A comprehensive school, closed since 2007, has been officially reopened as a Welsh-language school.
Pupils, staff and guests gathered on November 22 for the opening of the new Y Gwyndy – Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni campus in Caerphilly town.
The new school, developed on the former St Ilan site, is the first step in creating 900 extra Welsh language education places in Caerphilly County Borough.
The fully refurbished and extended Phoenix block is now home to 85 Year 7 students from the Caerphilly basin area.
Owain ap Dafydd, headteacher at Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni, said: “This really is a momentous day for Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni. I’m delighted to say that staff and pupils have settled in really well to their new surroundings.”
Cllr Rhianon Passmore, Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Education said: “The launch of Y Gwyndy – Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni is an exciting day for Welsh medium education here in our county borough, and demonstrates our commitment to invest in our young people.
“It is often difficult to imagine how buildings will look when presented with artist’s impressions but this building is truly magnificent. I very much look forward to seeing all that Y Gwyndy – Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni has to offer in the future.”
The official opening of the Y Gwyndy campus completes the first phase of an ambitious project to develop secondary Welsh-medium education in Caerphilly. It is hoped that works to the St Ilan development will be completed by September 2015, when it will cater for children aged between three and 16.
Provision for 900 secondary school places will be formed through the development, alongside the relocation of Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Caerffili to the site.
There will also be the opportunity to offer additional post-16 education, with the existing Fleur de Lys site becoming the main 16 to 19 campus.
I fully support extra schooling places but Welsh language schools are not the way forward. The Welsh language is following becoming like Latin. It's fast becoming a classical language whether we like it or not. We need to prioritise teaching for Spanish, French and Mandarin before we do Welsh. They spend millions on refurbishing a school for 85 children instead of spending the money better preparing Welsh youngsters for adult life and working in the international world.
We need to install an "I can do that" attitude in Welsh youngsters. Let's make them think that they have the capabilities to go forward and become executives of global companies or managers or legal experts etc… Too many young people have the "I can always stack shelves" attitude. Who wants to do that for a living? Inevitably, some will fail and end up with less desirable jobs but at least they can say they tried unlike the majority of Welsh people. Think, David Alfred Thomas! Let's be ambitious, Wales! – There's a new campaign there. It's far better than the silly Welsh language promotions.
Hey Dean, at least the children who attend these 'elitist' schools will be able to paint road signs in a language barely understandable to anyone in the world – and you, I and the rest of the tax payers in the UK can admire their work.
Not happening, Clive. Did you see the report? The EU want to standardise road signs so it looks like we will be adopting the German/French picture based signs sooner or later. I hope they teach colouring in at the school.
Mandarin? I think kids shouldn't waste time learning maths 'cos they all got iPhones innit
Dean – you obviously don't have children to make such a judgement.
Where do you propose those 85 children should have gone? There was no room at the existing Cwm Rhymni due to the increase take up of Welsh Medium education. Each year the take up increases due to the fact that the children get an excellent standard of education. If you read the link
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/wale…
you will note that Cwm Rhymni is a Band 1 – the highest you can get. It is ranked 22 out of 219 schools in the area. http://www.walesonline.co.uk/all-about/school%20r…
Therefore I think your argument that it is a waste of money putting it into Welsh Medium Education is squashed