The essential journalist news source
Back
20.
June
2019.
Parade to celebrate 70 years of Welsh-medium education


A parade to celebrate 70 years of Welsh-medium education in Cardiff will march through the city centre on its way to Cardiff Castle and the city's free, family friendly Welsh language arts and culture festival, Tafwyl.

The parade will be led by former pupils of Cardiff's first ever Welsh-medium school, Ysgol Gymraeg Caerdydd.

Ysgol Gymraeg Caerdydd opened on 5 September 1949, in a classroom at Ninian Park Boys' School (now Ninian Park Primary School) with just 19 pupils on the roll.  It soon moved to a site in Highfields, Llandaf (adopting the new and more familiar name, Ysgol Gymraeg Bryntaf) which has since 1991 been the home of Ysgol Pencae. This September, over 700 pupils will enter Reception Classes at one of the 15 Welsh-medium primary schools and two dual-stream primary schools across the city.

Council Leader, Cllr Huw Thomas, who will greet the parade before it sets off from City Hall lawns at 10am on Saturday (22ndJune), said:  "The Welsh language is thriving in Cardiff and it's an honour to be part of this celebration marking 70 years of Welsh-medium education in the capital.

"We're committed to making sure that the Welsh language is embedded in the everyday life of the city - we're actively encouraging staff to use Welsh in the workplace, developing measures to ensure equality between the number of Welsh and English street names in the city and encouraging businesses and partner organisations to follow suit and commit to increasing their use of the Welsh language too - but education is absolutely key."

"We've delivered significant growth in the provision of Welsh-medium education and there are now over 8000 school pupils being taught through the medium of Welsh, every single school day.  That figure will increase - at the end of 2018 we officially opened the new Ysgol Glan Morfa primary school facilities, doubling Welsh-medium provision in Splott.  Ysgol Hamadryad in Butetown was also relocated earlier this year and has new build facilities able to accommodate 60 pupils per year group with further additional Welsh-medium provision factored into our Local Development Plan."

"We're proud to be playing our part in delivering a million Welsh speakers by 2050 and we will continue to work hard to increase the number of Welsh speakers in Cardiff, but Welsh language education in Cardiff has come a very long way in the last 70 years and that is surely something to be celebrated."

Every Welsh-medium school in the city will be represented on the parade which will be welcomed to Tafwyl festival by Eluned Morgan AM, Welsh Government Minister for International Relations and the Welsh Language, and herself a former pupil at Bryntaf and Glantaf Schools.

Tafwyl, delivered by Menter Caerdydd and supported by Cardiff Council, has grown from a small festival in 2006 to become a lively mix of music, literature, drama, comedy, art, sports, food and drink.  The festival attracted over 40,000 people in 2018, Welsh speakers and non-Welsh speakers alike, and was named ‘Cardiff's Best Festival' at the Cardiff Music Awards 2018.

This year's Tafwyl festival includes music from Gwenno, HMS Morris and the Gentle Good, a silent disco, petrifying poems in the Undercroft, Comedy Hour, Welsh rhyme time for parents and children, sessions on second language learning methods, the chance to pick up some pronunciation tips and more.

A full festival schedule and more information about Tafwyl can be found at www.tafwyl.org