The aim of Mudiad Meithrin is to create new Welsh speakers through the Welsh-medium childcare and education systems as well as through various parent support programs which give every child the opportunity to become a confident Welsh speaker.
We offer a cautious welcome to the contents of the Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Bill, emphasising our support for prioritising Welsh-medium education and the language immersion approach.
In particular, we note:
- that ensuring a clear link between the target of a million Welsh speakers and the processes for planning for growth (and therefore creating additional demand) for Welsh-medium education and Welsh-medium early years services is essential.
- the need for a clear commitment from the Welsh Government to grow the education workforce and the early years workforce who have the necessary language skills to expand Welsh-medium provision and improve the linguistic outcomes of all our children.
- the importance of the early years at the beginning of the language development continuum, especially in terms of communication and supporting parents and carers at the beginning of their Welsh language education journey. Where there is confidence in the early years – there is natural confidence in the language as they progress on their linguistic journey through school.
- that we welcome the emphasis in the Bill on the importance of working with parents to support families, and also wider communities, to transfer the Welsh language in the community and at home.
- that we welcome that the Bill specifically refers to setting targets for increasing Welsh language education provision and increasing the number of people who learn Welsh and also proposing a statutory, national definition of Welsh language education for the first time.
- the importance of ensuring that increasing the provision of Welsh in schools and early years settings is carefully planned alongside identifying the Welsh-language skills of the workforce, and informed planning for nurturing and developing Welsh language skills across the care and education sectors in Wales, to avoid unintended effects can arise when consideration is not given to the continuum as a whole.
- that, as Mudiad Meithrin, we are of the opinion that every new school established should be a designated Welsh-medium school. This would normalise Welsh-medium education in all communities and contribute significantly towards creating and increasing the demand for Welsh-medium education in all communities across Wales.
- that standardising the measurements of Welsh-language proficiency is an important step forward and facilitates recruitment processes; also helping to plan for improving the language skills across a person’s lifetime. It will be necessary to include details about the skills of the CEFR1 levels in an easy-to-understand format for those who are not used to using it in order to ensure the success of this vision.
- that the vision of establishing one national body (The Athrofa) to carry out strategic supervision is a way of encouraging collaboration opportunities between the different education sectors. This would enable us (with an additional financial contribution) to expand into areas such as training the education workforce, sharing resources and good practice across sectors and building on the National Centre for Learning Welsh’s existing specialisms.
We trust that Mudiad Meithrin and its wider community (Cylchoedd Meithrin and day nurseries) have an important contribution to make to contribute to the work of receiving additional investment.
You can read our full written response in the document below.
