An interesting small piece in this weeks newspaper, an encouraging sign if the desire for a Welsh medium education is being driven at a community level.
Apologies if the photos not too clear, taken in a rush this morning
Apologies if the photos not too clear, taken in a rush this morning
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Here’s the link to the story on Cymru Fyw (Yn Cymraeg) http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/39260481
And in English http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-39254993
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That’s not the same story.
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Whoops 
Relevant though .
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Interesting that in one area there’s a proposal to increase welsh-medium provision, and in another to decrease it (and decrease ease of access)
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The situation in Brecon is complex and I’m not sure how much I can go into it here. Two things to bear in mind though are that due to rural de-population South Powys is running out of children, and due to fiscal policies in both Westminster and Cardiff, Powys is running out of money.
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Many thanks for that, and in looks like financial pressure of councils is further increasing in coming years. Well, still a positive to be drawn from the original newspaper piece of the school in the Ceiriog Valley then!
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Can anyone tell me the letters “CP” stand for in “Cynddelw Primary CP School”?
If this were England, I would guess it was “County Primary”, since most provincial primary schools tend to be run by County Councils.
But the local government setup in Wales is a bit different to England’s, I think, and also, a County Borough is not the same entity as a county.
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Well there’s nothing on Wrexham council’s “Glossary of Educational Terminology” (although I did spot the Ar stands for Art, if ever there was a word that needed a quick trimming down).
https://www.wrexham.gov.uk/assets/pdfs/education/education_glossary.pdf
I’ll ask one of my neighbours, his children go to that school.
County Primary. In contrast to CiW (Church in Wales). Broadly speaking, these are the two types of primary schools you’ll encounter. The origins stretch back to the British and National schools of the Victorian era when, administratively, Wales was part of England.
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Many thanks once again!
Thanks Rob. I should perhaps add that my posting wasn’t quite accurate, in that in England there are also a lot of Church of England primary schools (and some run by other denominations), as well as CPs. (I don’t actually know what the breakdown is).
In turn, I should also point out that many (most?) CP schools have recently rebranded to “Community Primary”.
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And something else that I’ve just found on the same school story, haven’t had a chance to read it yet,
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The topic of education in Welsh vs in English also came up in “Y Byd ar Bedwar“ a few weeks ago. It also featured the school in Llangennech. If anyone is interested, the documentary is still available on the S4C website for a few more days (“Y Byd ar Bedwar - Gwersi Ysgol Llangennech“, originally aired on March 21st)
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The story, which was reported locally, caused some strong feelings at the time amongst some friends of mine (teachers and parents, but I don’t think of that particular school). I didn’t post it on here, as I don’t have a strong view, for or against. I can sympathise with both view points.
I think that the problem might arise from the small population of the area, which in effect is a village, hence only one senior school?. Some friends said that although they supported the growth of the Welsh Language and loved it, they thought that in their words “legislating” (making Welsh compulsory) wouldn’t be the best way to encourage the use of Welsh amongst the wider range of children. I appreciate that was an exaggeration.
I hope I’ve got it right. In fairness, I wasn’t able to fully understand the story as it was on one of those internet news papers whose adverts slow down my computer to a crawl. 
So I only had my friends comments to go on.
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As someone with family from the area…I never understood why this rural school was ever English medium in the first place…the whole area was hardcore Welsh speaking until the 60s and 70s…a lot of migration in from retirees and others from England means its not as Welsh speaking now…in fact its gone from majority to a minority in my family’s lifetime…
One reason was that these schools were assumed to “teach welsh and the pupils spoke Welsh whatever at home”…but since the 70s in that lower end of the valley…Id say its not as strong…
Further up the Ceiriog and Tanat valleys its just hanging on as a majority language…but most of the youth leave to work in England…lost in the aether!
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