Forced Bilingualism Welsh

[User1911]

Hi!
My DD5 is currently in a welsh stream school and has been for a year. We feel she hasn’t picked up as much as we had hoped, especially in comparison to her peers who come from welsh speaking homes.

We are an English speaking family no welsh at all spoken through any family member. No support available to her bar school.

We are considering moving her to a lovely English stream school. But she will be leaving a lot of good friends/mums. It’s a very hard decision to make but I really want to be able to support her fully in her education which I feel I cannot do at the moment.

I really do know all the benefits of bilingualism and that’s why we put her in a Welsh school.

But I’m looking for parents who decided against it and maybe switched over. Reasons why and how it worked out? Did you feel better making the switch and choosing just English?

Well your update changes things. You are unhappy that it is not a happy nurturing school rather than how they are teaching welsh. If this is the case and your dd is unhappy then looking to move might be what you need.

So ignorant

Well I think this tips the balance firmly in the favour of moving her IMO

I would 100% move her. She is young enough to make friends easily and fit into at her new school. It sounds really hard for her.

You don’t speak any Welsh at home or have friends / family who speak Welsh and I’m guessing you’ve all been ok? If she’s not going to speak Welsh all summer it doesn’t sound like many people in your area speak Welsh (even if 50% of people know Welsh they can’t be speaking it).

Don’t feel guilty for putting her in that school, you were doing what you thought was best for her. If you move her then the sooner the better, you don’t want her to miss any more learning and at her age she will quickly catch up. You are unhappy with the school and your daughter wants to move, just move her.

Move her. Life's hard enough. Communication between parents and kids is hard enough without adding another language in the mix.

I say that as a semi bilingual.

To address your concerns:

It's normal to take a while to 'get' a new language. Although younger children generally learn quickly, it's still very early days. It can take a while to 'click'. Right now she's absorbing and processing; the speaking will come soon enough.

When she says she doesn't know what the teacher says, I suspect that she does understand but doesn't have the ability yet to translate between the two languages to tell you in English what was happening in school. The teacher has confirmed to you that your daughter seems to understand. Again, normal for a child of this age who is still relatively new to a language.

Summer holidays - yes at this age she may get a bit rusty with Welsh. You can minimise this by immersing her in Welsh as much as you can - play dates, watching Welsh TV etc. But in a couple of years she will be attending clubs, sports, meeting her friends etc in the holidays and will have a lot of continued exposure to Welsh.

Fair enough. Where I am there's a depopulation problem so all local secondaries are undersubscribed and there's no issue with people getting the language path of their choice.

If you're planning to stay in Wales, I would look at getting her a Welsh speaking tutor or better yet au pair. As long as you are reading to her in English and doing some phonics she is in no danger of missing out at this stage.

Sorry but this did make me laugh. You must be from a VERY different world to me an au pair/nanny is not a thing where I come from.

I really understand your point her BUT it’s a really funny thing…

All her clubs would be in English outside school. She attends various afterschool activities these are all English. When she meets with friends the parents and children communicate in English with one another. This is what I mean when I said the only welsh she will ever hear is in school. Maybe when they are older they would start speaking in welsh to one another but generally they don’t. I hear spatters of welsh being spoken at the school gate but this is normal the older generation.

The parents of her peers are welsh speaking but they don’t speak it outside of the home very much.

this is what is so odd about it even though it’s the first language of many you hardly hear it day to day!

How did you get on today? Do you know the process for changing?(I don't because I'm. In England) What did the new school say?

What you are saying is totally normal in my area OP. In my kids welsh school 70% of parents don’t speak welsh. The kids don’t become fluent until year 1/2 if they’re from English speaking homes. They don’t access welsh outside of school with family/clubs/telly etc. but many of them still go on to secondary school completely fluent in English and welsh and able to read and write at a high standard in both.

you say you are worried you won’t be able to read any of your child’s stories- of course you will. If she writes them at home she’ll write them in English. My daughter is 8 and writes all her stories in English. Right now she’s still using welsh phonics so her spelling isn’t right but I have no concerns because she’s being taught English now in year 3 and will be at the expected level by upper juniors as my son was.

school plays- yes I often have no idea what the hell is going on. But if it’s the nativity then it’s pretty straight forward! Other performing opportunities my daughter has had due to the welsh education such as the urdd eisteddfod have been incredible. She’s taken part in so many things and loved it- she wouldn’t have had access to them in an English school.

my son is in high school. He either translates his homework for me and I help him or we use google translate if any words are tricky for him to translate into English. Works fine. My daughters reading books- again google translate helps me get the gist. And I love listening to her read in English too

by all means move her if you want- which I think it’s quite clear you do. But don’t think you’re in an unusual position to have no welsh at home and your child in a welsh school because that’s the case for the vast majority of children in welsh education. However I would say if you do want to move her then i would do it now while she’s still young. It will have no impact that she’s done this year in welsh- she’ll be absolutely fine because she’s only reception. It absolutely won’t be a waste of a year at all, there are so many things they learn in reception besides language- social skills, self care skill, creative skills etc.

I didn’t hear anything…I was told they would get back to me but no one did. So abit weird.

My anxiety is awfull about the whole thing. I don’t know if at the end of our visit the headmaster was being abit offish. She was saying about admissions may refuse to start her till sept and may have to appeal etc

But I spoke to admissions and they said yes straight away. So trying not to over think things but now they haven’t been in touch after I emailed and also rang them. So not sure what’s going on.

I can accept the place and she will start after may half term regardless of headmaster getting back to us but I didn’t want to accept the place with her not having a little morning there first.

I think some kids pick up new languages very easily and some find it much harder and it can start to make them miserable. Before it gets to that point I'd swap to the lovely, supportive school and not look back to be honest. I bet she'll fly there. If Welsh was spoken at home it might be different - but why make her life harder than it needs to be? You say there's only one English primary and one English secondary - but that'all she needs.

You could go to Welsh classes .

Personally I would just move her.

My grandchild has just been taught that God was a Welsh man. Or so she says. Who knows.

You really don't need a "strong network of mother" (what about the dads) for your kids to have mates, you really really don't. I could never be arsed with making mum friends (unless evolve organically) and mine have been fine.

Ah we're all different. I found "mum friends" invaluable. Especially as we didn't have family so it oiled the wheels for play dates, parties and help picking up /odd days we couldn't be there St school. It was good to have company while waiting for them to come out and I'm still friends with some now!

I wouldn't overthink the headteacher. If there's space and you liked it enough accept it now! Maybe contact the office/reception to arrange the visit. Say that she is starting after half term can she come visit now (in my area they'd start within the week).

Id tell your daughter she'll be going after half term and then get excited about the visit with her rather than placing an expectation on her to love it/decide. At her age she won't be able to know or visualise what it will be like so do just talk about it as visiting the new school :)

Good luck (aware I get overly invested in discussions supporting kids!)