Agenda item

Present information about the Education Department's contribution to the implementation of the Language Policy and Welsh Language Promotion Plan in Gwynedd

To accept the report and note the observations received.

Submitted - a report by the Cabinet Member for Education, Councillor Cemlyn Williams, providing details on the Education Department's contribution to the implementation of the Language Policy and Welsh Language Promotion Plan in Gwynedd. He took advantage of the opportunity to outline some of the Education Department's highlights along with the future challenges it faced.

Attention was drawn to the “Immersion Education System towards 2032 and beyond” and an investment of £1.1 million of Welsh Government Welsh-medium education capital funding to establish new immersion education sites in Tywyn and Bangor, as well as improving existing facilities in Porthmadog. Reference was made to the innovative and ambitious digital learning strategy which aimed to provide laptops and/or digital devices to all pupils and teachers in the county to ensure easy access to work at school and at home. The Head of the Education Department reiterated that the hope was to configure the devices in Welsh which would enable the children to communicate with their families and friends in Welsh and would encourage them to use the Welsh language on social media.

In the context of some of the challenges, concern was expressed that the standard of the Welsh language and social language skills were deteriorating in some areas during the pandemic. This was considered inevitable maybe, as there was less contact between pupils and their teachers / assistants, despite a consistent effort from schools to maintain contact with pupils in an attempt to regain ground. Reference was made to the challenge of recruiting staff with suitable qualifications to enable the provision of Welsh language services / education and also to the lack of language therapists and education psychologists that, albeit a national concern, was seen to be worse in Gwynedd due to the need for a bilingual service. It was reiterated that there were regular discussions with the Welsh Government to seek to mitigate the problem.

Thanks were expressed for the report.

Committee members were given an opportunity to ask further questions - and the Education Officers answered these.

Would it be possible to work proactively by seeking to change the career paths of teaching staff, (by funding relevant training schemes) to become education psychologists?

The Education Department had been proactive locally in an attempt to recruit education psychologists. The bursaries had been a success. Another proposal was to seek to develop interest through a post-16 provision and to target aspects of apprenticeship in the field.

Reference was made to the fact that the percentage use of the Welsh language as a first language in the foundation phase in Gwynedd was higher than in any other county in Wales, but there was a decline at the end of year 9. It was asked whether the decline was general across the County or was it specific to some locations only?

It appeared that when pupils chose their GCSE subjects and their career paths at the end of Year 9 that a vast majority of them chose subjects taught through the medium of English. There was no evidence to substantiate the opinion, nevertheless this was the case. It was noted that schools, with the support of the Education Department, promoted the Welsh language and encouraged pupils to continue with Welsh medium education. It was noted that the Education Department collaborated with Canolfan Bedwyr in Bangor to seek to ensure that training and Welsh language digital resources were available to facilitate access for teachers and pupils to KS4 and KS5 subjects. Discussions were also being held with the Examination Board

Were children assessed as first language, second language or based on the medium of their education? Who chose to assess a child as a first language speaker at the end of year 9? Was this the school's choice or the parents' choice?

It was expected that pupils on level 3 or higher by the end of the primary phase were assessed as first language pupils and were tracked and assessed at the end of key stage 3 in the same way. It was suggested that the decline mentioned above may be based on the way in which some schools interpreted the language policy - it was reiterated that the Government had reviewed the language designation procedure within schools and it was suggested that the new procedure for language designation may lead to an increase in the percentage.

Would the language immersion centres offer flexibility? What would be the balance between in-person learning and on-line learning? Would there be additional opportunities available on-line for pupils to converse informally given that it was the oral element that had suffered during the pandemic? How would this be sold to the parents?

The service and the new procedure would have the advantage of being able to reach more children with different methods through a combination of live sessions and face to face sessions. The workforce would be much more mobile and it was anticipated that it would be possible to target children with different cognitive abilities and group them better according to their merits and staff strengths. The system would also look at language improvement and improving specific skills rather than targeting newcomers only.

The Education Department had been very successful in persuading parents by highlighting and emphasising the advantages of bilingual skills, identity, culture, opportunities and economic advantages

How many Gwynedd teachers were non-Welsh speaking? Was there an opportunity for them to attend the Language Centres? Were there some subjects that were worse?

The Education Department saw a difference in teachers' ability to use the Welsh language and collaborated with Canolfan Bedwyr and GwE to find new teacher training courses with Welsh learning units to ensure confidence from the outset

That the number of non-Welsh teachers who did not have the ability to teach in Welsh was very low. There were others who were learning the language but did not have the confidence to use it publicly. It was noted that the Department dealt with teachers' needs in some specific schools. It was reported that a significant increase was seen in teachers coming forward to volunteer to ask for support to improve Welsh language skills

Traditionally, there was a shortage in the science and mathematics subjects, however, the Department was working with Bangor University to seek to include this aspect as part of the course

RESOLVED

To accept the report and note the observations received.