Book on Welsh history to be sent to all schools as part of new national curriculum
A book on Welsh history will be sent to all schools in Wales to aid in the teaching of the new national curriculum.
History Grounded by Dr Elin Jones, a former teacher, will be provided to schools in both Welsh and English to give all pupils an insight into Wales’s history.
The book provides a visual history of Wales over 5,000 years, covering Wales’s history from early settlement and society up to the present day, taking in important points throughout our past and across communities, with maps and illustrations.
The Welsh Government said that the book will be provided to schools in early 2022, as part of a range of actions to support the teaching of Wales’s history in the new Curriculum, to be taught from the start of the 2022/23 academic year.
Improving the teaching of Welsh history is one of the commitments outlined in the Co-operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government, with plans to develop new teaching resources to explain Wales’ diversity and complexity.
Jeremy Miles, the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language, said: “We want to ensure all pupils leave school with an understanding of our nation’s history – not just the major events, but through the lives and experiences of people and communities from all over Wales.
“History Grounded really helps bring Wales’s rich history to life and will be a fantastic teaching resource for our new curriculum.”
‘Integral’
The author Dr Elin Jones said that the new curriculum gives proper importance to pupils’ cynefin, their local area and Welsh history in all its diversity, and that the book explored those topics.
“The aim of the book is for young people to understand how history has shaped the landscape of Wales and how the clues to the history of their cynefin can be found around them in things like buildings and local place names,” she said.
“I hope both children and teachers alike enjoy the book and that it helps bring the complex history of Wales to life, inside and outside the classroom.”
Sian Gwenllian, Plaid Cymru’s lead designated member for the Co-operation Agreement, said: “As the national story of Wales becomes a compulsory part of the curriculum, the provision of Dr Elin Jones’ seminal work for every school in Wales is a positive development.
“The teaching of Welsh history is an integral part of ensuring that young people in Wales understand their nation’s past, present and future. This additional resource will help ensure the Welsh curriculum is comprehensive and that teachers are adequately supported in its delivery.”
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And about time too!
It needs to be available for purchase for people like me who had no education about the history of Wales.
It is. Here’s a link to the book on Waterstones:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/history-grounded/elin-jones//9781845278328
Or check out your local bookshop maybe?
Happy reading 🙂
Hi William to find more about Welsh history, try Britain’s Hidden History website/ youtube
This should be available to everyone. They did not teach much if anything about Welsh history when I was in school.
A first step in the right direction. Welsh / British history was taught in Wales until relatively recent times. If one could find a school history text book from 100 years ago, you would find a very different account of our nation than the one you see today. Unfortunately,the history of the Cymru was deemed unworthy and was air brushed / deleted to make way for a Germanic version which was required in order foreign royalty could legitimise their claim to the throne. Welsh history was then designated to the realm of myth and legend and this narrative persists to… Read more »
I couldn’t agree more with you about cadwr they found the very first iron works in merthy Tydfil when they started to build the new BQ in merthy Tydfil CADW exposed the whole site over many months then they had one open day which was very low key and they then allowed BQ to distroy the whole site I went up to the site two days later and they were putting the whole site through the crausher
lol
I hope that in the book they have the true history of the very first train to run on rails was Richard trevethik train that whent from merthy Tydfil to abercynon some 20yrs before Stevenson train and that makes the tunnel in merthy Tydfil the oldest tunnel and also the bridges the oldest in the world that a train whent through and over and they are still there to be seen
Yes. Trethethic built the first operational loco to run on rails, but it was only pulling tonnes of coal . Stevenson’s was pulling a handful of posh people, so much more important. NOT.
Spot on and it took 20yrs later to make his train also they say many people had a ride on trevethiks train so they were the first passengers ever to have a ride on a train the only difference they didn’t pay
Trevithick. 10 tons of iron and 70 men were carried for that bet on February 21st 1804. His work had already proved the necessity for iron rails which were provided to him and the Stockton-Darlington line by the Tregelles-Price Neath Abbey Ironworks. The Prices were also Cornish Quakers, part of the Fox family and builders of the first iron boats in Wales. Joseph Tregelles-Price, a steam engineer himself, lobbied to try to save Dic Penderyn and helped found the Peace Society which possibly led to the League of Nations and thence UN. It is also probable that he was involved… Read more »
I hope it’s a book that the English would rather burn than let our children read.
I trust it will upset the Dic Sion Dafydds too.
Nothing wrong with teaching your children the language of the overlords, but not at the expense of their birthright.
Much overdue.
“History Grounded” by Dr Elin Jones is available to purchase in hard back on amazon for £16.50, so get your copy now.
and at Hive at £15.85 – who don’t avoid paying tax and also contribute to local bookshops https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Elin-Jones/History-Grounded/26575017
Also available in good Welsh bookshops.
Bought my copy in Siop y Pentan, Carmarthen.
Finally! I did ‘O’level history in the 70’s….all about England. I even had to teach myself our anthem.
To find more, try Britain’s Hidden History website/ youtube
Sorry but that illustration at the top depicts a wildly disproportionate proportion of POC, and why? Before you call me racist – I’m black and Welsh. I am pleased to be represented in media as being part of the Welsh nation. But the effect for me of these increasingly common pandering approaches to inclusion is embarrassment. It feels unnatural and forced.
Diolch
I agree, it’s cringeingly unnatural and forced and I really don’t see where it gets us. The demographics of the illustration would suit Birmingham or Leicester fine and would be sensible in that context, but it just doesn’t represent Wales at all.
Good! We should follow what the Irish did, a complete embracing of our culture, before the colonialists destroy it for good.
To find more, try Britain’s Hidden History website/ youtube
It’s taken Welsh Labour 22yrs in government to introduce a Welsh history book to our curriculum? This was only made possible thanks to Plaid Cymru who did similar in 2007 resulting in the 2011 Legislative referenda. Imagine what FM Adam Price and a Plaid Welsh Government could do in government. So much good. Although to be fair it’s not Welsh Labour’s fault entirely, as any blame lies soley with the English establishment & Westminster who tried their utmost to cleanse Welsh history, language & culture over the centuries & decades when they controlled our education system, or should I refer… Read more »
The Labour party in Cymru are to blame for the lack of Welsh history education in Welsh schools. Denial of Welsh children to access Welsh history has well served their pro-UK agenda. The history of the ‘Welsh Not’ is known extensively through out Cymru however the Labour party’s cultural engineering project denying Welsh children access to their own history is far less well-documented It is time the Labour party were held to account for their anglicisation of the history taught in Welsh schools.
Good news! But I am curious….was this a result of the Lab/Plaid agreement in action? Or was this done off Labours Backs?
I wasn’t aware that the new agreement was active yet? Anyone know? Diolch!
Dunno, but Labour youth seem much more nationalist than ever before, as so the ranks.
The co-operation agreement (duration: 3 years) has been up and running since Adam Price and Mark Drakeford signed it.
1 December 2021.
Co-operation Agreement signed | GOV.WALES
Neither. The Curriculum has been worked on for years and guidance was published in January 2020, long before the agreement and when the LibDem Kirsty Williams was Education Minister.
There is a lot of cross-party agreement and co-operation on this as is vital when it is the future of our children.
Wasn’t she the one who said there wasn’t such a thing as ‘a Welsh History’, though?
Education Minister criticised over ‘there’s no such thing as a Welsh history’ comments (nation.cymru)
To find more, and video with an honest review of this book, try Britain’s Hidden History website/ youtube
Da iawn
Learned Zilch about Wales in school, but libraries full of English pirates and adulterer Kings.
I bet they didn’t teach you that Barti Du, the most successful pirate of the golden age of piracy was Welsh. He pirated almost 500 vessels during his career, whilst black beard and captain Kidd managed under 20 between them. He was tea total and his crew had to sing hymns on Sunday. His flamboyant dress gave us the image we have of the pirate today and he codified the law of the pirate. He had his own flag of a severed head with weighing scales.He made all other pirates look like weekend offenders.He was vicious and when he raised… Read more »
Suggested late(ish) Christmas present for Simon Hart, I suggest. After all … I am the very model of a modern Viceroy-General I am the very model of a modern Viceroy-General I only have information on matters Better Togetheral, I know nothing of Welsh kings, nor of battles historical Not Glyndŵr nor Llywelyn, in any order categorical. I’m not at all acquainted with matters mathematical, I mis-understand equations, both the simple and quadratical About binominal theorem, I really have no news, With a doleful look about the square of the hypotenuse. I’m hopeless at integral and differential calculus; I dunno scientific… Read more »
This is wonderful news. At last a true narrative history for our children. For too long they have had to make do with a trivial and disjointed set of biographical anecdotes …
My only cautionary note is this. Elin Jones’s book should not be regarded as the single authoritative history of our country. Any more than John Davies’s history. Every historian has their own sometimes quirky way of viewing our past.
As Gwyn Alf and Wynford VT would say, the dragon has (more than) two tongues.
Send a copy to the Baron Kinnock of Bedwellty. He didn’t think Wales had a history.
To find more, and a good review, try Britain’s Hidden History website/ youtube
Apparently the Celts , who arrived about 850 – 1000 BC hardly made a dent in our gene pool. I am hoping that the information regarding the British Isles during the past 5K years is accurately reflected within this curriculum
Sounds great right up to the blm and that rainbow flag.
For a reliable review of this book try Britain’s Hidden History recent video on yt
Just wait for the fireworks when the hijabi on the cover realises that someone’s waving an LGBT flag right under her nose. Expect very strong exclamations of “astaghfirullah” or “la samah allah”.