Protestors occupy Cardiff Council offices as part of campaign for Welsh-medium school
A group of protestors occupied Cardiff Council offices today in a campaign for a Welsh-medium schools at the Plasdŵr development in the capital.
The council leader had said in 2018 that a Welsh-medium school would be part of the new seven thousand home development in the north-west of the city.
However, the council’s cabinet subsequently decided to consult on a proposal to establish a new bilingual primary school which would mean half the pupils going to an English-medium stream.
Mabli Siriol from campaign group Cymdeithas yr Iaith said that the council had a “golden opportunity” to establish a new Welsh-medium school.
She pointed to the fact that the council had received a petition signed by 876 people calling for a Welsh-medium school, with only 15 of the 180 other responses backing the councils plan for an English-medium stream on the site.
“By not using the capital that comes with the huge housing development to open a specifically Welsh-medium school, the council is holding back the growth of the Welsh language in the area and the aspirations of the vast majority of people of the area to revive the language and see all of our young people becoming fluent speakers,” Mabli Siriol said.
“Every new school should be a Welsh-medium one, that’s the shift in thought that’s needed, especially in areas like Cardiff where the population is growing.
“We’re calling on the Council Leader to stick to his word and open a Welsh-medium school, not a bilingual one. After all, a welsh-medium school is what’s needed if the Council is serious about ensuring that we reach a million speakers.
“Cardiff must ensure a dramatic and quick increase in the number of pupils who attend a Welsh-medium school in order to ensure the target is reached.
“Revisiting the failed experiment of bilingual education would prove to be a poor means of immersing pupils in Welsh and insufficient to meet the rising demand for Welsh-medium education in the city.”
The council cabinet is expected to decide on the first school which is part of the Plasdŵr development this Thursday, 23rd January.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
Good luck with this. Where we have introduced ‘Gaelic Medium Schools’ in Scotland, 1) the pupils and parents love them, 2) it has brought about demand from other areas and 3) pupils have shown improved all-round improvements and especially when later they come to tackling European or other languages.
Extremists – can’t get what they demand by negotiation. I challenge you to publicly disapprove of their actions. Or will you just take this posting down and do nothing?
Peidiwch â bwydo’r trôl.
Don’t feed the troll.
gosh you must be pulling your hair out with regards to Extinction Rebellion then and them “terrorists”
What is to negotiate. As it states It was planned that there would be a Welsh Medium School. Dual Language Schools do not work. That has been proven in Penderyn RCT. Where part of the School is a Welsh School attached to the English. Administration is in English. It didn’t work. They are building a new English School to. Amalgamate Penderyn English and Hirwaun. The Penderyn School will become all Welsh now because the demand is greater. The same will eventually happen in Cardiff. So they may as well do it now. This is just short term thinking. Longer term… Read more »
I think that’s right. While Cymdeithas yr Iaith overstate their case – not to mention playing directly into the hands of those only too ready to tar the whole movement to provide Welsh language education as ‘extremist’ – by arguing that in an overwhelmingly Anglophone area like Cardiff “EVERY new school should be a Welsh-medium one”, dual language schools are never likely to work, simply because of the dominance of English globally and locally. And parental demand is strong for Welsh-medium schools: partly because motivated parents see an advantage for their children in gaining at an early age the mental… Read more »
Do you think immigrant families will be interested in this type of school John? They’ve started to ruin the ‘ catholic ‘ schools now that they’ve already destroyed the state ones, so it would only be a matter of time before they sussed out that these new schools have higher standards ( to begin with).
Ellis Is an immigrant.
You’re cococting a non-problem. A Welsh-medium school will not allow itself to become English-medium by stealth. Immigrant children are just as capable of learning Welsh in a Welsh-medium school as Welsh children from Anglophone homes are. English settler children in the Bro Gymraeg are an example of this.
Sounds like you’re completely out of sync with the majority view in Cymru. Perhaps you’re living in the wrong country? Just trying to help…
When the Cymry are ready to survive as more than an Anglo-satellite culture, they will redefine Cymreictod.
1555.
LL “What is the essence of life, Mr Marx?”
KM “Struggle!”
Struggle? The fat, useless charlatan never worked a day in its life. “ My ideology? Well I wouldn’t want to live under it “. The vile 4×2 Marx.
You would Struggle against it, then?