1.2 Adopt systematic processes for measuring the demand for childcare and statutory educational provision. Act promptly on the findings of parental surveys. South East Wales Each local authority conducts separate Childcare Sufficiency Assessments in line with Welsh Government requirements. All local authorities conduct regular parental demand surveys for Welsh-medium education. South East Wales Continue to work collaboratively to explore options for provision where appropriate. Caerphilly Data for the WESP is at a distinct point (same point for annual CSA) at 31/08/annually. CSA data and parental demand directs the development of new childcare provision The Childcare Sufficiency Assessment conducted in April 2011 indicated that parents/carers noted a shortage of Welsh medium full day care places. It was also noted that although there were a good number of Cylchoedd Meithrin, they were not evenly spread across the county borough. As of 31/8/13 (CSA 2014) Data Refresh Date) shows the following There are currently 40 Welsh medium childcare providers across the county borough comprised of: medium medium Caerphilly The CSA Action Plan identifies the for further development higlighted in the CSA and aims to increase the number of Welsh medium sessional childcare places. A rolling programme of Welsh Language training is offered to the sector through the Policy Department and through our Welsh Language Development Officer when required. The Local Authority: will continue to support childcare provision including language development across the sector. is committed to proactively offering Welsh and English medium childcare places to Flying Start families, as well as funding Flying Start Childcare places in high quality non-maintained Welsh trial
1.6 Establish a Welsh-medium Education Forum and establish links with the Children and Young People’s Plan. Ensure considerations for resources and finance for provision within early years. South East Wales The South East Wales Consortium has established a regional Welsh in Education Strategic Forum from the autumn term 2013. This forum includes representatives from across the region and is consulted on the development of the Welsh in Education Strategic Plans and the Welsh Education Grant. South East Wales The regional Welsh in Education Strategic Forum will meet three times a year to monitor the five Welsh in Education Strategic Plans and the regional Welsh Education Grant. Caerphilly The LA regularly with the head teachers of the Welsh-medium primary and secondary school to discuss educational provision and identify areas of Welsh-medium provision that require LA and Consortium support. The newly established Welsh partnership monitoring group will meet on a regular basis (termly) to monitor progress provision within all phases and action plan for the WESP. LA will liaise closely with and support the work of RhAG, Caerphilly Parent Network and Menter with regular consultation meetings LA will continue to work with Mudiad Meithrin and Menter Iaith to support Welsh medium education childcare settings. Caerphilly The LA will continue to support the Welsh partnership group to monitor and review the Caerphilly WESP and act as a conduit for information to and from the regional WESP forum. Grant funding is available for the development of new childcare provision across the county.
CYPP structure has realigned with the unified needs assessment and development of the LSB Single Integrated Plan. Welsh medium representation will be considered when planning membership of any subsequent task and finish groups. The Families First open tender process enables Welsh medium providers to work in partnership with other providers to submit a bid. LA works with Mudiad Meithrin, Menter Iaith, EAS and Flying Start Advisory teachers to support Welsh medium education childcare settings. 1.7 Provide information for parents/carers South East Wales Each local authority consults with each other annually on the school admissions processes and the content of the associated information for parents’ booklets. This enables each local authority to provide consistent information on the linguistic nature of provision within the region. Newport, Monmouthshire and Torfaen (on a basis) have implemented a bilingual online admissions process from September 2012. South East Wales The South East Wales authorities will continue to consult each other annually on school admissions and information processes. Caerphilly CCBC meets demand in accordance with sections 9 and 14 of the Education Act 1996. The LA has worked proactively to meet parental preferences since 1996. During this time CCBC has Caerphilly Continue to proactively meet parental demand for medium education as well as stimulate growth for Welsh language.
Flying Start records family language preference on contact with the family and registration into the programme. This is reiterated in the Flying Start Childcare placement process to ensure families have the information in Welsh if they prefer and that families are able to access Welsh medium or English medium provision according to their preference. Flying Start has sufficient Welsh medium provision currently to meet demand but will keep this under review as the expansion is implemented. Flying Start gives information in Welsh and English to ensure families are informed and can complete the forms in their preferred language. Subject to statutory processes, the admission arrangements as between the Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni and Y Gwyndy will be carefully managed to ensure that places are restricted to in-catchment/county pupils otherwise Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni will continue to exceed capacity even with the establishment of the expanded secondary provision at Y Gwyndy – Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni, which opened in September 2013. There are a small number of out-county children who attend CCBC schools with the possibility that this will increase for secondary in the near future given the lack of spaces in the ‘South East’ area. The LA has only medium and English medium schools with provision for Welsh in both sectors.
2.2 Develop more effective transfer between the funded provision to school provision, between Key Stage 2 and 3 and Key Stage 3 and 4. Progression rates from Mudiad Meithrin early years settings to Welsh-medium schools fluctuate across the region and were generally lower in 2012 than 2011, but higher than 2010. Develop an action plan to increase transfer rates from Mudiad Meithrin settings to Welsh-medium primary schools to at least 80% per setting by 2017. Maintain the high transfer between primary schools and Welsh-medium secondary schools. Sept 2010 Sept 2011 Sept 2012 Blaenau Gwent 33% 64% 41% Caerphilly 81% 80% 74% Monmouthshire 73% 77% 77% Newport 61% 65% 51% Torfaen 74% 79% 78% South East Wales 62% 75% 69% Transition rates between Welsh-medium primary and secondary schools are high across the South East Wales. Transition rates have been maintained at 100% in Blaenau Gwent and Caerphilly over the last two years, and have increased in Newport and Torfaen. Sept 2011 Sept 2012 Sept 2013 Blaenau Gwent 100% 100% 100% Caerphilly 98.0% 100% 100% Monmouthshire 90.6% 78.6% 95.65% Newport 97.5% 85.3% 96.6% Torfaen 98.2% 95.5% 99.5% East Wales 95.8% 96.2% 99.1% Caerphilly Caerphilly
3.1 Increase the percentage of learners aged studying for qualifications through the medium of Welsh 100% of pupils in Year 11 at Gyfun Gwynllyw and Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni are studying for 5 or more qualifications through the medium of Welsh. This high proportion is to be commended. There will be continued partnership working between Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw and Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni. Estyn praised increased vocational qualifications through partnership working in its inspection of the school in 2008: “The school has successfully taken into account national priorities. In-particular, the school is currently working very closely with Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni to meet WAG’s 14-19 Learning Pathways agenda. Effective links have been made with providers of education and training in the community.” Partnership working between Gyfun Gwynllyw and Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni was Case Study 1 in Estyn’s 2008 report on good practice (Case study 2 is the work with a local school). PLCs have been established for the last years, including literacy PLCs in both Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni and Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw, and joint PLCs in all core subjects and each year three non-core subjects in additional to the senior leadership team between the two schools and another five schools within the same Welsh-medium family of schools. Professional Learning Communities have continued to thrive through the family of schools. 34 days of collaboration across the five schools was organised during 2012-2013. The South East Wales consortium will: continue to improve the quality of the provision available to students. continue to further develop professional learning communities to ensure sustained high standards across the curriculum. continue to be at the forefront of strategies for developing 14-16 learning pathways through collaboration at all levels and with all stakeholders in the development of education. further develop the pioneering cross border/consortium partnership in order to further expand the number of courses available to the students. This can only be achieved if all stakeholders in the RNDP(ANDP) recognise the need to prioritise Welsh medium 14-16 education. Welsh medium 14-16 education needs to be considered as part of future consortia and LAN discussions and inform future educational strategies. 16
From september 2013 we have introduced a post NVQ curriculum for some of our special needs pupils. They are aiming to achieve a level 2 qualification over a two year period. Cwm Rhymni will be introducing a post 16 entry Level 3 curriculum in September 2014 for students within our Complex Needs Unit. We will therefore be developing a Post 16 Complex Needs Unit. 3.4 Work through 14-19 Networks and 14-19 Regional Forums to sustain and improve provision 14-19 Networks provide annual funding to support collaborative arrangements for teaching subjects through the medium of Welsh. The development of Welsh-medium 14-19 provision is included within each authority’s 16-18 Transformation Strategy (2010). Discussions are held annually between the secondary schools and the further education sector to explore options for delivering courses through the medium of Welsh. A regional budget will be provided by the Welsh Partnership to sustain and improve Welsh-medium provision. Continue to hold annual discussions between the Welsh-medium secondary schools and the further education sector to explore options for delivering courses through the medium of Welsh. 3.5 Gather, analyse and use data for 14-19 Welsh-medium provision. Plan for post-16 provision within partnerships Through the South East Wales Forum, meetings are held regularly, training sessions for staff are arranged, pupils work together and network, priority areas to be developed are identified e.g. psychology. There is collaboration between Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw and Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni. The schools actively seek out Welsh-medium independent work-based learning providers e.g. Coleg Rhymni has provided training on car mechanics. Practitioners at Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw and Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni attend both Welsh-medium and Learning Partnership meetings to have a full The Welsh Partnership will continue to work together to plan for post-16 Welsh-medium provision. Further collaboration will be developed through the work of the South East Wales Learning Pathways 14-19 Forum. Close collaboration with work place training providers will continue and further developments are expected the future in order that Welsh medium training in other vocational fields can take place.
The joint sub-committee continues to meet to monitor, appraise and plan future developments in the 14-19 Welsh medium Learning Pathways strategy. There are ongoing discussions with Ystrad Mynach College (The Bilingual Champion is a member of the South East Wales Forum Learning Pathways 14-19 and meets the head teacher and facilitator regularly). Cwm Rhymni is represented on the 14-19 executive board led by the EAS. for the development of a 14-19 curriculum in the Gwyndy are in their infancy, but collaboration across Partneraieth 6 is at the heart of these strategies. Outcome 5: More learners with higher skills in Welsh A. Objective B. Current performance C. Targets D. Progress 5.1 Improve provision to address literacy in Welsh All Welsh-medium schools are responding to the Literacy Framework working with NSP partners and are implementing the Framework across all aspect of the school curriculum including Welsh. The Framework features in all School Improvement Plans. Literacy mapping has been undertaken across all Welsh-medium schools and by Welsh departments in English-medium secondary schools. The Authorities working with the EAS will continue to monitor and evaluate standards in Welsh and the quality of provision, through analysis of Estyn inspection reports, data analysis, school target setting and information received from EAS System Leader for Welsh and the Welsh in Education Support Team leader.
Teacher assessment in Welsh Second Language at the end of Key Stage 3 Number of Year 9 pupils Percentage of Year 9 pupils assessed in Welsh second language Percentage of pupils assessed achieving Level 5+ Blaenau Gwent 690 100% 73% Caerphilly 2076 89% 68% Monmouthshire 809 100% 75% Newport 1640 100% 75% Torfaen 1224 85% 77% East Wales 6439 93% 73% Appendix 4: List of statutory consultees A local authority must consult the following on the Plan in draft: Section 84 of the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013: neighbouring authorities the head teacher of each school maintained by it the governing body of each school by it each institution within the further education sector in its area in relation to any foundation or voluntary school in its area – the person who appoints the foundation governors if the school has a religious character, the appropriate religious body prescribed persons. “Other prescribed persons” are listed in Regulation 9: the Welsh Language Commissioner the Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership