Yesterday the Scottish Govt debated its Gaelic Language Plan.  This debate proved something of a landmark for Gaelic.  Not only has the Govt set out its position and commitment to Gaelic, but key spokespersons from all parties are now on public record expressing strong support for Gaelic – including educational provision.

The most exciting development came in the form of Pauline McNeill’s amendment which offers a formal resolution of the Scottish Parliament – passed unanimously – calling for expansion of Gaelic Medium Education. It isn’t binding in any direct sense, but it is endorsement at the very highest level.  As such it is a powerful statement of policy principle with we hope other bodies will take into account when formulating and developing their policies on GME.

It is important all views are considered and the second email raised many responses, e.g.,:

“Access to Community Centre – what evidence is there to suggest that all those other bodies would have to move and why short term?

How does this option negatively impact on the progression of Gaelic as a living language?  

I would have thought that a major con under a separate school would have been the concept of not reflecting our own multicultural society and the whole issue of separatism –  that is not mentioned at all. 

Similarly a 2^nd Gaelic unit would have several attractive points not least just being sited near the greatest demand from families and the possibility of joint working, staff development and so on”.

Feel free to answer or elaborate on these questions by leaving a comment below or come to the meeting on the 9th February at 7pm in the Fountainbridge Library.  This will be an open meeting chaired by Comann nam Pàrant where the company undertaking the Feasibility Study on behalf of the Council will be in attendance to hear parental views.  Again, this is your chance to have your voice heard.

Another parent with strong views on developing Gaelic

“I ,personally,feel, that if there won’t be a 3-18 Gaelic school established in the next 1-2 years [locations can be found and budget will work itself out], then it will become the end of Gaelic .

In all the years, that GME has been in Edinburgh, there has been very little on young people, who have emerged through it, mainly caused by the very poor Secondary commitment to Gaelic.

Unless this changes,and by now at other levels there will be proper commitment to Gaelic, all the work which has gone in the past 20 years to establish Gaelic will have been for nothing”

It is good to see so many parents feeding back to the class contacts.  This blog is intended as a resource where parental views can be expressed, shared and commented upon.  As we receive different opinions they will be posted here so that all our voices are heard and the debate widened.

e.g, from one parent:

“Of the 4 options, only the status quo presents the consequences explicitly for our children under Pros. The possible implication that some may read into this is that a school may not quite be able to match that particular pro, since it is not stated.

 In fact, I would strongly argue that a school, through offering more of what already makes GME so good, will in fact increase the educational benefits to our children.”

This parent also argued against the creation of a second Gaelic Unit:

“opening a second Unit is the one option that could seriously compromise educational quality and opportunities – possibly even for our own children, depending how existing pupils were allocated.”

If you would like to add your view, email your class contact and we will add it to the discussion here.

The second email has now been sent by the CnP Sub-Committee who were tasked with gathering feedback from parents on how they would like to see Gaelic Medium Education developed within the Edinburgh area.  A decision was initially taken to present the ways forward and just ask parents to vote on which option they preferred.  However, at this time it is important for parents to see in overview how the expanding numbers in Edinburgh could be accommodated and for everyone to be able to ask questions and discuss these options in further detail – maybe there is another way of doing things that has not been highlighted or you may have points you would like to add to any of the options (which were covered in very brief bullet points).  Leave your comments here – an email address is required, but pseudonyms are fine.

If this is your first visit to this blog it may be helpful to note that posts will always come up on the front page, but if you click into any of the pages above and want to get back to the postings, click the left hand side bar archives for January etc.

I have also just discovered detailed summaries of the Sept meetings which offer a general overview of the debate at that time if you are looking for more information on what was discussed last summer.

Summary of 1st Sept meeting

Summary of 29th Sept meeting

Thanks for visiting this Gaelic Education community blog.   As parents who have become  involved in the current campaign to develop Gaelic Medium Education in Edinburgh we felt a community blog was the right way to set up lots of information and let parents browse around and find out as much or as little as they wanted whilst making up their mind on how GME in Edinburgh should be taken forward.

You should have received an email from us – Gail Mullard, Alasdair Cameron, Alistair Lawson and Amaia Carmichael just before Christmas explaining what we were doing to pass on as much information as we could to parents.  Another is going out on Monday 19th January which offers a brief overview of the situation as we understand it and the different ways this can be taken forward.

The most important message we want to get across in these emails is that change is going to happen in Edinburgh, nothing ever stays the same for ever and that as parents we should try to influence that change in the way we see fit.

Happy browsing, this is a blog so please initiate some discussions on GME by commenting on posts written here – feel free to put forward suggestions and ideas around GME that are not covered elsewhere.