“I’m mega proud of him”. “She’s like a different child.” Eleven children “graduated” this morning after completing a 12-week course in the Welsh language.
Those were two of the comments from parents I chatted to after they saw their children presented with a certificate and trophy from staff at the Carreg Lam immersion unit at Ysgol Panteg.
The course is for children in years two to six who want to transfer to Welsh-medium education, or for those who’ve started at a Welsh school but feel they need extra support.
Kirsty Sillah is the mum of Tiana, six. She said: “It’s amazing. We’re really proud of everything that she’s done. The staff have been fantastic. Tiana is quite shy and lacks confidence, so it really helped her to kind of develop to be bilingual…within our family, my husband is already bilingual with a separate language, so we’re hoping for her to become trilingual in the future.
“The staff have been fantastic, and we are so grateful that we had the opportunity to be offered it. She’s come on so much in 12 weeks. She’s like a different child.”
Carys Soper, leader of the Carreg Lam immersion centre, shared some words about each pupil’s achievements. She told how Jago, six, loves telling stories, but now he uses Welsh to share them.
‘Fantastic’
She said: “We’ve enjoyed hearing all of Jago’s stories, and there are many of them. But what’s interesting now is when he comes to tell me one of his stories, he immediately tells me in Welsh, which is fantastic…When a child is extremely excited, if they want to come up to you and tell you a story, to be able to do that in Welsh language is an extreme achievement because if we all had to try and practice another language it’s very difficult to use different types of language that you might not hear from day-to-day in the school life, to be able to tell something important that’s happened in your social life.”
Luke Whatley, Jago’s dad, said: “I was just saying to him how proud I am of him, telling all the stories in Welsh. It’s amazing, I’m mega proud of him.
“I knew he was good, but I didn’t know he was that good at speaking. I know he was really good at reading, but didn’t know that he was that fluent that he could tell stories from start to finish in Welsh.
“Really chuffed to be honest. I’m well happy.”
‘Ambitious young minds’
Kaysha Wulder, the school’s progress phase 2 lead, said: “Today is a momentous and proud occasion as we gather to celebrate the achievements of these remarkable, ambitious young minds who have completed their journey at Carreg Lam.
“Each one of these children has embarked on a unique, transformative educational experience that goes beyond traditional classroom boundaries.”