Welsh school could be approved on Tuesday
Powys County Council is proposing to move Ysgol Bro Caereinion in Llanfair Caereinion along the language continuum from a dual-stream school to a Welsh-medium school on a phased basis.
The county council said this would enable all learners to develop their language skills and become fluent in Welsh and English, ensuring that they become fully bilingual, and able to confidently use both languages in the future.
It would also ensure that pupils in this part of Powys could access designated Welsh-medium secondary provision with this type of provision already available to pupils in other parts of Wales but is currently unavailable in Powys.
The proposal would be introduced on a phased basis starting with Reception in September 2025 and Year 7 in September 2026, but it has faced considerable local opposition in the town and surrounding area.
The counter the resistance, the council said it will offer free home-to-school transport to pupils at years 4 and below at Ysgol Bro Caereinion and Ysgol Rhiw Bechan to their nearest English-medium secondary provider when they transfer from primary to secondary, should that be their preference.
Additional support would be provided to pupils not yet in the Welsh stream as part of the proposal. This would be in the form of immersive Welsh language support 'Trochi', to enable pupils currently in the English stream in the school’s primary phase to transfer to Welsh-medium provision. This type of provision has previously been delivered successfully in the county and in other authorities to enable pupils to transfer from English-medium education to Welsh-medium education.
Earlier this year, the Cabinet gave the go-ahead for a statutory notice to be published formally proposing the change, which was published in April. During the statutory notice period, 16 objections were received.
Next Tuesday, the Cabinet will receive and consider the objection report and will be asked to approve the proposal.
Cllr Pete Roberts, Cabinet Member for a Learning Powys, said: “This proposal would see the council providing well planned provision for increasing the opportunities for a growing number of children and young people to become fully bilingual, fluent in both Welsh and English and therefore contributing to the Welsh Government’s aspiration to achieve a million Welsh speakers by 2050.
“This proposal meets the aims of the Strategy for Transforming Education in Powys and implements the commitments in our Welsh in Education Strategic Plan, which will enable us to make good progress against our target of increasing the number of pupils being taught through the medium of Welsh.
“It is important that Cabinet hears the views of those who have objected to the proposal and these will be carefully considered before any final decisions are made.”
To find out more about Welsh-medium education in Powys, visit https://en.powys.gov.uk/schools and click on Destination Bilingual.
To read the updated Strategy for Transforming Education 2020-2032 and details of the Transforming Education Programme - Wave 2 (2022 - 2027) visit https://en.powys.gov.uk/transformingeducation
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