Yvonne Forrest

Teaching at Stenhouse Primary School in Edinburgh

My name is Yvonne Forrest. I am from Edinburgh and have been a class teacher for more than 25 years. I am married and have 2 grown-up sons.

Presently I teach normal curriculum to a P4/5 class at Stenhouse Primary School in Edinburgh and teach Gaelic to P5 - P7 there for some of the week. We also have an After-school Gaelic club for former pupils - now at High School - who were keen to continue learning Gaelic, but lacked the opportunity to do so.

I am currently seconded to another Edinburgh cluster three days a week, where I teach Gaelic to P5 classes at 4 different schools. In total - more than 380 children learning Gaelic ! Session 2008 - 2009 will be my third year of this and I am thoroughly enjoying introducing the language to children across the city.

My Granny taught me to count in Gaelic when I was about 8 years old and I always loved the sound of the words. When my children grew up, I had an urge to learn something new and completed Beginners , Post-Beginners and Intermediate Gaelic courses in Edinburgh at evening classes.

I then did ‘An Cursa Inntrigidh’ distance learning course from Sabhal Mòr Ostaig and found this excellent. I achieved an A in Higher Gaelic after attending Edinburgh Telford College in 2006 and have been continually encouraged and supported by the staff at Stenhouse and George Reid of Edinburgh Education Dept, who asked me to do the GLPS course in Glasgow with Mary McKinnon in 2004.

The GLPS training was very enjoyable and has provided a firm foundation to the work I do with children - which is very active, involving games, songs and lots of interaction. The children react very positively to this and hearing a shout of ‘Feasgar math!’ from the playground is very rewarding!