Moving to Wales

[MumofHAJH]

Hi,

We are looking at moving to Wales from Northamptonshire. We want to be nearer the coast and have more space. We love holidaying in wales but I realise it will be different to live there.
I am a district nurse and my husband is a builder. Our children are 12, 11, 9 and 6.
Rydyn ni'n ceisio dysgu Cymraeg
Obviously this is a work in progress. I understand that the council offer an intensive language course for children of school age as most of the primary schools around the area we have been looking in mid wales are welsh stream.
I love aberaeron so would like to be near there. My three older children swim for a club and I see there is a swimming club there.

Does anyone have any experience of moving as an English family or can tell me anything about the areas?

Diolch, Thank you

Hello! Did you make the move to Wales? If you're still planning to move I would love to have a chat with you about it.

Hi There I would also like to know if you made this move, as me and my family of 4 are planning to do the same by the end of this year.

Thanks in Advance

Hi Sarah,
I'm looking to speak to families who want to move to Wales for a new TV series. Would love to chat with you a d tell you more about the programme.

Hi, yes we moved last summer. We didn’t go near aberaeron in the end but have found a beautiful place that needs a lot of work in Carmarthenshire.
I was worried about the children fitting in but my little ones have gone to an English speaking primary school (some counties don’t have these) and my older ones are in a great dual stream secondary school, they are in the English half. Welsh is a compulsory subject here which is great because it means all the children are learning.
I would say sports much better provision over here, too much if anything with all the clubs available we never have a night off. I got a job for the NHS and travel all over west wales, it’s beautiful. Dentists however are terrible, I’ve heard people on the waiting list for years, we travel back to Northampton for dentist / orthodontist. We cannot even see one privately!
We go to the beach sometimes after school, a massive novelty for us although it depends where you are moving from.
Accept that Wales is Welsh and they are rightly proud of it. Make an effort to learn the language. I am lucky that the NHS gives free courses.
We are so pleased we moved and have found a great area. If you are further north (my cousin is near Dolgellau) then you will have to travel more to get to anything particularly for children but the scenery is spectacular.

We moved to Wales when the children were last year junior school aged 10 and 13 years at senior school.

This was many years ago.

Because neither children had even heard of the Welsh language before they struggled in the Welsh language class which was upsetting as they both excelled academically in their other lessens.

I made the decision to ask permission for them to drop learning the language with a view that they could take it up as an evening class when older.

Both are now adults and whilst neither went on to fully learn the language, one is fairly competent in reading and understanding Welsh but doesn't speak it and the other is proficient in reading the important stuff such as place names and social niceties.