What is the value of the Welsh language in primary education?

What is the value of the Welsh language in primary education?

Hi education bloggers, I hope you’re all doing well. I’m back again for another interesting blog where we will be looking at the value of the Welsh language in Primary Education today.

So, what is the Welsh language? The welsh language is Wales’s own language which has been around for hundreds of years, and is currently still used today within the education system. The word ‘’Value’’ indicates ‘’the importance worth, or usefulness of something’’ (Oxford dictionary, 2018).

The Welsh language is a very important part of the curriculum within Wales (School run, 2018). Back the welsh government had released their Welsh-medium education strategy, which was aimed to improve the teaching and learning of the Welsh language throughout the country. The government were aiming to create a bilingual Wales (Gov,2007). All children in schools in Wales learn the Welsh language from key stage 2 all the way through to GCSE level, where the child will be 16 (School run, 2018). Around a quarter of primary school pupils today are taught predominantly through the medium of Welsh, which is believed to be very good as the Welsh language has many benefits that come along with it.

In Wales there are five main different types of primary schools which are differentiated by their approach to the welsh language (School run, 2018).

The five below indicate the differences.

Welsh-medium primary schools – this is where the main language used is Welsh and throughout the curriculum. All the foundation phase is taught in Welsh and 70% of the teaching within key stage 2 is also Welsh (Jones, M, 2016).
Dual stream primary schools – English medium teaching and Welsh medium teaching also exist and work closer to one another. These children are either placed in Welsh or English stream for the language which is chosen (Jones, M, 2016).
Transitional primary schools – in the foundation phase the language that is being used is mainly Welsh but when the children progress to key stage 2 both English and Welsh are used within the lessons, giving the children a balance in both languages (Jones, M, 2016).
Predominantly English-medium primary schools but with significant use of Welsh – both languages Welsh and English are used the English language is the one that is the predominant language. The welsh language is only used 20 to 50% of the time during the lessons (Jones, M, 2016).
Predominantly English-medium primary schools – English is the main language within the school, Welsh is only used when in a Welsh lesson and this is the only time Welsh is used to teach children (Jones, M, 2016).
There are a mix of these schools all over the country, and all depending on what the parents want for the child, and if they want the child to be bilingual and have more of a wider spectrum on both languages (School run, 2018).

There are many benefits that come alongside of the Welsh language with it being used within education. One of the main benefits of the Welsh language being used within education according to RHAG, is that the child will become more proficient in the Welsh language as they would have started it at such a young age. Another benefit that comes with a child being a fluent Welsh speaker is that they will be completely bilingual by the end of key stage 2 which from a parent’s point of view is believed to be a very large achievement (School run, 2018) There are also educational benefits when being able to learn two languages. Research shows that it helps develop cognitive skills. Children in Welsh medium schools often have superior writing skills and find it easier to learn other languages as they get older (School run, 2018).

Following the Education Reform Act 1988, Welsh was made as a compulsory subject for pupils aged 5-14 (Key Stages 1, 2 and 3) from 1990. From September 1999 onwards, the Welsh language also became compulsory at ages 14-16 (Key Stage 4). With the introduction of the Foundation Phase in 2011, Welsh or Welsh Language Development is also taught to all 3-7-year olds (Jones, M, 2016).

The National Curriculum for Wales is made up of core and foundation subjects, which are listed in the Education Act 2002

The core subjects for Key Stages 1-3 are Mathematics, Science English and Welsh first language within Welsh speaking schools as stated in the Education Act 2002) The foundation subjects are Technology Physical education, History, Geography, Art, Music and Welsh second language (if the school is not a Welsh speaking school as stated in the Education Act 2002. The core subjects at Key Stage 4 are Welsh first language, Mathematics, English and Science. The foundation subjects are Physical education; and Welsh second language (Jones, M, 2016).

Successful Futures states the ten recommendations in relation to Welsh language in the curriculum across the ages 3 – 16 years covering all current key stages and phases. These respond directly to the key recommendations of the curriculum (Lewis, H, 2015).

With Donaldson’s new curriculum coming in, there are a number of actions that will be needed to take forward either in accordance with the Welsh-medium Education Strategy, through the implementation of ‘’Successful Futures’’ (Donaldson, 2015).

The curriculum states that they will: -

·         continue to strengthen school-to-school support through the regional consortia and in partnership with other stakeholders with the requisite expertise.

·         continue to deliver intensive Welsh-language training to practitioners through the Sabbatical Scheme.

·         work with Estyn and the regional consortia to identify best practice in the teaching and learning of Welsh second language and determine how schools are performing at key stages 2 and 3.

·         work with the Education Workforce Council to determine the Welsh-language skills of the current workforce.

·         promote Welsh as a subject and as a skill for the workplace (Lewis, H, 2015).

Welsh is believed to be a very important language within education and it’s going to be used a lot more within the future especially with the new curriculum coming in.

I hope you’ve all learned some new information on the Welsh language and why it’s important within the primary school setting. I’ll be back soon with another blog, so make sure keep up to date with the posts.

Talk to you all soon Bloggers!!

References

Cardiff.gov.uk. (2018). Cardiff Council. [online] Available at: https://www.cardiff.gov.uk/ENG/resident/Schools-and-learning/Schools/welsh-medium-education/Pages/default.aspx [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].

Cs.ox.ac.uk. (2015). History and Status of the Welsh Language. [online] Available at: http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/geraint.jones/rhydychen.org/about.welsh/#what [Accessed 29^th March 2018]

Donaldson (2015) ‘Successful Futures’’ [Accessed 29^th March 2018]

Jones, M (2016) Welsh medium education and Welsh as a subject [Accessed 29^th March 2018]

Legislation.gov.uk. (2018). Education Act 2002. [online] Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/32/contents [Accessed 29 Mar. 2018].

Lewis, H (2015) Welsh Second Language within our new curriculum [Accessed 29^th March 2018]

Oxford Dictionary (2018) ‘Value’, Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/value [Accessed 29^th March 2018].