AIBU to expect my kids to not to told off for speaking English in a welsh medium school?

[Hairyfairy01]

I have 2 dc in year 3 and 6 who attend a welsh medium primary school and have been taught in the welsh medium since they started school. However both dc are brought up in an english speaking household. English medium education at primary level is not available in this area of wales. Both dc have reported to me that they get told off for speaking English in the classroom, corridors, lunchtime and playtime by both teachers and pupil members of the school 'welsh' council. Now I have no issues with encouraging the welsh language and totally support their scheme of rewarding pupils for speaking welsh in social situations. However I do have an issue of telling kids off for speaking english, not so much in lesson time, but more at lunchtime / playtime. Surely at these 'downtime' occasions kids should be able to speak whatever language they like, be it French, Chinese or whatever. I can only imagine that this is what happens in other primary schools where children's home / first language is different to the main language of the school occurs? Are they all told off for speaking French / Chinese etc? Feeling furious but not sure if iabu?

if you don't see the point in keeping them alive then I suggest you don't send them to a minority language school where they are trying to preserve them.
It's all very well saying "well I personally don't see the point in keeping Welsh alive"
but once these languages are gone, that's it, they're gone and all that history and heritage. You might as well just look at it in a museum.
We recently had the last speaker of Cornish die.

lethal what do we do with people who insist on speaking Welsh between themselves and to their children because it's their first language? I mean how irritating. Can't we send them back to their own country?

Oh wait...

Birmingham is not in a bilingual country/community. I still disagree with the principal of refusing to allow DC to speak to one another in their other language, but it is more justifiable in a monolingual country. In a bilingual country it’s really silly.

People think we are purposely being ignorant or awkward in Northern Ireland for the DUP not wanting the Irish Language Act. This is why. Being made to speak a foreign language or needing to speak it for job requirements eg public sector etc.
We speak English. If you want to speak Irish go to an Irish speaking community in Ireland.

1. Irish is not a “foreign language” on the island of Ireland. What a ignorant and ill-informed perspective

1. There’s no suggestion that Irish would be compulsory for public sector appointments.

1. “We speak English.” Who’s this “we” you speak of?

Early biligualism sounds great. But I'm sure speaking English in breaktime won't hurt and I'm pretty certain there will be teachers who speak English!

At dds school there are kids who lapse into Polish some times. Apparently can ve funny when kids (who are totally fluent in both) don't realise they have been speaking Polish and look at the non Polish speakers for an answer!

Branleuse - and Cornwall Is still there - beautiful and vibrant with all its amazing heritage. Maybe now the whole cornish independence thing will die a death.

I have to say, I'm not sure I agree with the implementation of the "curriculum cymreig" as it is at the moment.

There's a fine line between Welsh Pride and racism. Plus many children in Welsh schools aren't Welsh, so sometimes, depending on how it's done, it's quite the opposite of inclusive.

There's nothing wrong with feeling lucky that we are Welsh, or being happy that we live in a beautiful country with a fantastic history and culture, but to be proud to be Welsh? No thanks. Being proud is something you achieve, not something that has happened by chance. You only have to look at all the inane comments on the Wales Online Facebook page at the moment about England being in the world cup, to see that perhaps promoting "Welsh Pride" to the point where it's supposed to be through every aspect of the curriculum isn't really a great thing to do.

Can you imagine if that happened in England?

If Wales wants to be a bilingual country, it needs to create a climate in which Welsh-English bilingualism is supported throughout the community. Creating rules about which language should be used in which circumstance is not bilingualism.

But its the same thing people saying there would be out rage if other schools banned other langauges and i was pointing out that Schools do ban other langauges.

The DUP are childish sods in the extreme they dont want Stormount they want to be ruled form Westminster so they throw their dummy out of the pram about the Irish Langauge act that would reconize that NI has two lanauges and offfically make it a bilinugal country just like Wales, Scotland but they dont want that because "England" does not have more then one offical langauge.

So basically them refusing to co-operate gets what they want (no home rule and the dissolving of stormont its bloody stupid that because they are now in power in westminster they can refuse to take part in the local side.

And there is growing anger at them for there childish behaviour they will be losing seats at the next local elections. The only problem is that there is also growing support for re unification with Ireland since they want to stay in the EU.

So within our life times we may well see the death of the United Kingdom.

For me it would depend how harsh the punishment is? Are they spending the whole of playtime against the wall?
My kids are in Gaelic medium (Scotland) and I know that they do get 'told off' for using English... but not 'punished'. They were in a School with English medium as well, but have just moved to a new fully Gaelic School which I think makes a difference.

@TOADfan speak a foreign language

Hmmmm, just wondering how describing the Irish language as 'foreign' fits with the GFA concept of parity of esteem for both traditions?

I'd expect them to be reminded to speak welsh rather than told off and made to stand and miss playtime. Though I image it's that school approach rather than all welsh medium schools.

I can understand them wanting welsh spoken all the time and can see a benefit to OP children but I'd not be keen on how they are trying to get that.

As for the leave wales comment - we are in part of wales that is English speaking - and here welsh people are lovely and welcoming. Most of the schools are English medium - very few welsh medium.

They teach welsh as second language from start of school -within a school year my English children had caught up in welsh to their class mates now speak and understand more welsh than many of the children born here.

I’m not sold on Welsh being as good as learning French or German – but we are in Wales so we are all learning Welsh.

They have learnt about the Welsh Not Welsh Notl which was never official policy nor as widespread as often suggested though no less damaging.

I'm no fan of the DUP but as a Scottish person I do actually agree with them about the ridiculousness of recognising Irish (or in our case Gaelic). I would be pretty happy to bet my house that there's not a single Gaelic speaker in Scotland that doesn't speak and write fluent English so it's not about helping people with their daily lives, it's just an identity thing, and I can't be arsed with that crap. At the same time as we were already honouring Gaelic, I was getting grief in school for speaking in dialect - and this outside of the classroom. "Youse? Youse? I don't see any female sheep in here." ODFO Mr Henderson, you know exactly what we meant. I'd much prefer it if we could stop spending time and money setting minority language recognition in stone, accept that English will do for 99.9 percent of the natives, and spend any time and effort we have left over making provision for non English speakers, and just try and be a bit more tolerant generally of things being spoken in public that aren't Radio 4 English.

Cornwall is a beautiful place and is still there geograpically, but its in poverty and its deprived, its neglected for 10 months of the year, like many more rural regions of the UK, that used to be vibrant and prosperous, it is now just a holiday destination where many cornish people are priced out because it is, just a bloody funpark for the middle class, and then there is no work the rest of the time, and now the last speaker of their language is dead.

English overtook, systematically removed any sense of identity, divided the people, took their livelihoods and their language.
I am glad that places like Wales, and highlands and islands of scotland are trying to retain their identity and language.

Muslim children speaking Hindu? Lol

Muslim children do not speak Hindu( which isn’t actually a language) and not all of them speak Arabic by the way

My 3 dcs were all taught through medium of Welsh at primary school (Gwynedd) and were fluent in it by year 6
Went to local comp dd1 and Ds in English stream, ( dd2 in Welsh stream as she found it easier)
however dd1 was severely dyslexic and needed extra support so was taken out of Welsh lessons...eventually went to small independent school for more individual teaching as SEN support in comp was truly appalling ...never did her Welsh GCSE, although 2 other dcs do have GCSE Welsh
However none of my dcs stayed in Wales for their tertiary education as courses they wanted to do were not available and they'd had enough of the Welsh language by then ( 2 went to Scotland!)
Dd1 did MSc in Linguistics and now teaching in China! ( her knowledge of Welsh supported her application to RG uni)
I don't see any of them returning to Wales any time soon as there are few opportunities in their chosen field

Just a note - at my secondary and college (in England), we had a number of exchange students. They were told not to speak in their mother tongue and only speak in English during school time.

There were even signs in classrooms

As an aside, the benefits of being bilingual - regardless of the language- are huge.
I find all the different languages (and dialects too) of the uk fascinating and that it is important that we don't let them die. Of course I appreciate that many won't agree with me!

Well said, professormoody.
I am English, but have lived in Wales for 20 years and worked here longer; both my DCs were born here. Racism dressed up as national pride is rampant and unashamed.

Punishing a school child for speaking one of the OFFICIAL languages of the country is crazy. I dont know of any specialist language schools in England that would punish a child for speaking the country's official language at play time. You learn a new language in class and possibly practise it as homework. I have never heard of such Victorian treatment of children in the 21st century, in a 1st world country.

Possible against their human rights?

English overtook, systematically removed any sense of identity, divided the people, took their livelihoods and their language.

The "English" did no such thing, and were as much victims of the ruling class (whether Roman, Saxon, Danes, Viking, Norman or British). The average person living in Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland or England were treated like shit, wherever they lived.

It's completely wrong to punish a child for speaking their home language in the playground. I worked in a London primary school with many languages spoken and we never policed playground language use. Children were asked to speak English in lessons but weren't punished if they happened to say something in their home language.

'It's the school rule' is a lousy argument. If it is, then it's a bad rule that needs to be changed.

I think YABU, sorry. In year 3 and 6 they will be very able to speak Welsh and the only way they are going to achieve total fluency is to speak Welsh socially.
We're on Anglesey. And I wish the children didn't speak English at playtime.