New Welsh medium primary school nears completion in county with no Welsh high school

Stephen Price

Blaenau Gwent’s new Welsh Medium Primary school is almost complete, although concerns continue to be raised about the lack of concrete plans for a high school in the county or in nearby Monmouthshire, Merthyr and south Powys.

Ysgol Gymraeg Tredegar is a 210-place seedling school with co-located childcare in Chartist Way, Tredegar, and pupils and staff are said to be “really excited to move in” this November.

With the numbers of children in Welsh education growing, it’s part of the council’s commitment to increasing opportunities for families within the county borough.

The school has been fully funded by the Welsh Government through the Welsh Medium Capital Grant.

Ysgol Gymraeg Tredegar is federated with the county borough’s other Welsh primary school, Ysgol Gymraeg Bro Helyg, and shares the same Governing Body and Headteacher. The school is already up and running with pupils currently in temporary accommodation at Bedwellty House.

Excitement

Headteacher Janine Wardill said: “With the new school about to open its doors, excitement is building across Blaenau Gwent. The modern building, with its striking architecture and state-of-the-art facilities, reflects the ambitious vision we have for Welsh-medium education. This school is more than just a building – it’s a community hub where children will grow confidently, bilingually, and ready for the future.

“We are deeply grateful to the developers for their outstanding work, and especially to Bedwellty House for their warm welcome and support over the past two years. The support from parents, staff, the local community, and our educational partners has been vital – together, we are laying strong foundations for a brighter future for our children and our community.”

The new school has a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA), a forest play area, a growing orchard, wild-flower meadows and an adjacent play area. It also has solar panels and electric vehicle charging points. Tilbury Douglas took over the building of the school earlier this year.

Councillor Sue Edmunds, the Council’s Executive Member for People & Education shared: “We want to make sure we offer parents and carers more choice and opportunities when it comes to their child’s education, as well as supporting the Welsh language to grow here in Blaenau Gwent. Everyone is really excited to move to the new building next month, which will be a modern, sustainable learning environment for our pupils. I can’t wait to visit!”

Nine year “commitment”

Concerns about Welsh medium high school provision have been raised regularly across the county, however, with many parents locally having to either switch to English medium high schools, or face a long journey to Gwynllyw, Pontypool.

Although, as Torfaen increase the number of Welsh medium primary schools, it is expected that Gwynllyw will fill up – and mean that another Welsh medium secondary school for the region is needed.

Head of transforming education for nearby Powys County Council, Marianne Evans explained that the council is working with partners across county borders on potentially establishing a new Welsh medium secondary school in the: “heads of the valleys kind of area.”

Matthew Curtis has been seconded by the Welsh Government to work with Powys’s education department on school transformation.

Mr Curtis said: “In my Welsh Government post we did a lot of work in joining up local authorities and aligning their strategies around Welsh medium.”

Mr Curtis continued: “We understand there is a flow of pupils across (county) boundaries to receive the Welsh medium education nearest to them.

“We established a formal working group across all of the southeast local authorities (Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Torfaen) and Powys to be able to monitor and coordinate all of those plans.

“This is to make sure we were best meeting the needs of Welsh medium pupils across the area.

“There are commitments in the southeast local authorities to develop Welsh medium secondary within nine years.”

Cllr Davies said that this hearing this had caused a “real worry”.

Cllr Davies said: “We will be exporting the duty of developing bilingual kids to other counties, where we have no control or influence over what happens.”

“We need some stronger influence on this.”

“Bottleneck”

Back in January 2024, Nation Cymru reported that discussions are taking place between councils in south east Wales to find a suitable site for a Welsh medium secondary school to prevent a “bottleneck” of children leaving Welsh medium primary schools with no local high school provision.

At a meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s Place scrutiny committee on Tuesday January 30, councillors were given an update on long-term school building proposals.

In January 2022, the Welsh Government renamed the 21st Century Schools Programme to the Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme.

This new scheme is supposed to allow councils more flexibility with the expectation that they produce a rolling programme of projects to work on for the next decade.

The report explains that projects submitted in years one to three are expected to reach full business case in that time scale.

Years four to six would see projects come forward that can be developed and need to go through a consultation process. Projects in years seven to nine are pipeline projects.

The Welsh Government expects local authorities to review their rolling programme at least every three years.

A possible development for Blaenau Gwent from years four to six, from 2027 onwards, is a Welsh-medium secondary school.

National issue

Welsh medium primary school pupils from Blaenau Gwent currently go across the border into Torfaen to continue their education in Welsh at Ysgol Gymraeg Gwynllyw in Pontypool.

The report suggests that youngsters from Blaenau Gwent won’t be able to attend Gwynllyw from September 2028 due to lack of spaces.

Cllr David Wilkshire said: “The solution is to have our own (secondary) school.”

He asked if any discussions had already started with Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, Monmouthshire, and Powys County Council’s to work together on the project.

Blaenau Gwent’s Education Transformation Manager, Joanne Mackay said: “We meet every half term at the moment.

“Merthyr, Powys and Monmouthshire are growing their (Welsh medium) primary provision as well.”

“It’s perhaps a bit of a national issue as we’re all doing the same thing.”

She explained that local authorities are all working to set up Welsh medium primary schools.

But the lack of Welsh medium secondary schools is creating a “bottleneck” with children leaving Welsh medium primary schools with nowhere to go to continue their education in Welsh.

Ms Mackay said: “We are looking at identifying a piece of land where we could develop provision that could serve all of us.”

Once a patch of land – convenient to all four councils – is found they would then “make representations” to the Welsh Government for funding to build the school.

Cllr Wilkshire said: “It’s wonderful to have a Welsh school but if we don’t have the teachers, we’re back to square one so we need to be mindful of that – it’s not as simple as it seems.”

Ms Mackay added that the Welsh Government was aware of this problem and were looking to develop more teachers that can work in Welsh.

Another long term project could be a new build secondary school in Brynmawr which is listed for 2027 onwards.

According to Blaenau Gwent Council: “It’s never too late to think about your child accessing Welsh education, and there’s plenty of information available on the Schools & Learning section of our Council website.

“For anyone making the switch, immersion learning is available. For more information go to Becoming Bilingual.”