“We have exchanged extensive correspondence with CCC with one subject concerning safety risks involved when transporting pupils to alternative English Medium Schools. One of the main concerns is that families who are unable to drive would have to walk with small children in all weather conditions over 2 miles depending on where in Llangennech they live. They would have to cross a busy 40 mph road and three motorway slip roads to reach their designated school. However, LEAs outlook on this states: that it is parental choice not to enrol our children at Llangennech and therefore it is parental responsibility to transport their children to other schools. However, the English Medium is being withdrawn by the Local Education Authority. It is not parent’s choice to remove children from Llangennech but is a course of action forced upon us to take our children to a suitable English Medium. Not every child is able to learn through the medium of Welsh due to various reasons. However, there are 170 surplus Welsh medium places available in the local area at Brynsierfel and Furnace. But the three alternative English medium schools Bryn, Bynea and Hendy are already over capacity. No regard has been given to the 91 houses being built in Hendy, the 700 plus houses planned for Pontardulais and also in Bynea. Surely this would have a major impact on the surrounding schools. Currently any family in Llangennech speaking either welsh or English can have their child taught in either of the official? languages of wales. Is it not the case that this choice of education at the local school is being removed and people requiring their child to be educated in one of the official languages will be discriminated against...? If the English Medium is removed can you please explain how is this parental choice? And where will you provide alternative English Medium Education for our children?”
Minutes:
“We have exchanged extensive correspondence with CCC with one subject concerning safety risks involved when transporting pupils to alternative English Medium Schools. One of the main concerns is that families who are unable to drive would have to walk with small children in all weather conditions over 2 miles depending on where in Llangennech they live. They would have to cross a busy 40 mph road and three motorway slip roads to reach their designated school. However, LEAs outlook on this states: that it is parental choice not to enrol our children at Llangennech and therefore it is parental responsibility to transport their children to other schools. However, the English Medium is being withdrawn by the Local Education Authority. It is not parent’s choice to remove children from Llangennech but is a course of action forced upon us to take our children to a suitable English Medium. Not every child is able to learn through the medium of Welsh due to various reasons. However, there are 170 surplus Welsh medium places available in the local area at Brynsierfel and Furnace. But the three alternative English medium schools Bryn, Bynea and Hendy are already over capacity. No regard has been given to the 91 houses being built in Hendy, the 700 plus houses planned for Pontardulais and also in Bynea. Surely this would have a major impact on the surrounding schools. Currently any family in Llangennech speaking either welsh or English can have their child taught in either of the official? languages of Wales. Is it not the case that this choice of education at the local school is being removed and people requiring their child to be educated in one of the official languages will be discriminated against...? If the English Medium is removed can you please explain how is this parental choice? And where will you provide alternative English Medium Education for our children?”
Response by Councillor G.O. Jones, Executive Board Member for Education & Children:-
“The proposal of the Education and Children’s Services Department is that future provision for all pupils in the new Llangennech Primary School should be through a Welsh medium designation, as happens successfully already in many schools across Carmarthenshire, and that local children should attend Llangennech school.
As is set out in the report to the Executive Board the proposal is consistent with national policy to expand Welsh medium education in order to develop increasing numbers of fully bilingual young people and to enable more children to benefit from the advantages of bilingualism, confirmed by evidence gathered through research internationally, also set out in the report.
It is the County Council’s preference that children attend their local school and the Department believes that a Welsh medium primary school in Llangennech will continue to offer high standards of education to children.
It is the Department’s intention that all current pupils remain at Llangennech school and continue to receive their education through the current language arrangements until they leave for secondary school. The proposals will not, therefore, affect current pupils. The school will continue to provide sufficient support for all current pupils through the medium in which they currently receive their education so there is, consequently, no need for any child to be moved from the school.
The County Council is obliged to facilitate parental preference only where this is consistent with the effective delivery of education and the efficient use of resources. No parent has a right to demand a place at any particular school for their child or children. School places are allocated on the basis of the Council’s published admissions policy, which favours children attending their local or “designated” school. Children are admitted to a school other than their designated school upon application by parents when places are available and subject to the over-subscription criteria set out in the published admissions policy.
The County Council is not proposing alternatives to Llangennech school for local children. It is the Local Authority’s desire that all current pupils remain at the school and that in the future local children attend their village school, receiving their education principally through the medium of Welsh, with English being taught as a subject in Key Stage 2 and used as a medium for instruction in some other lessons in the later years of the school.
Should parents elect to place their children in alternative schools they will do so in full consideration of all the factors that apply, including standards at alternative schools, transport implications, etc. If parents elect to place their children in alternative schools that are neither the designated nor nearest school these parents assume full responsibility for transporting their children to school.
It is the belief of the Department, based upon international evidence and local experience, that children benefit from a truly bilingual education, which provides wider skills development, such as cognitive ability, task understanding and flexibility, enhanced powers of concentration, etc, and that all children should receive these opportunities. Evidence demonstrates that true bilingualism can only be achieved in the local context though children receiving a Welsh medium education.
It is true that there are currently some surplus places at Ysgol Y Ffwrnes and Ysgol Brynsierfel. The new Ysgol y Ffwrnes was built to ensure adequate capacity to meet projections in the Llanelli area where demand for Welsh medium primary education has been increasing over recent years. It was fully recognised that the new Ysgol Ffwrnes would have surplus places at the point of opening but these would be taken up over a period of a few years.
Having regard to applications for school places for September 2016 the Department expects that there will be 400 children attending Ysgol Gymraeg Ffwrnes next year, compared to a school capacity of 480, with the early years classes at the school full or almost full, indicating that the school will be full in a few years time. At Ysgol Brynsierfel a total of 209 pupils are expected to be registered at the school in September, compared to a capacity of 243.
The Welsh Government expects local authorities to endeavour to manage surplus school places within a tolerance of 10% overall across all schools, accepting that figures at individual schools will vary as a consequence of a number of factors. The School Organisation Code notes that “some spare places are necessary to enable schools to cope with fluctuations in numbers of pupils”. The Welsh Government regards a single school as having excess surplus places if it has more that 25% of its places empty. Neither Ysgol y Ffwrnes nor Ysgol Brynsierfel fall into this category.
This Council’s school organisation proposals routinely consider future housing developments and the demand that these can produce for school places. The objective of the Council’s proposals for the Llangennech schools is that local children attend Llangennech school in future. The Council does not intend that any local child should seek a school place outside Llangennech, other than in the infrequent incidence of a specific additional learning need in which case the Council will work with parents to identify the most appropriate arrangement. It is for this reason that no reference is made in the Consultation document to potential housing development in Hendy or any other school area.
The County Council will continue to monitor demand for places at Hendy School, in particular with regard to new housing developments being built in the locality and will respond as appropriate. The Council’s Modernising Education Programme includes provision for investment at Hendy school in the medium term to expand and modernise the school’s premises and facilities and it should be possible to align this investment with a need to increase capacity, should that need arise.
The City and County of Swansea’s Local Development Plan (LDP) draft deposit is due to be published for consultation in the summer of 2016. This draft plan includes a significant allocation of over 700 residential units in Pontarddulais. Discussions with officers at the City and County of Swansea confirm that they are planning to develop schools within the community of Pontarddulais to meet all need arising from their LDP in due course, as required by the development timeline. This is a matter for Swansea local authority to resolve.”
Mr Hatto asked the following supplementary question:-
“If the parents of children currently in the school’s English stream decide that siblings need to be taught through the medium of English then they would need to be taken to a different school, possibly out of county. Any parent concerned could not be in two places at once. They would have to withdraw the elder child or children from Llangennech Community School so that the school run is viable. Would the county then be liable for travel arrangements to the new school?”
Response by Councillor G.O. Jones, Executive Board Member for Education & Children:-
“That would a parental choice so we would not be liable for transport to the new school.”