Agenda item

It was agreed to proceed to submit full business cases to the Welsh Government to secure funding from the Welsh-medium Education Capital Grant scheme to deliver the purposes of the projects below:

a)    Project 1- Invest over £1.1m to increase capacity and improve the learning environment of Gwynedd Language Centres - the second phase.

b)    Project 2 - Invest over £1.5m in capital funding and £0.3m in revenue funding to increase the capacity of three schools (Llanllechid, Bro Lleu and Chwilog), in order to support Welsh communities of linguistic significance (i.e. the communities with over 70% of Welsh speakers) to thrive.

It was agreed to conduct a statutory consultation on the proposal to increase the capacity of Ysgol Chwiliog to 95, which is an increase of over 25% to the existing capacity, in accordance with the requirements of section 48 of the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013, and report back to the Cabinet following the completion of the consultation.

The report was submitted by Cllr Beca Brown

DECISION

It was agreed to proceed to submit full business cases to the Welsh Government to secure funding from the Welsh-medium Education Capital Grant scheme to deliver the purposes of the projects below:

a)    Project 1- Invest over £1.1m to increase capacity and improve the learning environment of Gwynedd Language Centres - the second phase.

b)    Project 2 - Invest over £1.5m in capital funding and £0.3m in revenue funding to increase the capacity of three schools (Llanllechid, Bro Lleu and Chwilog), in order to support Welsh communities of linguistic significance (i.e. the communities with over 70% of Welsh speakers) to thrive.

It was agreed to conduct a statutory consultation on the proposal to increase the capacity of Ysgol Chwiliog to 95, which is an increase of over 25% to the existing capacity, in accordance with the requirements of section 48 of the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013, and report back to the Cabinet following the completion of the consultation.

DISCUSSION

The report was submitted noting that this was a request to submit two full business cases to Welsh Government. It was noted that the first was an investment to to increase capacity and improve the learning environment of Gwynedd Language Centres, and the second was a capital and revenue application to increase the capacity of three schools within the county in order to support communities with over 70% of Welsh-speakers. It was explained that as the proposal was to increase the capacity of Ysgol Chwilog by over 25% a statutory consultation would need to be held in accordance with the requirements of the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013.

It was noted that Welsh Government had invited Councils to apply for the grant in order to facilitate the growth of Welsh-medium education within Wales and to promote the use of the Welsh language within schools. It was explained in relation to the Language Centres that the investment would be made in order to increase capacity and improve the learning environment by securing stategic locations. In relation to Ysgol Maesincla, it was stated that the existing centre needed to be extended, in Dolgellau the centre needed to be relocated to Ysgol Bro Idris and in terms of Ysgol Bro Cybi, the Centre would be relocated to the Ysgol y Cymerau site.  It was emphasised that there was a lot of exciting work happening within the centres and that the plans would build on the firm foundations already in place. 

It was stated that three schools had been identified to increase their capacity - Ysgol Llanllechid, Ysgol Bro Lleu and Ysgol Chwilog) and that this was because the communities had over 70% of Welsh-speakers and that there were plans in place to build more houses in those areas. It was noted that this scheme showed the commitment to Welsh-medium education and to the County's children, and reflected the Council's commitment to developing and ensuring the Welshness of the County's children.

Observations arising from the discussion

¾    The business cases were welcomed and the need for this investment was noted.

¾    Members expressed support to the schemes and it was noted that they looked forward to seeing the schemes being realised.