Guidance for Parents

Expand your child’s horizons

Guidance for Parents

Expand your child’s horizons

Help your child build confidence and gain life skills

Whether your child is doing a language course, a school exchange or connecting with other language learners, they will develop many personal and professional connections throughout their language learning journey.

Knowing more languages will:

  • Enrich understanding of other cultures and people
  • Benefit cognitive development and social skills
  • Broaden and enrich their circle of friends
  • Develop lifelong learning skills – problem-solving, adaptability, resourcefulness and communication

Open up your Child's World with Foreign Languages

Learn about the key benefits of your child learning foreign languages.

Guide for Parents and Guardians

Explore our guide for parents and guardians to see what supports we can offer for language learning.

Say 'Yes' to languages at home

Learning languages can be an enjoyable shared experience at home.

We have developed a range of language mats that parents can use to help share languages with children in the home. These mats can be a visual reminder to use the language more often.

Visit Languages at Home to download and print a language mat in Chinese, Lithuanian, Polish or Portuguese to get you started.

New curricular languages available to Leaving Cert students

In 2020, four more languages – ChineseLithuanianPolish and Portuguese were added as curricular languages for the Leaving Cert from 2022. Find information on each new curricular language including specification, supports and assessments in our Senior Cycle section