Pupils at Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Caerffili are celebrating a successful start to the school year in their new home on Y Gwyndy campus in Caerphilly town.
Staff and pupils have vacated their former school site on Parcyfelin Street into the £5 million refurbished and modernised listed building on the Y Gwyndy campus, which is also home to Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni, currently providing lower secondary education for the Caerphilly area.
The move to the revamped building, which used to house St Ilan’s Comprehensive School, is part of a council strategy to boost the number of Welsh medium education places, as demand soars.
Lynn Griffiths, headteacher at Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Caerffili, said: “The completion of Phase Two of Caerphilly County Borough Council’s ambitious programme to enhance Welsh medium provision in the town of Caerphilly gives our whole school community a great sense of pride.
“We now have a primary school designed for the 21st Century which will enable our committed and dedicated staff to provide the best possible education for all our pupils.
“Our pupils will also gain greatly from a seamless transition to Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni which is located on the same campus. This significant investment by the authority will ensure that increased demand for Welsh medium education will be met within the Caerphilly basin.”
Cllr Rhianon Passmore, Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning, said: “Y Gwyndy is a fantastic new campus and I’m sure the pupils of Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Caerffili will benefit greatly from the state of the art resources available to them.
“The school is a great step forward in the provision of Welsh medium education and demonstrates Caerphilly County Borough Council’s commitment to investing in providing a first-class education to its pupils.”
I think it is irresponsible to educate a child predominantly through Welsh. In a world where English dominated the global stage the children need the best possible English skills. I believe the standard of a child’s English will be a lot higher when they are using it for all subject – bar MFLs – than when they are using it for only English class.
The Welsh Assembly should suspend all funding for learning Welsh. The money would be better spent teaching Spanish or Mandarin.
Don’t forget Hindi (Commonwealth member with 490 million speakers) or German (Europe’s leading country and 128 million speakers) French is way down the list compared with these languages.
Countries in Africa will inevitably undergo a population boom and an industrial revolution some time in the future. Due to the European empires 100 years ago lots of those countries use French and English as language.
I agree Hindi and German are more spoken than French but in the future the world will start to revolve around a few core language as mother tongues will decline in usage (they will still be known but not spoken in business). We already see the youth starting to use English more and more, probably influenced by the Youtube starts who have 10 million subscribers all over the world, and Anglo-American TV/films.
Dean Cooperfield West is incorrect, it is a recognised fact that Welsh Pupils, tought English through the medium of the Welsh Language are ataining higher standards of grammer and at least equal grades in English language tests, as those tought in English, therefore producing the best possible English Skills.
And to say that the education of Welsh Pupils, who`s parents make the choice, to educate their children through the medium of the Welsh Language are `irresponsible`, demonstrates that this is a either a subject he knows little or nothing about, or he does not care if the language is preserved or not.
Not quite as you say…
Children from poorer backgrounds taught in Welsh are behind their English-counterparts:
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/pupils-taught-english-getting-better-8637212
Bilingual pupils are not top of the class:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-29727935
It is logical to think children who spend time writing long essays in English for History, Geography, Chemistry, Biology, and Physics, along with other writing-based subjects, will have more practice writing in English, and the textbooks in English will inevitably introduce students to complex words that will improve their vocabulary compared to those who only learn English in English. It is the history textbook from school that taught me the word floccinaucinihilipilification; pupils being taught in Welsh will likely not encounter this word.
Welsh is a language that present no opportunities outside Wales. Step foot on the stock exchanges in New York (the biggest in the world) and see how far fluency in welsh gets you. Visit China to negotiation business manufacturing deals and see how far Welsh gets you. Go to Germany to talk in the manufacturing capital of Europe and see how far Welsh gets you. In all of these situations Welsh will be worthless. Remember, the world extends past the Welsh borders. If Wales wants to develop, and Welsh children want to be successful they will be moving past the borders of Wales into a world where Welsh is not needed.
No- one as far as I know would suggest that The Welsh language hangs there with other international language of business and commerce.
But, it is the language of choice for parents to educate their children by. That is a fact and to deprive any Welsh Citizen of learning the language of their birth would be wrong, and the best way to preserve and increase the use of Welsh is through the education system.
Floccinaucinihilipilification? I wonder if that can be spelt in Welsh? of course not, but of course, no such word exists in the English Language, it being an adulterated concoction of a dead and usless language, Latin. and not even translatable into English. Why learn it? A good education opportunity wasted I think.
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If Welsh does not “hang there” with other languages it should not be taught. Why waste money teaching something that does not have weight behind it? That money could be spent teaching languages that do ‘hang there’ or teaching maths.
Welsh should not be preserved or increased. Teaching it is prolonging it’s death. Welsh needs a ‘do not resuscitate’ notice.
The linguist in me must correct you again. The word is an actual word – although not a common word- that comes from the corridors of Eton College. It is an amalgamation of multiple Latin words but then again, so are most medical terms. Also, the word “labour” (small ‘L’) stems from the Latin word “laborat”. In fact, a lot of English words stem from Latin so floccinaucinihilipilification is no different.
Your last question is fascinating. “Why learn it?” you ask, well… I want to expand my vocabulary to be polysyllabic. Prelapsarian children must have a multifarious vocabulary to boost their chances of success and excel in global competition, otherwise they will become sclerotic in a world of globalisation.
As an adherent of all things Welsh you are free to acquiesce in the WAG’s propaganda about how children can compete using monosyllabic words, and how wonderful Welsh is, but I want to see people be competitive.
Well` I submit, only because it`s too much effort for me be sure what your talking about.