Anns an teisteanas seo tha Stephen Caimbeul ag innse carson a thagh e fhèin agus a bhean, Emma, foghlam tro mheadhan na Gàidhlig airson an cuid chloinne. Nach math a bhith a’ cluinntinn mu cho soirbheachail 's a tha e air a bhith dhaibh mar theaghlach!
Way back in 2020 my wife and I were deciding whether or not to put our firstborn daughter, Sophia, into Gaelic Medium Education. We knew she would attend the nursery at Laxdale School, but weren’t sure if it would be to the English room or the Gaelic room we would enrol her. After weighing up options we concluded that we may as well go for Gaelic because we could see how she handled it, and knew that this may open up opportunities for her in the future.
Because of Covid we were never able to step into her nursery room at any point, which was really difficult as parents. However, it soon became apparent that Sophia was enjoying learning and speaking Gaelic, and was clearly beginning to thrive in it. One year later, we enrolled her sister, Annabelle, into the same setting, and they both found such a great enjoyment being immersed in the language. They would teach each other, test each other, and tease each other whilst practising at home!
When Sophia started in GM1, she really took off and excelled. We could see from her class work on Seesaw, homework in the school bag, and from herself that she was doing really well and taking it all in her stride. In fact, at the Prizegiving ceremony at the end of P1 she won the cup which recognised and celebrated her attitude and effort with the Gaelic language. The correct decision, then.
The girls are now in GM2 and GM3 and continue to enjoy it and thrive. They love reading and writing in Gaelic, and enjoy speaking it at home too. They have become more confident speaking Gaelic outside of school, for example meeting people in the supermarket who speak Gaelic to them.
All credit goes to the extremely hard-working teachers the girls have in school. They adore them, and so learning from them is easy. Soaking up new learning makes them proud, and seeing their own success fills them with great joy.
Child number 3, Peyton, is our first boy, but will be our third child to enter Gaelic Medium Education. We have confidence that he too will do well, and we look forward to seeing him develop as his older sisters have so far.