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Sept
2009

WHY A WELSH SCHOOL?

This English-only section is aimed at you if you are an English-speaking parent thinking about the best primary school for your child but unsure about him or her being taught in Welsh.

Will I have to learn Welsh?

But isn’t it a difficult language?

How will I know what my children are talking about?

Will my child fit in?

Don’t children get confused?

What if my child has special needs?

How can I still help?

Won’t my child’s English suffer?

OK, I’m convinced about bilingualism, but why Welsh?

This section is based both upon information from the Welsh Language Board and from our own practical experiences at the school. It summarises the advantages of being bilingual and goes on to deal with some of the objections you might have, by answering a series of commonly-raised questions.

If you still have concerns after reading this section, do contact the school, where the teachers and parent governors will be pleased to talk to you. You could also contact the Welsh Language Board: 029 2087 8000 or www.bwrdd-yr-iaith.org.uk.

To achieve this, given that most children attending the school are from English-speaking families, all tuition (excepting English as a subject) is through the medium of Welsh. If you have no strong Welsh connections it is quite natural for you to have some concerns about your child being taught in a ‘foreign’ language, but the fact is that it will give your child the best possible start, and the most possible choices, and the difficulties which you may be imagining are easily disposed of. We will deal with these, one by one.

For a start, being bilingual is no big deal; there is nothing odd or unusual about it. On the contrary, those who speak only one language are in a distinct minority, globally. In many places people communicate fluently in three or four languages and think nothing of it.

Also, you are in good company. Over the years, dozens of young people have joined the school (often without a word of Welsh) and left having benefitted from all that is on offer, and gone on to successful secondary school careers. Language has rarely been a concern to those children: it is something they have taken for granted. On occasion, language has been a concern to parents, and from time to time children are taken away and sent to an English-speaking school instead. However, it has almost always been the case (as some parents would later admit) that any difficulties being experienced by the child had little or nothing to do with language.

What, then, are the advantages for your child of being bilingual?

• Research shows that children who understand more than one language are able to think more flexibly and creatively. They tend to do better than other children.
• Having learned a second language, further languages are actually easier to learn.
• More and more jobs in Wales require bilingual skills; without them, choices are limited.
• It can help build a bridge between generations, if grandparents or other family members speak Welsh.
• A bilingual person can communicate with a wider variety of people; in Welsh-speaking areas it gives people the opportunity to participate in all aspects of community life.
• It provides the opportunity to experience two different cultures, thereby broadening the mind.
• It opens up a greater number of opportunties within secondary and further education. Class sizes may be smaller in a Welsh or bilingual stream.

This is an impressive list. All the same, you may still have reservations about it all …

Will I have to learn Welsh?

No. Many Ysgol Carno parents don’t speak Welsh, and that doesn’t prevent their children from becoming successfully bilingual and enjoying the advantages. And you can still help them with their work and reading (see below).

You could learn some Welsh, if you feel that that would help you to participate more fully, or just for pleasure; there are plenty of classes available (sometimes at the school itself) and the school would give you every encouragement. However, it is not necessary to go so far if you don’t want to: even without mastering the whole language, you could easily learn the pronunciation and a few basic words, which would give both you and your child confidence, and the school organises classes of this kind from time to time.

But isn’t it a difficult language?

Like any language, Welsh has some interesting quirks, but if you want an example of a difficult language, try English!

Welsh is a phonetic language, which means that once you know the pronunciation rules – which are quite simple – you can successfully pronounce most written words, or write down most spoken words. You can’t do that in English! Children may go through a phase of spelling English words phonetically, and come up with some novel spellings, but it is only a phase and they soon come to terms with the joys of English spelling.

Of course, if you are able to give your child an early enough start in Welsh, he or she will simply pick it up by trial and error, like any language. There’s no such thing as a difficult language to a young child.

How will I know what my children are talking about?

If you have more than one child (or if your child has a friend round) you might be afraid that you won’t understand them if they talk in Welsh. In practice this rarely if ever happens: children automatically adopt the language of the setting they are in. And if they were enterprising enough to use Welsh, that would be a very healthy sign that they were comfortable with the language.

Will my child fit in?

Both the school and its pupils are very used to new children starting at all stages of development, including varying language skills. Ideally, young children will start out in the Ysgol Feithrin (Welsh playgroup) so that they will already be familiar with a little Welsh when they start school. But others don’t begin to learn the language until much later on, and the school routinely gives such children extra help and support. In any case, the language of the playground tends to be English, and that’s where much of the socialising takes place. Popularity has nothing to do with language.

Don’t children get confused?

Yes, sometimes they do, but that doesn’t matter because it is all part of the normal process of learning. Everything in life is pretty confusing when you’re little. If children hear two languages from the outset, they will mix them up a bit to begin with, but they soon learn to separate the two and to respond in the language they’re addressed in. Later on, as noted above, they may wrongly assume that the principles of one language apply to the other, but this, too, is a normal part of learning. It isn’t a problem; indeed, it is part of the vital process of opening children’s minds and widening their view.

What if my child has special needs?

Children with additional learning needs can reach their full potential in Welsh-medium education as well as they can in any other system. There’s no evidence that bilingualism contributes in any way to learning difficulties. There’s also no truth in the suggestions, sometimes made, that bigger or English-speaking schools are better able to cope with children with additional learning needs. On the contrary, in a small school all pupils’ needs are known and unlikely to be overlooked.

How can I still help?

This is most parents’ biggest concern: “How can I help my child with reading or homework if I don’t speak the language?” It is a very natural worry, since parents take a big interest in their children’s work and progress and you might feel a little lost if you can’t understand what your child is doing. But that would also be true if your child was at university studying nuclear physics! Start by accepting that you will still have a huge and important role to play in helping and supporting your child, and that language will not be a barrier. You will be surprised, in fact, at just how useful you can be.

General

The most important thing to do is simply to show an interest. You might not be able to tell whether the words your child has written are correctly spelled, but you can comment on the neatness of the writing. And of course the best way of showing an interest is simply by asking questions (which don’t have to have anything to do with language): “What were you asked to draw a picture of? What did you do in PE? Who did you play with?”

Reading

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with continuing to read with your child in English: read to him or her; listen to him or her reading; read together. The more the better, in fact. But it will be better still if you can try to help in Welsh, too. You won’t be able to read, but you can and should listen, even if you don’t understand. Do ask questions (without it becoming too much of an interrogation): “What’s this word? What does it mean? How do you say it?” Don’t worry that you can’t correct wrong pronunciation; that will soon sort itself out. However, if you learn a bit about the pronunciation yourself – which is actually quite straightforward, and is something the school will happily help with – you will find that you can follow what your child is reading and pick up simple errors.

Homework

Maths and English will present few problems, but how can you help in history or geography, for example, if the questions and answers are in Welsh? Obviously, you must ask your child to translate the question, and to translate any answers you suggest. Far from being a waste of time, this is actually a most valuable exercise for your child, since he or she has to clearly understand the vocabulary and concepts involved in order to be able to translate them. This is precisely the process that sharpens the bilingual child.

Won’t my child’s English suffer?

This is another common and natural misunderstanding. As adults, we find learning difficult (and we often have poor memories of school days) so we forget how easily children learn in a supportive atmosphere. It is simply not the case that adding in one language means that the other (or anything else) has to suffer. Children receiving bilingual education tend to do better right across the curriculum – including in English.

Research shows that being able to speak and use two languages improves a child’s ability to use and learn language in general. As noted above, children can learn about something in one language and talk about it in another, which promotes their understanding of the subject.

OK, I’m convinced about bilingualism – but why Welsh?

Wouldn’t children be better off learning a more widely-used language? It is true that using French or Spanish (for example) would provide some of the same bilinguistic benefits, and it is arguable that such languages would be of more value within present-day Europe, but the fact is that the culture of this area is not that of France or Spain but of Wales, and it is a culture with a long and rich history which is well worth maintaining. And within Wales, of course, there are far more opportunities for Welsh speakers than for French or Spanish speakers. Don’t forget, too, that once your child is bilingual in English and Welsh, further languages will come much more easily.

And if you still have doubts, please talk to the school