Wrthi'n llwytho
Y penderfyniadau fel y mae cofnodion y cyngor yn eu cofnodi. Bydd crynodeb mewn iaith glir yn dilyn pan fydd wedi'i ysgrifennu.
AGREED – That the work programme be agreed.
AGREED – (i) That consideration of the progress of the WESP be scheduled as an annual item on the work programme, to include the annual progress report prior to submission to Welsh Government and performance against the yearly targets in the WESP. (ii) That the annual progress report for Welsh Government for the current year is circulated to Members of the Committee. (iii) That the Committee recommends to Mudiad Meithrin and Rhag that Governing Bodies of schools and all Wrexham County Borough Councillors are included on their mailing lists in order for the benefits of Welsh medium education to be promoted. (iv) That links to the following are circulated to all Councillors: · Information regarding the benefits of Welsh medium education including latest research on Welsh medium provision for ALN pupils. · Addysg Gymraeg Wrecsam (AGW – Wrexham Welsh Education) information sharing platform for information and resources relating to Welsh medium settings, schools and extra-curricular activities in Wrexham. · Promotional videos regarding Welsh medium education produced by the Welsh Immersion Service.
Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Stella Matthews and Phil Wynn (Lead Member for Education) and co-opted members Dr Emily Clarke-Jones and Mrs Alison Fisher.
AGREED – That the Minutes of the Meeting held on 7 March 2024 be signed as a correct record.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
AGREED – That the work programme be agreed.
The Chief Officer Governance & Customer submitted a report (COGC/30/24s) to consider the work programme of the Lifelong Learning Scrutiny Committee The Scrutiny Facilitator provided an update as follows: · The Impact of budget mitigation on ALN will be included in the budget report to Committee on 26 June 2024. · The Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme and the Pupil Well-being report will be scheduled for the meeting in March 2025. · The date for the Noddfa Committee Workshop has yet to be confirmed. · The recommendation from the Committee to Executive Board made at the March meeting highlighted that the capital receipt from disposals of school assets be ring-fenced to support the 21st Century Schools Programme (now Sustainable Communities for Learning) will be reported and responded to as part of the report on capital investment for schools scheduled for the meeting of the Executive Board on 14 May 2024. · The Task & Finish Group will report back to Committee when they are in a position to make any recommendations regarding the future use of the former Groves School Building. Reference was made to the education covenant. AGREED – That the work programme be agreed.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
AGREED – (i) That consideration of the progress of the WESP be scheduled as an annual item on the work programme, to include the annual progress report prior to submission to Welsh Government and performance against the yearly targets in the WESP. (ii) That the annual progress report for Welsh Government for the current year is circulated to Members of the Committee. (iii) That the Committee recommends to Mudiad Meithrin and Rhag that Governing Bodies of schools and all Wrexham County Borough Councillors are included on their mailing lists in order for the benefits of Welsh medium education to be promoted. (iv) That links to the following are circulated to all Councillors: · Information regarding the benefits of Welsh medium education including latest research on Welsh medium provision for ALN pupils. · Addysg Gymraeg Wrecsam (AGW – Wrexham Welsh Education) information sharing platform for information and resources relating to Welsh medium settings, schools and extra-curricular activities in Wrexham. · Promotional videos regarding Welsh medium education produced by the Welsh Immersion Service.
The Lead Member for Education submitted a report (COEEI/07/24s) to consider the progress made in relation to the Council’s Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) 2022-2032 that was approved by the Minister for Education and the Welsh Language, Jeremy Miles MS, on 20 July 2022. The WESP has been publicly available on the Council’s website since September 2022 in accordance with the Welsh in Education Strategic Plans Regulations 2019. The Chief Officer for Education and Early Intervention introduced Siwan Meirion, Education Effectiveness Lead who provided a brief introduction. The Education Effectiveness Lead introduced Eleri Vaughan Roberts –LA’s Welsh Latecomers and Immersion Officer, Claire Raynor – Head teacher, Ysgol Min y Ddol, Carys Gwyn – Mudiad Meithrin and Elin Maher – the National Co-ordinator for RhAG parents for Welsh Education and they provided Members with a short overview of how they worked together in collaboration with the Welsh Education Forum and an explanation on how the work of their organisations supported the work of the WESP towards achieving the targets that have been set. Members considered the report and the submissions made and asked questions of the officers, Lead Member and guests. During debate the following issues were highlighted: · A Member raised concern regarding the number of children that had transferred from a Welsh medium school to an English school and enquired about the types of interventions that were in place to prevent this from happening. · Pupils were entering into education with greater needs in the Welsh medium element. · Concerns regarding external agencies not being able to meet the pupils needs through the Welsh language. · Members were informed about the Local Authority’s (LA’s) newly established Noddfa bilingual provision for pupils with additional learning needs. · Research had been undertaken surrounding bilingualism focusing on children from English and Welsh speaking backgrounds and children with Additional Learning Needs (ALN). · The Royal Speech and Language Therapist College had contacted Wrexham Council regarding exploring bilingualism and Officers were keen to progress with this. · Members were informed about the research links with the Universities of Edinburgh, Bangor and Cardiff Metropolitan. · All staff within the Welsh medium schools had been provided with training that would give them the confidence in communicating with and supporting English speaking parents. · There was a challenge in relation to the advice being given by some health visitors regarding the suitability of Welsh medium education for children who have ALN. · The Chief Officer for Education and Early Intervention assured Members that: - The Welsh Medium provision was developing; - The Education Department was mindful of the responsibility for supporting the Welsh medium entitlement; - There were Welsh medium recruitment challenges but the commitment was there. · Noddfa was relying on Teaching Assistants on delivering the bilingual provision. · Members were assured that despite the budget pressures staff in the Welsh medium area will be upskilled and supported accordingly. · Dealing with trauma experienced in schools was deemed an important issue to pursue because it was considered to be a block to a child’s learning. · The ‘Trochi’ Welsh immersion provision had proved to be extremely beneficial for the Learners and was successful. · The Welsh Immersion Team Manager had established a trauma informed forum and had created a bespoke 2-day trauma informed SLT course alongside the Trauma Informed Schools UK (TISUK) which was delivered in November 2023 for staff in Welsh medium schools. · There were plans to provide training for staff to deal with certain elements that may have fallen into the ALN category. · Resources have been developed nationally to support children with learning needs and teachers and there was work progressing with dyslexia associated to ALN. · The Welsh Language Support Unit based at Ysgol Min y Ddol supported latecomers to the Welsh medium education and also offered a course tailored to ALN. · Members discussed the preschool Flying Start provision and were informed that children were being identified earlier to follow the path for Welsh medium education. · The Head teacher for Min y Ddol was a member of the Primary Heads Federation and will always offer to work with and provide bespoke Welsh medium training to English medium schools. · Open and honest conversations had been undertaken with parents during open days regarding issues relating to Welsh medium education. · A Member positively acknowledged the innovative work and the extra steps taken by Officers to deliver Welsh medium education across Wrexham schools. · Members referred to the percentage of Year 1 pupils attending Welsh medium education referred to in paragraph 2.6 of the report which were below the targets set out in the WESP and also the ability of Wrexham pupils to speak Welsh which had dropped from 28.3% in 2016 to 23.7% in 2020, as outlined on page 8 of the WESP. Reference was also made to surplus capacity in some Welsh medium schools. · Officers advised that the focus for the first few years of the 10 year WESP was about promoting Welsh medium education and the ‘’Trochi’ Welsh immersion provision, but that pupil numbers were rising, particularly at the new provision at Ysgol Llan-y-Pwll. WESP targets and performance figures would be expanded to include all relevant targets in future reports. · The impact of the pandemic and the decreasing pupil numbers within Wrexham County Borough had contributed to the performance figures. · The Welsh language Forum had carried out a lot of work to encourage parents to make the decision to send their children to a Welsh medium school. · Pupil figures were difficult to project in terms of the way things will progress with the common framework for Welsh language as part of the Welsh Language Bill. · The Welsh medium cluster of schools have collaborated to innovatively promote their provision via a video that celebrated the benefits of Welsh medium schools and had received recognition from Welsh Government. · The Welsh Immersion service co-ordinated the Welsh medium promotional video and it was launched in Ty Pawb during January 2024. · Future promotion projects will reference the full journey of pupils and families progressing through Welsh medium education. · Members discussed the lack of post-16 transport and the potential impact on transition to Welsh Medium sixth form. Officers advised that further information regarding post-16 transport will be provided to Members and that a report on school transport would be discussed at the next meeting. · The challenges regarding information sharing with health visitors and other external providers regarding the benefits of Welsh medium education. The Chief Officer for Education and Early Intervention assured Members that she would raise this at the next Early Year’s forum meeting. · The recruitment in the Welsh medium sector was a challenge for English medium schools and there has been a lot of joint working with partners to address that. · There was a national push to convert people to teach in Welsh medium schools and there was a pathway for teachers to upskill their Welsh. · Officers discussed the different viewpoints and barriers effecting parents who were making a decision to send their child to a Welsh medium school. The need to increase opportunities to use Welsh outside of school was emphasised. · Parents were encouraged to be involved in their child’s Welsh medium education. · None Welsh speaking parents were sometimes concerned regarding how they could support their child with their homework and whether they had received the correct information. · Schools were working hard to ensure that they delivered on an inclusive teaching environment. · A Member enquired about how effectively Welsh medium schools had engaged with parents during pre-admission. · Promoting Welsh medium education was considered to be a holistic responsibility and that one partner or agency would not have an influence over others. · A Member requested that the Committee be provided with a copy of the annual progress report for Welsh Government on the WESP when available. · Members discussed the Welsh training courses provided to non-specialist staff in English medium primary schools and Officers agreed to circulate a breakdown of the teaching assistants and teachers who had attended the Welsh training courses in 2022-23. · A promotion programme had been set out to promote the Welsh medium education including social media drives, YouTube, press releases, raising awareness with health visitors, midwives and attending local family local events. · Members were informed about Addysg Gymraeg Wrecsam (AGW – Wrexham Welsh Education) which was a new information-sharing platform that was launched in January 2024 (www.agw.cymru) and the Rhag website. · A Member raised concern that the core Welsh speaking population was declining. · There was an opportunity to share the promotion of Welsh medium education with Governing Bodies and Councillors. AGREED – (i) That consideration of the progress of the WESP be scheduled as an annual item on the work programme, to include the annual progress report prior to submission to Welsh Government and performance against the yearly targets in the WESP. (ii) That the annual progress report for Welsh Government for the current year is circulated to Members of the Committee. (iii) That the Committee recommends to Mudiad Meithrin and Rhag that Governing Bodies of schools and all Wrexham County Borough Councillors are included on their mailing lists in order for the benefits of Welsh medium education to be promoted. (iv) That links to the following are circulated to all Councillors: · Information regarding the benefits of Welsh medium education including latest research on Welsh medium provision for ALN pupils. · Addysg Gymraeg Wrecsam (AGW – Wrexham Welsh Education) information sharing platform for information and resources relating to Welsh medium settings, schools and extra-curricular activities in Wrexham. · Promotional videos regarding Welsh medium education produced by the Welsh Immersion Service.
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