Moving to Wales, help needed with education

Lillys_mum

I really need some help here from any non-welsh people who have moved to wales.

We are probably moving there next year. My husband is from Wales and can speak some. I am from Scotland and can't speak any. Our children will be in year 5, year 3 and the youngest will be 3 yrs old.

All the information I can find on schools is that Welsh is compulsory and English is not until KS2.

I am really concerned about this as I don't want to disadvantage my children by having to try and learn a new language that I don't even know myself.

Is there any way of opting out of it owing to the fact we will only be there a few years and I cannot help them with their work. My husband will be working away and will only be home 2 weekends a month.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks
Hazel

emjem_3

Hi Hazel,

Are you moving to north Wales? They are a lot more 'Welsh!' As a secondary school teacher I cannot work here because they have a Welsh language policy. I could teach in a private school as they are not quite so strict - however any teaching jobs around here are few and far between!

I do know that in some primary schools lessons for the first few years are purely in Welsh - no English is spoken. However this is only in some schools. I have friends who have decided to put their children in private schools and some that get taught at the local schools and they don't have any complaints.

You will be suprised how quickly children pick up the language!

Good luck! I hated it when we first arrived - unable to find any kind of job, rained for three weeks solidly but now I enjoy it x

Fen1

Which county authority are you
going to live in?

Lillys_mum

We will be going to Anglesey as that is where my husbands parents live.

pavlovs_dog

there are welsh medium, english medium and bilingual schools in wales. in north wales, the welsh medium will be quite common, because there is a lot of welsh spoken there.

in english medium schools, welsh is taught alongside english, not in place of (in the same way that your children might currently be taught french/german/spanish/italian in primary school). this is the way that i myself learnt. im now doing a welsh degree and am fluent.

why not contact the LEA, and see what support would be available to your children if they were to go to a welsh medium school? i know that early years children from english backgrounds get 1:1 support, and im confident that positive discrimination policies would mean that a similar level of support would be available to your children, should you chose that route. at such a young age, they shouldnt have much difficulty picking up the language - they are like sponges!

cant comment for definite on the situation in north wales, but i know in the south (where welsh is less widely spoken) homework is usually issued bilingually at key stage 1, to assist non-welsh speaking parents who wish to help their children with their homework. given that over 90% of the intake for welsh medium places in my area are from english speaking families, you can see that your situation would by no means be unique!

dobbie82

so would your children be about 10, 8 and 3? I would not worry too much as kids pick things up very quickly and your eldest has a couple of years before going to secondary school, and over a year til SATs I think?

I moved to north wales in february (Back to my home town) but my two year old had never lived in Wales and had had no Welsh spoken to him.

He started at a Welsh nursery and I was really worried for him as he wouldne talk to anyone for first few weeks as many of the children didnt speak English.(75% of people here have welsh as 1st language) But I am shocked at how quickly he has picked the language. (of course first thing he learnt was "no" and "don't mummy" :-) but I was happy to hear it!)

For older children (5-10yrs old) around here there is a "Welsh Unit" Where non welsh children are taught maths, english etc in english and have fast-track welsh lessons too, and within a few months they are able to go to a Welsh school.

You could phone a few schools close to where you are moving and see what their policy is?

I started school at 4, but understood quite a bit of Welsh so did ok as the teacher taught billingually, but by the time I was 6, the policy had changed to all Welsh which was frustrating for me when I couldnt say what I needed to if I didnt know the Welsh words.

The scondary school did have an english class in each year but was only for those who had moved to the area so I couldnt be in that class.

I was able to opt-out of Welsh medium education at 14years old and so did my GCSE's in English and got good marks.

There are lots of Welsh/billingual playgroups in North Wales "cylch meithrin" (nursery circle/group?) and "cylch ti a fi" (you and me circle/group?)
that encourage non-Welsh speaking parents to come along and learn a few words, nursery rhymes and songs. It gets the children used to hearing the language and they pick bits up without having to sit in a classroom. And also it would be an oppertunity for you to get to meet a few of the local mums.

sorry if that all seems a bit waffling! But the main thing is dont worry!

siws1

Where we live in West Wales the schools are categorised as Category A or Category B. The Category A schools are all welsh schools and the Category B schools are bilingual schools. The school my children go to are a Category B School. In our school they do have welsh lessons as part of the curriculum, but haven't really had any welsh homework. If there are any exceptional welsh speakers then they can have extra welsh lessons from a peripatetic teacher who visits once a week.

I'm sure that if you contact the local authority for the area you are going to move to then they should be able to tell you what category the local schools are for you to make an informed choice. Don't forget you can ask to visit all the schools and speak to the headteachers to see how they can accommodate you. I wouldn't worry too much about it as children are very quick in picking things up and when they hear the language on a day to day basis will soon pick up the basics.

All the best to you and I hope that you will be very happy living in Wales.

daveyjp

My sister in law moved back to Cardiff two years ago with a 5 year old. Welsh is her first language, her husband is English and doesn't speak a word of Welsh.

Even though Cardiff has relatively few Welsh speakers their son goes to 100% Welsh speaking school, but he rarely speaks it any other time. If me and my wife were to move there I would send my daughter to Welsh only school without hesitation and I'd probably learn with her.

There is huge demand for Welsh schools in Cardiff, as a result a secondary which is currently English speaking is going to 100% Welsh from September.

TurnaroundSue

Hi - I am english and my OH is welsh, but neither of us can speak the welsh language. However, when my children were born we made a conscious decision to send them to a welsh speaking only school - and I must say I have mixed reservations about our decision.

My son is now 14 and has just changed to an english comprehensive as he was really struggling with have all his lessons in welsh and also struggled and rebelled against the education system as he wasn't allowed to speak english at all, not even in break times - so consequently was put into detention everytime he was caught speaking english. This made him very unhappy for a long time and it got so bad that we had no choice but to move him to an english comp.

However, my daughter is a different kettle of fish - she is now 9 (going into year 5 in September) and loves everything about the welsh language. She was mortified to think that as her brother had moved to an english comp that she would have to go as well. When I explained that she could go to a welsh comp she was happy.

So I really do think it depends on each and every child and how they are academically and their attitude towards the language. My son didn't enjoy french or german either, so assume that he is not very good at languages. I do not know what the education system is like in north wales as we live in the south, but like others have suggested it might be a good idea to contact the local LEA.

One thing I would say is that before we sent our son to school we went around a few of the welsh schools in the area and they all had the same opinion; that if your child is of average intelligence then they would not have a problem with the language - however, they did also state that it would be unlikely that they would take a child from a non welsh speaking family after the age of 7 as the child would struggle - not sure if that is still the case as that was some 11 years ago.

Anyway, good luck with whatever you decide and I hope you'll settle into Wales and the welsh way of life. I have been here 20 years now and am really happy.

Louise1521

I live in Anglesey, and it all depends on what school you send your children to. The school that mine go to is primarily English, with Welsh as a second language. Most of the other primary schools do their lessons in Welsh, but do speak English as well. I've never known English to be optional though.

Glad

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