents wanting their kids to be taught though English should be any different.

The reason I asked for the link to the article is because it's a bit difficult to differentiate between Blackleaf's comments and the article itself.

wisnaeme · Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:37 am Post subject:

SLG.

Google search : West Highland Free Press, Edition No1761,Fri Jan 27th.front page. It will still be available to Sunday.

SLG · Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2006 11:13 am Post subject:

Cheers for that wisnaeme. Seems that their main reason is based on creating a truly Gaelic-medium environment for the children and that this has been born out the fact that the dual stream school at present is very much English oriented.

It also says that they council was asked to put this out to consultation. Not to force it through which might understandably rile some people. In the opinion piece by the head of the Sleat branch of Comann nam Pàrant, it sounds like he would be happy enough if it was to remain dual stream so long as English and Gaelic were given equal prominence in the school.

Aventinian · Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:15 am Post subject:

I don't see what is wrong with their present dual-system.

Surely an attempt to limit the choices of others is vaguely fascist...
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wisnaeme · Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:51 am Post subject:

Rinty · Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 8:23 am Post subject: m

wisnaeme · Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 3:24 am Post subject: Gaelic-medium only?

Council scraps plan for Gaelic primary School.

According to an article in Scotland on Sunday by Murdo Macleod,senior sources at the Highland Council have said that the council are set to scrap plans for a Gaelic-medium only primary school in Sleat on the Isle of Skye.Quote;The officials believe that Sleat will only become a Gaelic school when parental choice means there are no longer any families in the area who want to send their children for an English-only education.

Comment: Spinless,short sighted,ignorant,don't rock the boat,political correct,chinless wonders of wee toon quango and small minded cooncil poli"TIT"ions rule.Okay. Nach bochd sin.

SLG · Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 11:46 am Post subject:

I thought this would end up happening. I hope that they do make some changes to the school to make it fully bilingual though. And I hope that Comann nam Pàrant Shlèite don't settle for anything less.

I wonder though, how they can justify this if there is only one pupil who wants English medium education. Surely not a responsible distribution of resources and definitely not one that would be spent if it was Gaelic and not English that was the minority language.

Blackleaf · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:39 am Post subject:

London is the most diverse city in the world, with hundreds of different languages spoken by Londoners.

White Hart Lane Secondary School in Tottenham, North London (near Tottenham Hotspur's White Hart Lane stadium) has 59 languages spoken by its pupils -

Now mind your language

By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON
Political Editor

THE head of a secondary school where pupils speak 59 foreign languages has ordered that ALL lessons are taught in English.

Turkish children at White Hart Lane School had been taught GCSE science in their mother tongue — and there were plans to extend bilingual classes to Somali.

But new head Joan McVittie has insisted that English-only teaching at the mixed comprehensive in Tottenham, North London, would be better for the youngsters in the long run.

She said last night: “The issue is that these children are new learners. They will have to live and work in London and need to be able to speak English at a high level of competence.

“If you are learning so many new words in science, why not learn them in English?”

Mrs VcVittie added: “The outcome doesn’t justify the resources input. It is very, very costly.”

She has also brought back extra revision and coursework during school holidays and after hours — and has demanded pupils stick to the uniform code.

More than 70 per cent of White Hart Lane’s 1,000-plus kids have English as a second language.

The 11 to 18-year-olds speak everything from Albanian to Ukrainian. And the staff hail from 33 countries.

The bilingual scheme was introduced in 2001 by then-headteacher David Daniels.

Stephen Twigg, Education Minister at the time, said it was “very much the kind of good practice we want to promote”.

But Mrs McVittie’s U-turn was praised by the Tories last night.

Shadow Education Secretary David Willetts said: “English is the universal language in the modern world. It makes good sense for pupils to learn in English, particularly in subjects like science.”

Kids at the school speak the following languages -

Amheric
Italian Somali
Thai
Otomo
Hindi
Farsi
Russian
Triginya
Gujarati
Spanish
Swahili
German
Mandarin
Arabic
Punjabi
Somali
Ugandian
Albanian
Urdu
Spanish
Vietnamese
French
Lingala
Latvian
Luganda
Sylheti
Turkish
Kurdish
Mauritian
Greek
Bengali
Baluchi
Yoruba
Malay
Berber
Bravan
Bulgarian
Cantonese
Czech
Dari
Dutch
French Creole
Igba
Krio
Lithuanian
Norwegian
Pashto
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Romany
Sinhala
Slovak
Tagalog
Tamil
Twi
Ukrainian
Walloon

thesun.co.uk

SLG · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:18 am Post subject:

Multi-lingualism might be good for a kid... but 59 languages may be pushing it. I would also think that given that these kids are living in English and many of them won't speak English at home or in their community, it would be very important for them to leanr English. The best way for them to do that is through English meduim education.

wisnaeme · Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2006 8:42 pm Post subject: Gaelic

Is the fat lady singing again? Maybe aye or maybe naw. Yer Heiland Cooncil reminds me of a drunk trying to get home staggering frae one side of the street tae the other,yer man kens where his hoose is but has difficulty getting there.Spin,indecision,nae money.disnae ken and disnae care.

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/56872.html

Sad,isn't it.Hieland Cooncil putting folks hopes up jist tae batter them doon again. Nae wonder maist folk are scunnered wi politicians.Consultation is it? Aye weel,they got the con bit right.

azzuri · 'Our Scotland' Fossil Joined: 12 Sep 2005 Posts: 3792

the biggest cost to the public purse is indecision by the bloody politicians - the energy crisis looming is a perfect example of that.

I wonder how much their 'mibbes aye, mibbes naw' attitudes cost us every year? That's probably one of the main advantages of a strong leader in a strong party of government twinned with the FPTP system of calculating parliamentary seats.
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Aventinian · Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 10:00 pm Post subject: