Primary School Education

In 1995, my parents put me into primary school. Instead of kindergarten like what America has, we have Junior and Senior infants. I started Junior Infants when I was four years old. But the teacher, Ms Buckley thought I was too young. So off I went in 1996 and repeated Junior Infants when I was five. I had one or two friends in my first bout of Junior Infants. Caoimhe and Leah. We had a good friendship when we were in class. But when I repeated Junior Infants I remember being very jealous that my two friends were a year ahead of me… where I should have been. Myself and my new friend teased this girl relentlessly when I was in 4th class. I remember apologising profusely when I got to secondary school. I believe I was in 3rd year when I was fifteen years old and sending her a very long apology in a message on Bebo. She was very kind to me and said the apology was unnecessary as she had gotten over it long before then. I was so happy. But we never really reconnected. We drifted.

Anyway, back to my education. I struggled with three subjects (English, Irish and Maths) in primary school. I got some help with English when I was six years old. That was in 1997. The teachers saw that I was struggling with certain lessons. But I only got learning support with English until I was seven years old.

I didn’t understand Irish (Gaeilge) at all. We would be reading stories as Gaeilge and I would never have a clue where we were when I would try to follow everyone else when they read out in class in turns. The teachers didn’t really take much notice of this. They probably thought I was just day dreaming in class. But that wasn’t the case at all. I was really focused but I just couldn’t keep up. This happened right through primary school until I was twelve.

However, when I was in 5th class, a French teacher, named Madame Mc Donald, arrived into the school to teach us the language as an extra curricular activity. I excelled at French. It was plain sailing. I understood it as a language. It was taught much different to Irish. Irish was this long list of grammar. While French was taught through song and games like “Simon Dit” (Simon Says). It was so much fun.

Back to my struggles haha….Maths…. Oh God, maths was so hard. It was also a real struggle for me. I found it incredibly difficult right through my entire education from primary school right up through secondary school. Eventually, my favourite primary school teacher, Ms Berry took notice of my challenges with mathematics and got me some special education classes in it for two years from when I was ten until I was twelve years old or possibly just the one year from when I was eleven until I was twelve. I’m not sure which. I can’t remember.

When I was in 6th class when I was twelve, a psychologist came to the school and did an assessment of all those of us who were due to start into secondary school the year later. They found I had a learning disability but they were unable to identify what that learning disability was.

Overall, my primary school education went well. It was just maths and Irish that were a struggle for me. I really enjoyed History and Geography. I remember doing a project on a figure head. All of my class were given a country that we had to research. I have always enjoyed research. I love learning. The person I chose was Marie Sklodowska Curie, a physicist and a chemist from Poland. When we got the project done, we had to stand at the top of the class and read out our project to the entire class. I was so nervous. I was a very shy little girl so this was terrifying. You’re talking about someone who was too scared to put her hand up in class to answer a question the teacher asked the entire class. So talking in front of 28 students was quite a feat for my little self to do and I was delighted with myself. Everyone did so well. I clapped for all of my classmates when they were done.

That is a good thing to end my Primary Schooling on I think.