Agenda item

“Ysgol Dewi Sant, the first Welsh medium school in Wales to be adopted by the local authority, was opened in 1947. Since then, Welsh medium education has expanded considerably in Wales in general, not as a result of promotion by local authorities, but mainly due to increasing demand by parents, as seen in Llangennech schools. Today, there are over 387 Welsh medium primary schools in Wales and this continues to increase gradually, at the same time the percentage of primary school aged children who received Welsh medium education increased from 18.8% in 2000/01 to 24% in 2014/15. Considering the success and the benefits of this type of teaching and bilingualism in general, which have been recognised world wide, will this Council now consider backing up the wisdom and far-sightedness of parents by actively promoting and marketing Welsh medium education?”

The Chair advised that Mrs Williams was unable to attend today’s meeting and had requested that he ask her question on her behalf.

“Ysgol Dewi Sant, the first Welsh medium school in Wales to be adopted by the local authority, was opened in 1947. Since then, Welsh medium education has expanded considerably in Wales in general, not as a result of promotion by local authorities, but mainly due to increasing demand by parents, as seen in Llangennech schools. Today, there are over 387 Welsh medium primary schools in Wales and this continues to increase gradually, at the same time the percentage of primary school aged children who received Welsh medium education increased from 18.8% in 2000/01 to 24% in 2014/15. Considering the success and the benefits of this type of teaching and bilingualism in general, which have been recognised world wide, will this Council now consider backing up the wisdom and far-sightedness of parents by actively promoting and marketing Welsh medium education?”

Response by Councillor G.O. Jones, Executive Board Member for Education & Children:-

“I share Mrs Williams’ pride that the first Welsh school of the modern era was established here in Carmarthenshire, in the form of Ysgol Gymraeg Dewi Sant, and I too celebrate the growth in Welsh medium education across Wales over the intervening years. We within Carmarthenshire County Council have been working hard through our Modernising Education Programme for a number of years to meet increasing demand for Welsh medium education in our urban centres, especially Llanelli, where the new enlarged Ysgol y Ffwrnes has been created specifically for this purpose, as well as addressing the poor quality of the former school premises.

Carmarthenshire County Council has a progressive and clearly expressed strategy for the development of Welsh medium and bilingual education in the form of its Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP), which has been formally adopted by the County Council as policy.  The WESP sets out a comprehensive programme of language development for schools and children across Carmarthenshire. It establishes the Council’s broad strategy to develop bilingualism through the education service, principally by means of expanding Welsh medium education. The local authority has set out to “increase the provision of Welsh medium education in Carmarthenshire and ensure linguistic continuity from the nursery sector along the key stages to the secondary sector so that every pupil becomes fluent and confident in both Welsh and English languages.” As an explicit part of the strategy the Council has made a commitment to ” work closely with the staff and Governing Bodies of Carmarthenshire’s dual stream schools in order for them to become Welsh medium schools.”

In addition to proposals for Dual Stream schools the WESP expects every school, including schools that are currently designated as English medium, to progress along the language continuum, to increase the proportion of education that is delivered through the Welsh language. Clearly the pace at which schools will be able to expand bilingualism and Welsh medium education will depend upon local circumstances but the expectation for progress applies to all schools. The schools in Llangennech have been identified as having the potential to move quickly to become Welsh medium due to the progressive increase in numbers in the Welsh stream over recent years, as evidenced by the data.

Through my role as the Executive Board Member for Education and Children’s Services I am eager to ensure that as many children as possible have the opportunity to develop as fully bilingual young people, enjoying all the wider benefits that international research has shown bilingualism brings to a young person and to their personal development and career opportunities.”