Questions over Welsh teaching in new school
‘If we are serious about reviving the Welsh language, we can’t rely totally on Welsh medium schools to do it’
QUESTIONS have been raised by councillors over the new school in Cardiff’s under-construction Plasdwr suburb which could see children taught half in English and half in Welsh.
The primary school is being built in Cardiff’s new Plasdwr suburb to the north-west of the city, but has been delayed by coronavirus.
The school will have two forms of entry, one learning in Welsh and the other learning in English.
However, pupils in the English form will be taught in Welsh much more often than in most English medium schools – possibly up to half the time.
But the basis for the new model has been questioned by councillors on Cardiff council’s scrutiny committee, which met on Tuesday.
Councillor Sarah Merry, cabinet member for education, said: “What we are trying to do here is offer something different to what we’ve got in other dual stream schools in Cardiff. The English stream would also be with a significant amount of Welsh as well – so quite different from the offer in other schools.
“My children all went through English medium education, that was what I chose as a parent.
“But it’s actually a cause of real regret to me: all of them, despite having supposedly learned Welsh in school, wouldn’t feel confident using Welsh.
“If we’re talking about building up the use of the Welsh language, we can’t only talk about what we’re doing in providing places in Welsh medium education. If we want to increase the use of the Welsh language, it’s really important that we change the nature of the provision within our English medium schools.”
The school was due to open in September
2021, but this will be delayed because of the Covid-19 crisis.
Redrow, the developer building Plasdwr, furloughed 80% of its staff at the start of the crisis, and is currently negotiating with the council on a new opening date for the school.
Cllr Merry said: “We’ve got no date for when the school will be established. Because of Covid, there’s been pushback from developers about the actual date and we’re going through what that could mean for the date when the school [will open].”
The new model, where some pupils are taught in half Welsh and half English, is based on schools in the Basque country. Changes to Spanish speaking schools, with teachers speaking Basque more often, saw a significant increase in the number of people speaking the language.
But questions were raised whether this was a suitable model, given the region’s recent history of terrorism.
Cllr Shaun Jenkins said: “Spain is very different to the United Kingdom. Spain was in a dictatorship until 1975, and from the end of dictatorship to about 2006, some thousand people died because of an armed organisation that waged a campaign for independence in respect of Spanish Basque.
“This doesn’t seem like the best example to be following.”
Cllr Merry said: “I’m certainly not suggesting that we should take up arms to enforce learning of Welsh in our schools.
“If we are serious about reviving the Welsh language, we can’t rely totally on Welsh medium schools to do it. Very often we’ve taught Welsh in English medium schools in a way that’s much closer to the way we tend to teach modern languages, which is not particularly well.”
But similar models are used throughout the world, including in India.
Cllr Ramesh Patel said: “In India the main language is Hindi, but English is one of the most widely spoken languages and that’s because it has been taught in the same kind of way, throughout all the schools. So clearly there are good examples which do work.
“I don’t think it’s a model which we should be afraid of, I think we should be embracing this model. If it’s a good example happening throughout the world, then why can’t we use it? We should be embracing this.”
Cymdeithas yr Iaith is objecting to the bilingual school, and told the council it should open a Welsh medium school instead.
In a letter in March, Cymdeithas yr Iaith said: “Opening a brand new school for this housing development affords a golden opportunity to quickly increase Welsh medium provision in the area and start to normalise Welsh medium education in the city.
“It is only by establishing a dedicated Welsh medium school that the council will ensure that all pupils would leave the school as fluent Welsh speakers - bilingual schools don’t ensure fluency among children in the same way.
“We believe that Welsh is a right for all children in Cardiff, whatever their background. Cardiff council needs to show ambition and to action this right for every young person in Wales’ capital city by opening dedicated Welsh medium schools only at Plasdwr, and across all the city’s communities over the years to come.”
The new school will serve Creigiau, St Fagans, Radyr, Morganstown, and Fairwater, as well as the new homes built at Plasdwr.