Consultation opens on plans to make primary school fully Welsh medium

Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

A consultation on proposals to change the language category of a village primary school near Bannau Brycheiniog is underway.

Powys County Council’s consultation on a proposal for Sennybridge primary school to become a Welsh-medium school started on April 15 and is set to run until May 27,

The council has said that the change to the language category would take place on a “phased basis.”

It would start with the reception class in September 2027 and, year by year, the school would in time become wholly Welsh medium.

The council said: “Once the consultation period has ended, a consultation report will be produced which will outline the feedback received.

“The cabinet will consider the consultation report and will consider whether or not they wish to proceed with the proposals.

“This is expected to happen in July.”

If senior Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors decide to go ahead with the proposals, the council will then publish a statutory notice and there would be a period of 28 days for people to submit objections.

This would see cabinet receive another report setting out any objections received and they would then decide whether or not to proceed with implementation.

The decision to start the legal process for the language change was taken by Cabinet back in February.

The school currently has three classes taught in English and three in Welsh.

And of the 114 current pupils at the school, 63 are in the Welsh-medium stream and 51 in the English one.

Education chiefs recommended implementing the move to Welsh medium on a phased basis, to minimise impact on pupils currently being taught in English at the school.

Postpone

School governors had said that they wanted to postpone the change by a year.

This is because there is already a lot of upheaval at the school with the move to Welsh-medium education coming on top of the new school build and setting up nursery provision at the site.

In February, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority Planning committee voted to grant planning permission for a new muti-million school building for 120 pupils.

In March, the council announced that the Welsh Government have agreed to fund 65 per cent of the £9.6 million project through its Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme.

Kier Construction have been appointed to build the new school, with work scheduled to start this month.

To have your say visit https://www.haveyoursaypowys.wales/sennybridge-c-p-school or email [email protected]

Or write to the Transforming Education Team, County Hall, Llandrindod Wells, Powys, LD1 5LG.