Welsh Medium Education Advice

My understanding is that a Welsh medium school would teach both the Welsh and English language so that the child would become fluent in both ?? Would an english school do that ? Your child is both Welsh and english so why wouldn’t you want to encourage that !! There will be parts of the school work that you will be able to help with and some that the other parent will be able to do so it’s sounds like a good education to me !! Rethink and work together as that will always be best outcome for your child

Your post only talks about how the current education plan effects YOU! On this basis alone, you are being hugely unreasonable. Do what's best for your child, stop making it about you.

All of the education in a Welsh Medium school is taught in full Welsh so all homework would come home in Welsh, all reading would be in Welsh. Only English class work would come home in English and this is only after a few years at school would she learn English.

Me not being to help my daughter with her homework when she’s with me does affect her. Not being able to help her with her reading as it would be in Welsh affects my child.

if my child is only learning in Welsh, if I can’t help her with her school work that does affect her!

I have not been in your situation but I never thought you were being unreasonable from the off. The fact you have thought through this and want to be fully involved in your child’s education is a credit to you. Have you discussed this with your ex? Explained how when you have her you won’t be able to provide the help and support your daughter may need? Tbh, I’m not sure I would have agreed to it in the first place. Both my husband and I support our child equally for school, when he needs it, which is nice. The thought of being alienated from that would be very hard and would be detrimental to our relationship. The sole responsibility for school work/ support should not fall on only one parent, (when there are 2 parents involved) for many reasons including the child-parent relationship/s.

Good luck.

im Sure you will work it out between you but maybe consider that you went into a relationship knowing that your child would be half Welsh so to be fair to that child it is important for them to learn both languages!! If you had a child that was deaf then im

sure you would learn sign language to help them !! If you stayed in a relationship with the mother then you probably would of picked up some of the language over time to help your child so why should that change because you are no longer with the other parent !! Learn together it might be fun and if the child lives with the parent that speaks Welsh a majority of the time then I’m sure they will do most of the homework and reading naturally so you could still help with part of it !! There will be lots of other things your child will learn from you so try to turn it into a positive experience as breaking up is never easy for anyone

I would just say that the situation isn’t really comparable with a child that is deaf and learning sign language. That would be essential, in that instance.

Also, I am married to a Welshman, who cannot speak the language despite living in Wales with parents that spoke it fluently.

I am thinking that if my child was sat doing homework that they were struggling with and I couldn’t help them in any way, it would be very frustrating for me and my child. Remember, this is not one subject but ALL subjects in Welsh. Put yourself in the OP’s shoes.

I’m wondering if the daughter could learn Welsh separately - external lessons? This would seem a fair compromise.

Yes, you’re being unreasonable, but that’s only because you agreed that was the type of education your child was going to get, but now you’ve split you have changed your mind. You shouldn’t have agreed to it in the first place, so some kind of compromise will have to happen.

Either your child still goes to the welsh school, and maybe you could get some lessons, or she goes to the English school, and she has some welsh lessons aswell.

To be honest the homework isn’t too hard, whilst they are young, it’s the secondary school that’s the nightmare. I know, I went to a welsh school, my dad was a welsh speaker, but my mother wasn’t, but my dad barely helped anyway, as they had split at the time and only saw him weekends, and the homework didn’t come along.

My partner is English, and we live in wales, I’m more than happy for my child to go to an English school as it doesn’t really matter whether you speak welsh or not, I would say the majority doesn’t, although if I lived in north wales I would definitely push for more of a welsh education.

It does sound scary at first but please do not worry.

Our children (6 and 9) go to a Welsh medium school. My husband does not read Welsh and barely speaks it. I have a better grasp of Welsh but am no means fluent in reading or writting.

Our children are thriving in the Welsh school. They have class mates who are Polish, Lithuanian, Liverpuplians, English speaking homes etc so having a Welsh speaking family is not the be all or end all.

We found that the school they attend is much better than the local English medium school educationally and class numbers.

Everything is Welsh up until year 2/3, children soak it up so well it is amazing how their brains work. Ours went to Cylch by age 3 and are pretty bilingual now! Our youngest only had 2 months of Cylch because of Covid lockdowns and then went straight to Meithrin with little Welsh prep but she is absolutely thriving!

Homework until year 3 is just reading in Welsh which is when they bring home English reading books also.

They are really basic reading books with simple words that you can pick up.

We use Duolingo and google translate to get pronunciation right at times to help them. Our Welsh has improved naturally with them as they are learning to read Welsh at the same level as us lol. Doing reading homework is great as our youngest loves to correct our pronounciation and teaches us how to do it, which she feels important and proud.

All letters and correspondence from school is in Welsh and English, as are parents evenings etc

School shows are all in Welsh but until they are 9 they barely say more than a sentance and you can learn it with your child.

It was by far the best decision we ever made for them. If they stay in Wales to work as adults they will be in a much better position.

Most schools will have free family Welsh lessons through the term if you would like to learn.

Things will change for high school when homework will be in Welsh. Some parents are concidering Welsh or English high schools in the future. That decision is a long way off for you and by that time things may have changed.

By that age they can translate anything easily to you if they need your help.

Welsh medium education is hugely beneficial. I would have chosen it for my boys if we hadn't had the option of a church school, which was more important for us. Neither my husband or I are Welsh speakers, we both come from England. Many children who go to Welsh school come from households where no one speaks English, schools are used to that. You could even learn some Welsh so that you can be part of that part of her culture, with a Welsh speaking parent Welsh is likely to be hugely important to her. She might consider Welsh one of her two first languages, so should have the opportunities to learn through Welsh. There's also the fact that if she has already started Welsh medium education it will be disruptive to move her. If you want to give her the best education you can I would recommend you stick with Welsh medium.

But the child will speak English with you, so will speak English fluently. You can support her education in other ways, like reading English language books, or working on something that you have a particular interest in.

I'm not sure quite how old your child is? If she hasn't started school yet which I think is the case from the way you've written, I think you should look at schools that use both English and Welsh as their primary language. You need to discuss your questions with them. If your daughter has days with you, where you are going to be the only one available to support her with reading and homework, and she is going to bring home things in 100% welsh which neither of you really understand, then yes that is probably not a good thing, but you need to talk to the schools and see how it is really done.

Hi! No she hasn’t started school as of yet. She goes to a Cylch Meithrin (private nursery) at the moment where both Welsh and English are used and it’s predominantly English that is being used.

we have 50/50 time with our daughter so she’ll be with me half the time which means I’d need to be able to help her with homework and reading etc

Yes, you're being unreasonable.

Your child has got used to welsh school and just because you associate welsh with your wife, you are now taking it out on the child!

Want to be involved? Learn welsh! But even without learning it, welsh people speak english as well.