Primary governors reveal plans to ditch school English stream
PLANS have been drawn up to scrap the English language stream at one of the largest primary schools in the Teifi Valley.
Teachers at Newcastle Emlyn's Ysgol Y Ddwylan were briefed on the move last week but parents have not yet been consulted.
The decision to look at changing the category of the school — making it Welsh only — was made by school governors at a meeting in November.
Governors
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It follows a similar move the same month by the primary school in Cardigan, where all new pupils will now be taught only in Welsh.
Sioned Thomas, chairwoman of the governors at Ysgol ay Ddwylan, told the Journal this week: "This is something that should have happened at the beginning.
"Most of the children go through the Welsh stream.
"The education authority (Carmarthenshire Council) is taking the lead now. The county council is very keen and supportive."
She added that the move would help the school, which has limited resources, and is currently forced to double up some classes with children from different year groups.
"We will still be a bilingual school and English will be taught.
"This is just getting rid of the English stream and combining them together," said Mrs Thomas.
"Other schools throughout the area don't give a choice and this is something that is happening across the county."
She said it was first proposed at a meeting of the governors at the end of November but has not yet been made public.
Talks
The move may have implications for the town's secondary school, Ysgol Gyfun Emlyn, which is an English language school and Ysgol y Ddwylan is the main feeder school.
Carmarthenshire Council confirmed that it was having talks on the move with the primary school.
Director of Education Rob Sully, said: "Officers have met with the head teacher of Ysgol y Ddwylan to discuss the process of changing the school's language category following a request from the school's governing body."
Comments
by leonked
Saturday, February 09 2013, 5:58PM
“"The biggots in Carmarthenshire CC are just as bad as Ceredigion CC - I live in Ceredigion and already travel 16 miles each way to to Newcastle Emlyn (Carmarthenshire) to have my son educated in Ysgol Y Ddwylan where for the 2 reception classes he is forced to be educated through Welsh - We can then choose for him to join an English stream. This is now in Jeopard! Carms CC have in their infinate wisdm chosen to put this to consultation that the school will switch to a WM facility! There are no other EM facilities in the area! We are looking to move to a more open minded authority area - changes of jobs for both myself and my wife (an IT Manager and a secondary school teacher who do not speak welsh)
Is this what we are forced to do to get a good education our children
Surely this is discrimination - if not Xenophobic - the irony is that my wisf and I are both born and bred in Wales and have never lived a day outside of wales!
Where do I send my children now? What id the nearest EM school and what garuntees will we have this will not change in the next couple of years?
With regards pupil numbers I would be interested to know the exact numbers. I am under the impression that there are aprox 120 pupils taugh EM with 130 WM this is not a massive split and when you take into account the fact that pupils in Derbyn and Blagur are forced to be taught through WM and can only opt to switch to EM after - how favourable is the split to WM really?
I would be interested to learn how 1st language welsh speakers feel if they were forced to have their children taught EM? I am Welsh and proud but do not speak the language.
What is wrong with the Status Quo? Whilst I understand that the financial benefits of being WM are great surely this is something that needs to be addressed by the welsh government rather than changing to WM - if all schools change there will be no financial gain as the additional finances a WM school recieve will be minimal if every school is taking from the pot.
At some point something will snap and someone within the county will realise that this is not only detrimental to our youngsters but also our Economy - Cardigan had a large company pull out of an investment as it's main workers whom would be relocated to the area would not be able to have their children educated through English. With Agriculture and tourism on rock bottom where will the finance come from? Retired English people com in here to live out their days?"
"I read with interest the comments from 1st language welsh speakers on other forums of a similar nature. I am not Anti Welsh language and woud love to have learnt ( I have tried several times but just can not get it) My son has a good trap of the language but sometime struggles. As a non-welsh speaker I struggle to assist my 5 year old with his homework as I don't understand what he has been given (In a bi-lingual svchool the instructions are only in welsh!) how will i cope when he is 15 and I really can't help him - how can he not be at a disadvantage having to translate from Welsh to English and back again - if nothing else he will spen longer on everything and therfore miss out on potentially critical info by being taight through welsh.
It is a dying language (census proved!) and I believe it shoul be maintained if there is interest but not at the expense of our childrens education!!!"”