The Welsh-medium school dilemma

Jules Millward

When it comes to choosing a school, it can feel like a gamble, but in Wales, parents face a decision their English counterparts don’t – English-medium or Welsh-medium.

On paper, it seems straightforward. Welsh-medium schools produce confident bilingual speakers, and give children an incredible opportunity to embrace their culture, along with job opportunities that people who don’t speak Welsh may not have. But in reality, it can feel like a question of identity, confidence and risk for English-speaking parents. If you don’t speak Welsh yourself, do you stick to what you know, what feels comfortable, or take a leap and put them into a school system you’re not sure you could support them through?

With a large family, and three already in English-medium schools – my youngest two are at the crucial decision point and I have the opportunity to make a different choice.

But that creates a new dilemma; do I keep them in the same school as their siblings, or split my children between two systems? It’s a reminder that the right educational choice isn’t always straightforward.

This is the challenge we face as a country, ensuring that every parent at this stage has the tools and confidence to make a decision that’s right for their child. This is a choice that matters not only for their education but for their future in a Wales where language and culture seem to mean so much more than it did a decade ago.

Recent figures show that almost half of children (46.5%) age 3-15 reported being able to speak Welsh more than any other age group, compared to 27% of the general population, and the number of Welsh speakers had declined in the past two years.

The Welsh Government has ambitious plans to create a million Welsh speakers by the year 2050, and it seems like our children will be key to hitting that target. But to achieve this, parents need to feel confident enough to make the school choice that will give their children the best chance to thrive bilingually.

Creating Welsh confident parents is just as important as creating Welsh speaking children, because the language shouldn’t just stop at the school gates.

Difficult to access

When it came to choosing a school for my oldest, I didn’t know there was provision available for parents, so Welsh-medium education didn’t feel like an option.

It wasn’t a rejection of the Welsh language, it was a fear of making an educational choice for them I didn’t feel equipped to navigate. I didn’t know that Welsh-medium schools sent all communication in Welsh and English, or that some offered Welsh lessons for parents.

But even then, if I had known then what I know now about the parental support available, would it have been enough to give me the confidence to choose differently as a non-Welsh speaker?

Non-Welsh speaking parents like me are not alone in feeling this way. Laura Tomos is an English-speaker, her husband is a fluent Welsh speaker, and her children attend a Welsh-medium primary school in Cardiff.

She has tried to learn Welsh herself, but said she has lost confidence speaking Welsh around other Welsh speakers, as she finds dialects different to understand and gets flustered easily so often returns to English.

She said: “I’ve done a course previously called Welsh for Parents which was useful, it was basic, but did help understand some fundamental skills. When my eldest daughter started school, the school also ran some classes to help develop the language and then we had sessions where the children would come into the hall and work with us.

“However these are difficult for working parents as they were usually run during the day. To my knowledge they no longer run these classes.”

“For me it’s perceptions of others. I often feel bad, if everyone has to revert to English, so I can be involved in the conversations at school events and the school gates. I wish I could help more with school work, although all instructions are always given bilingually.”

She added that sending her children to Welsh-medium school was the best decision she ever made.

“I love hearing both children fluently conversing in Welsh. I just wish that I picked it up as quickly as they did. I absolutely love that my children are bilingual, however watching concerts, class assemblies etc can be hard when I don’t understand the content.” 

It is clear that children in Welsh-medium education are thriving, with many leaving school confident bilingual speakers. The Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Act that was passed in July 2025, aims to expand the Welsh-medium school success by providing a statutory basis to the target for one million Welsh speakers by 2050, and creates statutory framework by categorising schools into primarily Welsh, dual language, and primarily English, partly Welsh.

Children are thriving

The support is already there there for the children and even for those who didn’t start their education journey in a Welsh-medium school, with a later immersion programme being offered in Welsh-medium schools, giving children who start later the opportunity to become bilingual.

As of October 2024, the Welsh Government has invested £8.8 million to support the establishment of late immersion provision in local authorities as well as to continue to support already established provisions in Wales.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education Lynn Neagle saying in 2024: “How we immerse children in the Welsh language is unique to us in Wales and we are fast becoming world leaders in late immersion provision.” But even with Wales leading the way, and with the funding and support Welsh-medium schools get, support for the English-speaking parents can sometimes be difficult to access, or fit around working life. That is where change needs to be made if the Welsh Government is going to hit its target of one million Welsh speakers by 2050.

Julie Evans from Tregof asked Dysgu Cymraeg when a basic Welsh language course for parents would be put on in Ysgol Lon Las. They said the next wouldn’t be until September. Even then there are concerns that it would not be after school hours which eliminates the opportunity for many.

She said: “With the school having so much investment it seems a shame that parents aren’t included in the process of learning the language as much as they could be.”

Wales needs to match its parental support with the ambition of its policy. That means more accessible flexible learning for parents including evening, weekend or online classes, and more awareness, such as Welsh ‘taster’ sessions for those parents who want to send their children to Welsh-medium school.

Most importantly, there needs to be a push in making sure those parents know the support exists.

That way, they don’t have to make a hindsight decision, or decide if their children should be straddled between two systems. Parents who already made the choice of Welsh-medium education, can also feel empowered to support their children without worrying about not being able to help more.

As a parent finding myself at that crucial decision point again, the question is no longer is Welsh-medium school valuable, because it clearly is. The question is whether English-speaking parents can feel confident on making that leap.

For me, that decision also rests on whether I can split my children between two systems. If so, would that mean giving my youngest opportunities their oldest siblings missed or, do I immerse them all in the language, uprooting the oldest away from what they know?

Either way, I do know that when making that decision, I need to be sure there is enough support for parents. If Wales wants to create one million Welsh speakers, then it needs to create Welsh confident parents, because without them, the long term benefits of Welsh-medium education could be compromised.

Information about Welsh-medium education, and how it works is available on the Welsh Government website, and you can read more about the immersion programme here.