CARMARTHENSHIRE: Parents get one week to have their say on Welsh-medium switch at four primary schools

Parents at four Carmarthenshire primary schools have one week left to have their say on plans to teach their children mainly in Welsh.

Carmarthenshire County Council wants to change the classroom language at Ysgol Bro Banw, Ysgol Griffith Jones, Ysgol Llandybie and Ysgol Llangynnwr, with consultation closing on Tuesday 20 October. Children already at the four schools would keep the teaching they have now, the council says.

Two of the four are the schools earmarked to take in pupils if village schools close. Children at Meidrim would move to Hafodwenog or Ysgol Griffith Jones if the village school shuts at Christmas.

Ysgol Llandybie is one of two schools named to take pupils from Blaenau, one of four more village schools facing closure under the council’s latest proposals.

Welsh-medium from nursery at Bro Banw, from Year 3 at Llangynnwr: what changes at each school

The council describes all four as dual-language schools, where lessons are split between English and Welsh, that would become Welsh language schools. The detail it has published for each consultation shows that only holds for two of them, Llangynnwr and Griffith Jones.

In Carmarthen, Ysgol Llangynnwr’s 324 pupils are taught in Welsh until Year 3, when families can choose Welsh-medium or a single dual-language class covering Years 3 to 6. Under the plan the whole school would go Welsh-medium, starting with Year 3 in September 2027 and complete by September 2030.

The number of families choosing the dual-language route at Llangynnwr has “decreased significantly”, the council says, though it gives no figures. Children in Years 4 to 6 in September 2027 would stay on the dual-language route until they leave.

Ysgol Griffith Jones in St Clears currently runs a mix of Welsh-medium and dual-language teaching and would follow the same timetable as Llangynnwr. The school has 303 pupils, a roll the council projects will fall to 228 by 2030.

The biggest shift would come at Ysgol Bro Banw in Ammanford, where most classes are taught mainly in English and two are Welsh-medium. Everything from nursery to Year 2 would become Welsh-medium from September 2027, with parents then choosing Welsh-medium or dual-language from Year 3.

Pupils already in Bro Banw’s English-medium classes could stay there until they leave, and the school’s specialist bases would not change, according to the council. It points to falling Welsh use among Ammanford children in the 2021 Census as a reason for the change.

Bro Banw has 428 pupils, down from 441, and is already forecast to run a £440,000 deficit. It is also one of two schools taking three-year-olds after the closure of Ammanford Nursery School.

At Ysgol Llandybie, every class is already taught mainly in Welsh, with only a “very small number” of pupils in Years 3 to 6 on the dual-language route, the council says. The change would make that formal, phased in from nursery in September 2027 and complete by September 2034, with pupils already on the roll unaffected.

Glynog Davies says learning Welsh young gives children “the best possible foundation”

Cabinet member for education and the Welsh language Cllr Glynog Davies said the plans would give children at the four schools more access to Welsh. “If agreed, this proposal will ensure that children currently attending dual language schools Ysgol Bro Banw, Ysgol Griffith Jones, Ysgol Llandybie and Ysgol Llangynnwr will have increased access to Welsh language education,” he said.

He added: “Learning Welsh from a young age gives children the best possible foundation to become confident bilingual speakers and creates new opportunities for them both inside and outside the classroom.”

The changes sit under the council’s 10-year Welsh in Education Strategic Plan, its blueprint for a bilingual Carmarthenshire. When the draft plan was launched in 2021, Cllr Davies spoke of “working with schools to move them along the language continuum”.

The council’s own assessment for each school says the change is “likely to have a positive impact on opportunities to use the Welsh language”. None of the four gives figures for how many families currently choose Welsh-medium education.

The council accepts a “relatively small” number of families may choose a school taught mainly in English instead, but does not name a nearby alternative for any of the four.

Language campaigners have already attacked the council over its separate closure plans for rural schools. Ffred Ffransis of Cymdeithas yr Iaith said the authority was “on a mission to close village schools”.

One week to speak up, and a formal objection comes later

Anyone with a stake in the four schools, parents and grandparents included, has until 11.59pm on Tuesday 20 October to fill in the council’s survey for their school: Ysgol Bro Banw, Ysgol Griffith Jones, Ysgol Llandybie or Ysgol Llangynnwr.

Those who would rather write can email MEPConsultations@carmarthenshire.gov.uk or post to Owain Lloyd, the council’s director of education, at County Hall in Carmarthen.

Speaking up now is not the same as objecting. Under the council’s process a formal objection can only be lodged once a legal notice is published, and that is not expected until January 2027, after cabinet has read the responses in December.

By then the first Bro Banw and Llandybie nursery intake under the new rules would be eight months away, and Blaenau and Meidrim families could be wondering which school, and which language, their children are heading for.

Author

Kit Peters

Kit Peters is a journalist and the editor of Swansea Bay News, covering Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire since 2020.