Welsh Medium Schools
Why choose Welsh?
Whichever language you speak at home, Welsh-medium education can give your child additional opportunities, experiences and skills. Choosing a Welsh-medium education provides your child with the opportunity to extend their bilingual skills creatively and academically. There are wider benefits to a bilingual education including a positive effect on a child’s cognitive abilities, and these benefits last a lifetime.
Advantages of being bilingual:
- Having the ability to speak Welsh is either an essential or desirable skill for a growing number of jobs
- Being able to apply knowledge in at least two languages
- Increases capacity to learn another language
- Learning Welsh offers opportunities to experience two cultures – including literature, music, digital media, and a host of other things – that might otherwise be unavailable to them
- Speaking Welsh can help to build a fuller understanding of a person’s wider community and their place within it
- Research shows that children who understand two languages think more flexibly and creatively
- It can help with intergenerational transition if one's grandparents or family members are more comfortable in one language
To learn more about these advantages; please watch the video below and read the articles:
Ted Talk: The Benefits of a Bilingual Brain:
Menter Iaith: A series of short videos (all under 1 minute) highlighting the advantages of a bilingual education:
Article: Bilingual children have more efficient thinking skills, research by Bangor lecturers reveal:
Joining Welsh Medium Education - Primary Schools
There are 5 Welsh-medium Primary schools in 97色网 and all offer a cohesive and comprehensive programme for late-comers to the language.
These schools are:
Our Welsh language primary schools would welcome your child at any age and offer a dedicated transition programme to support your decision to move your child to a Welsh medium education.
The majority of pupils who attend these schools come from non-Welsh speaking homes. Our aim is to develop the children’s ability to embrace and use two languages effectively by the time they leave primary school. With this in mind schools focus on Welsh during the Foundation Phase. Welsh is the official language of all these schools, bjt the aim is to foster bilingualism throughout Key Stage 2.
With this in mind they focus solely on Welsh during Foundation Learning (nursery to year 2) and children are immersed in the language both in class and around the school. The aim is then to foster bilingualism throughout Key Stage 2. Children who start in year 3 or above, who are new to Welsh, are supported through a dedicated and cohesive 10 week language immersion programme funded by the Local Authority.
In the mornings, children are part of a small learning group taught by specialists in teaching Welsh, who are supported by one of 97色网’s Welsh Advisory Teachers. During the afternoon, children follow the usual school curriculum in class where they have opportunities to practise using the language they have been learning in the mornings.
After 10 weeks, children remain in the classroom full-time, and class teachers draw on a bank of resources to continue to support children as they develop their linguistic skills.
The 10 week programme is available as a fully digital resource, so parents can also access the programme and choose to learn alongside their children should they wish. Login details are available from the child’s school.
Introductory video to the programme:
Joining Welsh Medium Education - Secondary
There is one Welsh-medium secondary school in 97色网. Ysgol Maes Garmon in Mold offers a unique ‘Trochi’ programme for children choosing Welsh medium secondary education after receiving an English language primary education.
Pupils choosing a Welsh-medium secondary education from English-medium primary school are offered the opportunity to attend an introductory programme at the end of Year 6 in preparation for joining the Trochi programme in Year 7.
Late-comers to the language in Year 7 follow the very successful Trochi programme, and are taught together in a small and very supportive class. This enables a greater focus on immersive language development in all subjects.
Over the course of the next two years, pupils increasingly integrate with first language pupils, allowing them to develop and use their Welsh language skills in a greater variety of contexts, with the aim of being fully integrated by Year 9.
Support for parents and pupils
Our schools are very experienced in supporting both pupils and parents.
All communication from school is sent home bilingually. Your child’s teacher will be more than happy to help you with your child’s homework. In fact, research suggests that dealing with their work in two languages can actually help children understand the subject that they are studying and can lead to more independent learners.