Teaching recruitment worries for Welsh school planned for mid Wales

Elgan Hearn Local Democracy Reporter

Moves to establish an all through Welsh medium primary and secondary school in mid Wales have been welcomed – but questions have been raised about where the pupils and staff will come from.

Councillors and lay members of Powys County Councils Learning and Skills committee discussed the draft proposal their meeting on Wednesday, March 20.

Essentially the proposal which would be done in two distinct phases, will lead to the splitting up of Ysgol Calon Cymru by 2029.

The Builth Wells campus would become a new Welsh medium four to 18 all through school.

While the Llandrindod Wells campus would providing English medium education and continue under the Ysgol Calon Cymru brand.

The idea is to plug a gap in Welsh medium education provision at high school level in Radnorshire and the council has said that they would invest in the infrastructure at the sites.

Growth

Liberal Democrat Cllr Angela Davies (Rhayader): “Have you considered the knock on effect of this (proposed) school to the surrounding dual stream schools in the area?

“How confident can we be that there are enough Welsh speaking teachers, support and reception staff for this school?

“The only thing that will make this work is the quality of teaching and learning.”

Head of transforming education Marianne Evans explained that the “starting point” was looking at the number of pupils there are in the Welsh medium streams of primary schools in Llandrindod Wells, Builth Wells and Rhayader.

Ms Evans said: “There’s 280 odd pupils; this gives us a platform of growth and we need to see this as a long term programme of growth.”

She explained that in other parts of Powys and in Wales, showing parents a “clear pathway” from early years through primary school to secondary school and sixth forms gave parents the confidence to take the plunge and put their child into Welsh medium education.

“This makes the pathway clear for families,” said Ms Evans.

Recruitment “challenge”

Director of education and former Ysgol Calon Cymru headteacher, Dr Richard Jones:  “We are already working with teacher training partners to promote and grow the number of Welsh speakers ready for the future.

“We’re also working with existing school staff.

“It’s surprising when you do Welsh language assessments in schools how many staff do speak Welsh, but don’t actually teach through the medium of Welsh.”

He added that the council is engaging with the national centre for learning Welsh to provide lessons for staff who want to be able teach through the language.

Dr Jones added: “It’s fair to say that recruitment is a challenge – but these are some of the things we are doing to grow and meet demand.”

Plaid Cymru’s Bryn Davies ( Banwy, Llanfihangel and Llanwddyn) said: “I congratulate the cabinet and staff for the plan, it’s a massive development.”

Recommendations from the committee will be added to the report which will go before the Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet for a decision at their meeting on Tuesday, March 25.

There it is expected that Cabinet will agree to start the legal process of establishing the new school.