A DISCUSSION on how Wrexham must encourage English-speaking parents to send children to Welsh-medium schools has been reposted after only being broadcast in Welsh.
Wrexham Council’s Lifelong Learning Scrutiny Committee met on Wednesday to discuss the authority’s work to increase the number of pupils studying at Welsh-medium schools and efforts to boost confidence among English-speaking parents to seen their children to those schools.
Unusually the debate was conducted mostly in Welsh – and due to what the authority described as a ‘technical difficulty’ – the English translation was not available on the livestream.
With the most recent Census data showing only 12.2% of Wrexham residents saying they speak Welsh, the issue threatened to undermine the work the authority is doing to build confidence among English-speaking families by excluding them from the proceedings.
After the issue was raised with the authority however it has now accepted there was a problem and uploaded the English translation to its website.
During the meeting Lead Member for Education Cllr Phil Wynn said: “Covid has had a material impact on the confidence of English-speaking families to commit their children to a bilingual education.
“In 2022 we submitted our Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) covering the period to 2030 to show our commitment to increase the number of pupils in Year 1 that were being educated in a Welsh medium setting.
“There were two targets set or Wrexham, a lower target of 23% and an upper target of 27%.”
Currently only 13.2% of pupils in Year 1 are studying at Welsh medium schools within the County Borough, with Wrexham showing no consistent growth in that figure since 2021.
Ceri Roberts, Wrexham’s Welsh Medium Education Transformation Officer, said that the percentage figures were skewed by the falling birth rate, but that primary school intakes were increasing.
“Ysgol Llan y Pwll is filling from the bottom up, pre-school Ysgol Min y Ddol is going well as is Ysgol Plas Coch.
“Comprehensive school numbers are holding their ground very well with 887 pupils overall in Welsh-medium education and 95 in sixth-form.
“Every nursery has a Flying Start group from the age of one promoting the Welsh language and this Saturday there will be a family fun day at Ty Pawb with all of the Welsh language groups coming together to showcase good Welsh-medium education and help promote Welsh education to non-Welsh-speaking parents.”
She highlighted Welsh language awards won by a number of Wrexham schools.
She told the meeting that last year Ysgol Bro Alun was named Best School in Wales for Welsh education. In addition 28 out of 30 schools in the authority had achieved either bronze or silver awards for promoting the Welsh language through the Love Welsh programme.
“At the Urdd we were really proud of Rhosnesni School as they actually competed and achieved third place,” said Ceri.
She also revealed that her team was re-establishing a Welsh Language immersion unit on the top floor of Ysgol Bryn Tabor where children can go to use Welsh in real-world scenarios such as buying shopping to build their confidence.”
The committee recommended supporting the work in progress currently but to write to the Welsh Government’s Education Minister to request a review of the WESP targets due to the negative effect of falling birth rates.
