Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice

Hi

Anyone have experience of this? Specifically, child with brain injury looking for exemption for study of irish in sec school that doesnt meet criteria of having a physical, sensory disability or general learning disability.

For anyone out there that has a relative with severe brain injury and none of the above, you will be familiar with the effects, and how frustrating they are.

My kid, just been turned down, even with personal representation to minister by brain injury proffesionals! All thought she would qualify, so has not been doing irish for at least 16 months in school. Now has notification of refusal, so is instructed to do irish (therefore, jn cert exam, technically!) with less than 5 wks to go. What a mess! Talk about messing about a kids education. If I go on joe duffy show about this, would it really be only "entertainment" value for folk? I NEED to get this exemption to keep my kid in school!

thanks.

Re: Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice!!!!

Can we get some more background:
How does he/she perform at other subjects?
Does your child learn other languages (e.g. French or German)?
How damaged is your child? Will he/she ever need the Junior or Leaving Cert to get a job?

Re: Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice!

Doing French currently. (reason doing well is teacher is excellent,ie organised, prompts her, etc otherwise, she would be doing poorly)
In replacement of irish classes, during resource hours (4 classes pw) focuses on consolidating learning in other subjects eg maths, english
One other subject is dropped, just an agreement bet child and ourselves - not the school. She works with an occupational therapist weekly to work on coping and organisational skills. Osteopath on occasion for sleep probs.

At home have to put in place extra tutition - 4 hrs pweek. Has had home tution since 5th class. Without this she never would have made it thr school at all.

The brain injury (left frontal lobe damage) is invisible to many - child seems v. normal to most. Only on working with her after a period of time, do people see the difficulties. No phyiscal, sensory impairments.

The educ. strategy we've taken - ie to reduce the load ie drop at least 2 subjects; consolidate existing learning thr. resource in school and work at home has worked extremely well. Now child is coping, succeeding and no longer dispondent with school. School see the result. Exams results are from fails up to good averages as a result.

Hope this is enough info??

Re: Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice!!!!

Hi,

what happens if your child just doesnt sit the exam? If they dont sit the irish exam does this mean they have failed the entire Junior Cert?

I ask this, since I unofficially "gave up" irish after the intercert. Basically I didnt go to class (with the agreement of my teachers) and just didnt sit the irish leaving cert exam.
Could your child do the same?

Ragazza.

Re: Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice!!!!

I think the problem with "unofficially" dropping Irish is the effect it has on your 3rd level option. Lizabeth, is this what is concerning you?
You currently cannot attend a university without Irish in the Leaving Cert. As far as I know, you can still go to the many Institutes of Technology.

It's very easy in hindsight, but I think you would have had to done your research when she was in first year and gotten an exemption from Irish for your child. If it had failed, she could perhaps have concentrated on that instead of French, and at least gotten a pass in Foundation level Irish.

What is the issue with her failing Irish if the Dept will not exempt her ?

Re: Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice!

jrewing said:

You currently cannot attend a university without Irish in the Leaving Cert. As far as I know, you can still go to the many Institutes of Technology.

Click to expand...

Trinity and DCU accept leaving cert without a passing grade in Irish. (unless they require it for specify courses?)

Or they did 15 years ago when I gave up irish in 6th year. At that stage I had my preferred college courses picked and none required irish.

UCD does require irish. I'm not sure about other irish universities.

Re: Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice!!!!

jrewing said:

You currently cannot attend a university without Irish in the Leaving Cert. As far as I know, you can still go to the many Institutes of Technology.

Click to expand...

Hi,

I didnt do Irish in the Leaving Cert and went to Trinity.
I think Irish is only needed for UCD, UCC, UCG.

But yes, it could affect other options (e.g. school teaching, some civil service jobs etc).

Ragazza.

Re: Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice!!!!

Maybe try talking to the school, explain the consolidated learning and then just fail Irish for Junior cycle.

To avoid Irish in the Senior and cycle and to consolidate even further your child could then do the English A-Level exams

[broken link removed]


Pricey, but it just gives you another option

Re: Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice!!!!

Only the NUI requires Irish.

Would there be consequences if the child just stayed away from the junior cert Irish exam? Think of it, who would ask you after college what you got in the leaving or junior cert?

Also by not sitting any aspect of Irish, it will not appear on the cert. Going in and failing will cause a big F to appear on the cert and it would not look good. Better not to do it at all full stop?

Re: Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice!

Yeah, plan is not to turn up to irish exam for jn cert, pointless.

And if at all possible, prefer to have irish exemption. It was impossible to forsee in first yr that she would need to drop subjects. As she was doing so well from home grinds, first yr, wasnt a problem.

Problem is on return to 5th & 6th yr, having to attend irish classes. These slots would have been far more productive against resource teaching time, rather than having resource hrs taken accross all subjects.

The thing is - the dept of ed. will exempt kids with ADHD, ADD etc. My case is that severe brain injury is just as deserving a case.

But because the DES have 3 categories only, as in first post, brain injury doesnt fit into those categories. What I need to know from readers is, does anyone know of anybody who did get exemption without exactly fitting DES categories??

Ive been working on this for a year now - letters to DES, minister, policticans, proffs working in brain injury etc and am throwing it out here aswell.

Re: Exemption from irish -kid with severe brain injury - dept of educ. refused twice!!!!

I am an ex primary school principal.Did you apply for exemption when you child was in primary school or was the medical condition diagnosed recently? If a child enters primary school in Ireland from the U.K.under 11 years of age they are required to study Irish unless they have been granted an exemption.I had many students in primary school who got exemption if a psychologist recommended it in writing.I know there is a clamp down on the number of those seeking exemption but this is ridiculous.
I had major problems in getting a spelling waiver for my daughter at leaving cert level .I first of all had to convince the school,teachers and psychologist that she met the criteria on dsylexia.My advice would be to contact the psychologist assigned to the school and get the recommendation in writing[even though you have made representation to the minister]If this does not work get a solicitor to study the terms of exemption and go with your psychological report.

lizabeth,
can i just say i empathize fully with your situation and hopefully it will be resolved asap and Hallies info is spot on and i would recommend what Hallie says as a good course of action but
from experince be wary of school recommended psychologists and the NEPS ones.. try and get your own independent evaluation done

worth a look
www.dyspraxiadcdcork.ie and they have a new handbook for teens out as well called Tips for Teens and Teachers.
good ,well run organisation

Haille
Brain injury happened aged 5, but because brain injury is so complex and is not fully understood yet, one cannot diagnose or predict the deficits until early adolescence. In our case side effects apparent since 14+.

there are general side effects - but general, each kid is unique.

Acc to the circular letter M10/94 exemption for disabililty is allowed where kids fit: specific learning disabilities, general learning disability or sensory disability. My kid, having sat numerous tests - psycological and otherwise- passes every test - well! But, these last one hour, she concentrates well for the hour,then wrecked! So testing for 1hr, and passing is detrimental.

The educ psycologist I employed is one of our best in Ireland. No point in trying to get a NEPS one as they will find nothing new.

I filed complaint about Dept of Ed to child ombudsman - for discrimation.

And you know what, after all that, our minister for ed is Fianna Fail - and I still voted FF today -am I a fool or what! Any other advice haille???

The reason I asked when the diagnosis was from my experience at primary level in the past it was a lot easier to get exemption at primary level than at second level.You could possibly argue that your daughter would have met the requirements for exemption when she was 5 years .But that takes time.There was a time in the way distant past that if you did not pass Irish at Inter Cert.you failed the Inter Cert.This thankfully is no longer the case.Even if your daughter has to sit the exam at this late stage there is not a requirement that you have to pass it.You could let your daughter do the exam,simply go through the motions.Easier said than done especially if she has not been studying it for a long time.
Do not worry about having voted F.F. I voted for 2 F.F. canditates for 1st time,voted for local personalties rather than party I have always voted F.G./Labour in every election.I do not know what came over me.My brother in law died this week at age 47 of heart attack,he has 1 daughter who has cerebral palsy.It puts everything into proper perspective.
Best of luck.

therave

thanks for dyspraxia/dcd website- made contact, and it was well worth it. Ive got some more to work on now.

Ive got one recommendation for a pscyologist in cork who understands and has experience with dyspraxia/dcd. Anyone else out there know of others- I believe, hard to come by.

no problem.. they are truly a great group of people with the unit and the assocation as their top priority not like some other organisations that are all about politics etc etc