Gaelic Medium Education

An Educational Journey for your child from 3-18

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. 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 immersion. In early learning and in the initial years of primary school pupils are taught only in Gaelic, while they are doing the usual things that children do in the early years of their education – this is called ‘total immersion’. Their teachers utilise all available opportunities to develop pupils' Gaelic skills - through songs, stories, games and especially through structured play. This is followed by 'immersion’ which means Gaelic is still the language of the class and used for most lessons but pupils are taught to read and write in English as well.

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Gaelic medium education reinforces the language of children who are already fluent Gaelic speakers and also enables them to become fully literate in the language.

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Gaelic Medium Education is offered in 15 of Scotland's Local Authorities. Please click here if you wish to find out where Gaelic Medium Education is available near you.