Anyone out there with DC's in Welsh medium primaries?

[fenner]

We've been thinking for some time about moving to North Wales, where DP has family. It probably won't happen because DP would have to live away mid week, and I would struggle to find work in my field. But one of the main reasons I was interested in doing so was so that DS3 could go to a Welsh medium primary. I saw it as his only real chance of becoming bilingual. (I lived in a Spanish speaking country for a few years as a child so had this opportunity myself and have always been grateful for it.)

As there is still a slight possibility we could go ahead with the move, I was wondering how non-Welsh speaking parents with DC's in Welsh schools find it? Would you do it again if you had the chance? What in your mind are the benefits or pitfalls of having your children educated in a different language? I can anticipate a number of these, but thought it might be worthwhile to hear from people with direct experience.

If there has already been a thread on this topic and I'm asking you to repeat yourselves, please send me the link - ta!

Yes, at work now so no time to post, but will be back later.

There's at least a sprinkling of MNers whose children are in Welsh med. education, of course some are first language Welsh speaking families but hopefully you'll find a few of us who aren't :)

Great, thanks.

My DCs are at a Welsh medium school- We are first language Welsh at home, but there are only 2 families in the whole school who speak Welsh at home. Others find it great- They pick it up so quickly, and really feel the benefit. :)

Which bit of North Wales? We are very rural so the school is small, class sizes are small- It's brilliant. :)

My three are in Welsh medium education. We're in S Wales now but DH is a North Walian and his 1st language is Welsh.

I'm not a Welsh speaker but even given that DH is away for a fair bit of time we still manage. My eldest is 9 now and his Welsh is way past what I could help him with anyway.

There are quite a few non-Welsh speaking parents at our school although a fair proportion has one Welsh speaker at home.

I have three children in a welsh medium primary and I speak a little welsh. My husband can speak welsh and I have learnt - I am in West Wales. The children are far more fluent than me. My son is very dyslexic and finds welsh far easier than english. I am happy with them being in a welsh medium school.

Thanks, all.

GandalfyCarawak - It would be in Northwest Wales, near Colwyn Bay. There's a fairly large Welsh primary there that my niece goes to and loves.

Have you had any problems with their spelling and reading in English? My MIL is concerned about this, as English lessons wouldn't start until he's 7.

Aaah, that's a nice area. I am familiar with Ysgol Bro Alaw in Colwyn Bay, and it is a lovely school.

No problems with English here. They seem to pick it up very quickly.

Welsh is a phonetic language - what you see is what you get and so, when you start young, I think it's easier to learn to read and write Welsh than it is English. I can understand some as I learnt for a couple of year when I only had one child. I find it far easier to teach my children to read in Welsh than English - I find English a really confusing language to teach!

Spelling can be tricky because my children certainly have a tendency to spell it as you say it - in Welsh that's fine, in English frequently it's not.

But, at 9, my eldest now doesn't have any problems with his spelling in English or Welsh. Children just seem to cope and get on with it.

I also find English difficult to teach phonetically (though the infant school where he goes to nursery does try to make it as easy as possible for parents). That's why I was concerned about my ability to teach him reading and grammar at home, i.e. before he would be taught it formally at school at age 7. That said, I hear what you're saying about children picking it up one way or another. I missed out on years 1 and 2 whilst we lived abroad and I didn't suffer for it.

Thanks everyone for your input - it's been very helpful. If I can ask just one more question: what resources are made available to non-Welsh speaking parents to enable them to help their children out with sujbects like maths and science?

I would have a slightly more mixed view than some of the above. My year 4 (8 y/o) DD struggles with writing/spelling and I suspect possibly has mild dyslexic tendencies - which run in the family - complicated by the fact that she was a very early reader in English (which translated easily into Welsh when they started reading in school).

I think that working in two languages has complicated the whole picture, and has made things more difficult for her. Basically, I think she doesn't really 'get' the whole phonetic thing (my mother is the same, but more severely), and reads/writes on the basis of word shapes & memory.

Having said that, the result for her is kind of the opposite of your worry about English. She will always choose to write in English rather than Welsh, and can spell far better in English, despite only starting to use it in school from yr 3.

I work with children who have joined the yr 1-2 with no Welsh at all ... the way they pick up the language so quickly is amazing.

poptyping1 - That's interesting. I communicated with the Head of the school where DS would go, and he said that they strongly prefer DC's from non-Welsh speaking homes to start before reception, in the nursery. He was very helpful - don't get me wrong - and he didn't say this was their formal admissions policy. Just that it was a lot easier if they started nursery.

My children go to a bilingual school. They went to a different school originally, which I assumed would be bilingual, but bizarely they only did an hour a week of Welsh. I changed them in Y2 and they did a term in the Welsh Language Unit, and are having no problems.

I wouldn't send them to a Welsh medium only school though as English and Welsh are important. Employment prospects round here are sorely lacking, so standards of English are V important in case they choose to work outside of North Wales, and standards of Welsh are V important in case they choose to work within North Wales.

Quite a few of my non-bilingual relatives have sent their kids to Welsh schools, with no problems. They live in Wales already and see how they're hampered by not speaking it, so want their children to grow up speaking Welsh.

Neither myuself or dh are fluent Welsh speakers, but we have chosen to send our dc to a Welsh medium school.
Ds1 is in Yr1, and ds2 is in the nursery class in the same school. They are like sponges, and even at this stage, we're really pleased with how bi-lingual they are.

E.g walking out of school one day, ds1 was having 2 conversations at the same time - one with me in English, and one with his friend in Welsh.

I do remember Welsh from school, and am currently learning more, just to keep up with them.

earwicga - I know what you mean about English, however there used to be quite a few national companies that offered a higher wage to employees working in Wales who were fluent in Welsh. Not sure if that still stands now.

runnyhabbit - if you don't speak Welsh round here then the chances of getting a job shit. Stupidly I didn't know that when I moved here, and am now stuck.

earwicga, are you in a rural part of NW? I do worry about my job prospects. I'm an academic researcher and there is of course only the one university.

Parts of N Wales are more predominantly Welsh speaking than than others. DH's family from Bangor and very much immersed in Welsh culture and life. Visiting relatives isn't easy as the first language for all of them is Welsh and that's always what they use - even when I'm around, although they do try to alternate to include me.

And certainly most public sector jobs now would prefer that you have the ability to speak in Welsh.

I'm on Anglesey fenner.

Colwyn Bay is much better wrt to language and employment prospects.

My DC attend a Welsh medium primary and will probably attend a Welsh medium secondary too. We speak Welsh at home, but I woudl say around half of the children at their (village) school speak English at home.

The school also runs evening classes for parents to learn Welsh.

Thanks everyone, this has been really helpful.

I'm going to speak to DP about it again, and depending on what we decide, take a tour of the school I had in mind.