Welsh Medium Education: Two languages – doubles the opportunities!

Why choose Welsh Medium education?

Welsh Medium education continues to grow in popularity in Wales as parents and wider community apprecaites the value of bilingual skills as well as the added value often found in Welsh Medium schools. Education in Wales has undergone a transformation over the past 60 years as Welsh Medium Schools (such as Glantaf in 1978), have offered a real alternative to parents and families, in offering a bilingual and rich cultural heritage to their children and young people.

Critically, the vast majority of pupils at Glantaf (80%+) and other Welsh Medium schools come from families where Welsh is not the main language of the home. This fact alone, demonstrates the fact that Welsh Medium and Bilingual skills add value to a individual’s education, success and opportunities.

Benefits:

• Recieve a fully bilingual education ensuring your child becomes fluent in Welsh and English as the leave Secondary Education
• Connect directly to the heritage and culture of Wales, through immersion in the Welsh language and history
• Increased opportunities in school and within the wider community, through the work of Menter Iaith, the Urdd and the numerous Welsh language societies, institutions and grups within Cardiff and beyond
• Extensive extra-curricular activities through cultural competitions (Eisteddfodau etc) and in numerous residential and sporting competitions, (Urdd, Sporting asscations of Wales).
• Increased job and career opportunities as the value of bilingual and Welsh language skills are appreciated by busniess, institutions and public bodies not only in Wales but broder principles of bilingual skills in an UK / European and Global marketplace
• Increased research into value of bilingual skills in developing reasoning and evaluation skills in children and young adults as seen in research into education systems in European and bilingual contexts
• Increase of appreciation of richness, variety and depth of Welsh identity and heritage to include ethnic and under-represented groups as an integral part of modern Welsh identity. This is especially true in Cardiff where the unique and diverse nature of the city’s life, means that the Welsh language is found in all communities and forms a growing and integral part of the Welsh experience and identity of its younger generation.
• A broader perspective on Wales, Uk, European and Global matters. Bilingualism often means having a better understanding of other perspectives, opinions and an appreciation of diversity. This is often referred as having “two windows on the world”.

Please see this further guidance and advice: Continuing with Welsh-medium education | GOV.WALES

For more information on the benefits of Welsh Medium Education see this link: https://www.eindinaseinhiaith.cymru/

Helping your child in Welsh Medum education

The majority of pupil who attend Glantaf (and other Welsh Medium schools accross Wales) do not have Welsh as the main language of the home. Therefore the most frequent of concerns or request is how to support my child in Welsh Medium education.

As most children don’t speak Welsh at home, Welsh-medium schools are very experienced in supporting both pupils and parents.

For younger pupils, homework instructions will be given in writing in both English and Welsh. At a later age, children will be able to explain their work to their parents themselves. In fact, research suggests that dealing with their work in two languages can actually help children understand the subject that they are studying.

There is a breadth of resources, technologies and individual support to help your child or yourselves as parents. These are all FREE to download and should be used regularly by your child in presenting their work:

Hwb: Hwb is the National Learning Platform for Wales and your child has their unigue Hwb email address as well as full access to all the bilingual support and materials in all subjects, found on Hwb. Hwb is a completely bilingual platform which hosts pages to support parents teachers and pupils. Indeed it should be an essential support platform for your child. This includes revision aids, materials, teaching packs, videos as awell as interactive support in ALL subjecs from Foundation Phase > KS2 > KS3 > KS4 (GCSE and BTEC) > KS5 (AS, A Level, BTEc and Vocational subjects). Hwb (gov.wales)

Cysill a Cysgair: Word and Spell checkers wihich are free and available to be palced on all your devices at home. It is an essential part of kit for all students at Glantaf! Cysill Ar-lein (cysgliad.com) Free download: Cysill | (cysgliad.com)

Porth Termau: a fantastic online dictionary / resource to translate terminology (Welsh > English or English > Welsh) which is free to download to your Pc / phone or device. An essential resource for all students at Glantaf: termau.cymru

Apps in Welsh: An useful bank of resources / apps to enable your device to “speak” Welsh and English! Welsh Language App Directory - Welsh Apps (appsinwelsh.com)

Independent Learners

Within secondary education as well as one of the four purposes of the curriculum is to develop independent learners who are resilient and have greater capacity to solve problems and seek solutions to challenges. Increasingly as students grow through their education they will develop stronger linguistic skills in order to develop more confidence in both laguages.

Concerns or Query

If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your Progress and Wellbeing Lead to discuss your child’s progress and ability in both langauges. If you require any translation of any task or assignment, again get in touch so that we are able to support your child in this manner.

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