Policy Review Of The Welsh Language In Education

EVIDENCE SUBMITTED TO THE E.L.L COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOR WALES BY NEATH PORT TALBOT LEA.

Introductory Observations

• The County Borough of Neath Port Talbot was established following L.G.R in 1996.
• Within a year, a Welsh Language Scheme received the approval of the Welsh Language Board, setting out the County Borough Council’s future policies regarding equal status for English and Welsh speakers in their dealing with the Council.
• A draft Welsh Education Scheme is currently awaiting the approval of the Welsh Language Board. This scheme will form the foundation for promoting and developing Welsh-medium education and Welsh second language teaching within the County Borough.
• The promotion of bilingualism for all pupils is also a strategic priority in the LEA’s Education Strategic Plan.

Key Considerations / Issues

Pre-School Education / EducareMudiad Ysgolion Meithrin, the Welsh medium playgroup association, is represented at the Neath Port Talbot Early Years Development & Childcare Partneship. The Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin has 11 Cylchoedd Meithrin and 18 Cylchoedd Ti a Fi in Neath Port Talbot.Neath Port Talbot will work in the context of the Early Years Development & Childcare Partneship to respond to the demand for Welsh medium education for pupils under the age of 5 by:

• Working in collaboration with Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin and Wales Pre Playground Association (WPPA).
• Exploring ways of increasing the quality of nursery provision in Welsh medium education.
• Further funding is required to ensure greater access to MYM provision. There remains in many LEA’s, a substantial minority of pupils who live too far from Welsh-medium provision or do not have transport to access it.
• A national system of language skill mapping is required to monitor pre-school pupils’ age-related bilingual skills in English and Welsh to inform the Primary sector.
• Currently the "FFLAM" project in the LEA develops Welsh Language skills of parents who send their children to the Welsh-medium sector. To date, take-up has been satisfactory only.

5-16 Year OldsThe LEA provides a bilingual 'Information for Parents’ booklet on an annual basis to parents.

• Are parents sufficiently informed of the options available in LEA’S, e.g Category A/B schools, Bilingual schools, Traditional Welsh Schools? The Neath Port Talbot draft Welsh Education Scheme has targets to address these issues :

"Review current status of Traditional Welsh medium schools in consultation with relevant parties. Define in full the linguistic balance of teaching and learning across all curricular areas."

• The LEA will also give careful consideration to current geographical factors (if any) that can affect access to Welsh-medium education. Is a 'reasonable traveling distance’ to a Welsh-medium secondary school the same as that to English-medium secondary schools within LEA’s?
• The future demand for Secondary Welsh-medium education is being closely monitored and potential growth is targeted in the W.E.S:

"To undertake further research into, and continue to monitor closely, the projections of pupil numbers within the Welsh Medium sector with a view to considering the need for, and feasibility of, establishing a small/medium sized Welsh Medium Secondary School on the eastern side of the local authority’s geographic area. Careers and Post-16Post 16 Welsh Medium and Bilingual education is provided at one Bilingual Comprehensive School (Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera) and Welsh as a second language at St. Joseph’s R.C Comprehensive School, (and also at two colleges of F.E)The Welsh-medium CCET sub-group is currently in the process of providing clear guidelines re. future Post 16 Welsh-medium provision within the County Borough and in partnership with other local providers. The LEA accesses New Learning Network funds and has set up Welsh Language Courses in a range of community venues as part of a wider skills package, including ICT skills. The LEA is committed to a multi-agency partnership in this respect.Special Education NeedsCurrently, the Authority does not have Welsh medium special schools or resourced units attached to mainstream schools. However, the Authority does, in consultation with parents, ensure that pupils with Statements of S.E.N can be allocated additional resources to meet their needs in a mainstream Welsh medium school.The LEA has been informed by the WLB that the Authority has a comparative high percentage of Welsh speaking S.E.N personnel - including a number of specialist Speech and Language Therapists.

Recruitments, Training and Professional Development

The dearth of suitably qualified experienced teachers/senior staff to teach, lead and manage in the Welsh medium sector is well documented. There is also a recruitment issue in the Welsh Second Language sector, especially at KS4 and an acute shortage of primary Welsh speaking supply teachers.The LEA, via the Joint Working Welsh centre at St. Helens, Swansea, has sound professional links with UWIC and Swansea University and the newly appointed Curriculum Development Officer for Welsh delivers lectures and other inputs to students. Considering the overall growth in demand in most LEA’s for Welsh medium education, the option of fast-tracking pupils’ bilingual skills, even in the context of specialized language courses/units/even schools will need re-visiting. Current local/national strategies will not meet in full the current demand. 

Inset - Welsh-medium

Schools access Welsh-medium INSET via CYDAG (Welsh-medium Schools’ Association), the WJEC’s Inter Authority Programme and LEA INSET programmes. In the last 2 years the process has been more structured with the allocation of GEST funding (via WJEC). LEA’s with small numbers of Welsh medium schools neet to establish more consortia/partnership/twinning arrangements in order to create more viable training groups or clusters. Video conferencing is acutely underused.

 

Bilingual Methodology & New Developments in Teaching Methodologies

Current LEA policy and individual schools’ Language Policies do not refer to bilingual methodologies, as researched by Dr. Cen Williams. In reviewing the linguistic balance of teaching and learning in the Traditional Welsh Primary Schools, the LEA in partnership with others, will consider promoting pupils’ bilingual skills via separate English and/or Welsh stand-alone modules for Mathematics and Science. In the majority of cases, foundation courses are delivered through the medium of Welsh. As stated in the Annual Reports of the Chief Inspector of Schools in Wales, dual literacy and language transfer skills are in their infancy. During the financial year 2002-2003 Neath Port Talbot will initiate school based initiatives to address some of these shortcomings. HMI Mr. Steffan James is aware of some current plans. e.g fast-tracking phonics in year 3 English lessons in the Welsh-medium sector and mapping Welsh Language progress at KS1. 

• Would the parents and pupils in our designated Welsh-medium schools support an increase in the use of English as a medium of instruction and/or the greater use of English-medium tasks provided for pupils?
• A similar bilingual approach is already available to parents in the Traditional Welsh Sector.
• There is no standards issue regarding English in the vast majority of the Welsh designated sector.
• In line with Best Value/WIP, LEA’s have to provide for their "clients’". If the demand is for Welsh-medium provision, as opposed to bilingual.....

Resources/Materials

There has been an improvement in the range and quality of teaching materials available.Shortages still exist in the following areas:

• S.E.N (in particular 'boys’ materials)
• Fast Track materials for High Achievers
• ICT
• Self Supported Study materials - especially in terms of Language Immersion pupils
• There are some examples of different LEA Translation Teams translating the same materials for schools.