More Welsh-medium school places planned for Barry and Vale (From Barry And District News)

More Welsh-medium school places planned for Barry and Vale

12:20pm Friday 27th November 2009

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TWO new ‘starter’ schools are planned by the Vale of Glamorgan Council to meet an increasing demand for Welsh medium primary school education.

In addition to the proposals to establish reception schools at Ysgol Gyfun Bro Morgannwg (the Welsh medium comprehensive school in Barry) and Llantwit Major Comprehensive sites, the council cabinet also envisages extending Ysgol Pen y Garth at Penarth.

The cost is estimated at nearly £1.2m and it is planned, subject to widespread consultation and funding, to have the new places available by September next year.

Estimated demand for Welsh medium reception classes in Barry is 128 and 145 in September 2010 and 2011 respectively. This compares to a current capacity of 117.

In respect of Iolo Morganwg and Pen y Garth, the projected figures for September next year are 30 and 59 places compared to current capacities of 23 and 50 respectively.

Between 2001/06, between 10 and 11 per cent of Vale primary school children were receiving Welsh medium education and, between 2007/09, reception intake was consistently above 13 per cent, equating to an average of 193 pupils.

A Vale-wide survey of school preference revealed that, of those responding, 26 per cent of parents with children under three years of age are very likely to require a Welsh medium school place for their children.

Cabinet member for education and lifelong learning, Cllr Tony Hampton said: "The survey highlights an unmet or latent demand for Welsh medium education due to the existing distribution of Welsh medium primary schools across the Vale and the travel distances involved."

In the longer term, and depending on further funding being identified, it is envisaged that the proposed ‘starter’ units will eventually be developed as full primary schools, with 420 and 210 places at Barry and Llantwit respectively.

Llantwit would also have a nursery unit. Also envisaged in the longer term is a new 210-place school in Cowbridge to replace Ysgol Iolo Morganwg and a remodelling of Pen y Garth to increase pupil capacity from 350 to 420 places.

The development of a permanent primary school at the Bro Morgannwg site will also allow for the eventual ‘relocation’ of Ysgol Sant Baruc, Barry.

The proposals have been put forward as council officers, looking at the demand for places and the condition of buildings, develop a long-term ‘21st Century’ strategy covering all Vale schools.

Cllr Hampton said: "The increase in demand for Welsh medium education needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency and in advance of a full strategy.

“There is insufficient capacity at schools in Barry and at Iolo Morganwg serving the rural Vale to accommodate current and future demand from September next year."

He added that the Bro Morgwannwg (Barry) site development "will provide very close educational links between a new primary and the existing secondary school with the aim of creating a Welsh medium ‘learning campus’."

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