The Welsh Government is to provide £2.6million towards an expansion of Welsh-medium nursery groups in Bridgend county, according to a report to be discussed by BCBC’s Cabinet next week (pdf).
£30million was made available by the Welsh Government to support the use of Welsh in education as part of a target of having 1million Welsh-speakers by 2050. BCBC was been successful in their bid for a slice of it.
BCBC propose establishing four early years Welsh-medium centres, which will feed in directly to Welsh-medium primary schools:
- Bettws (transition to YGG Calon y Cymoedd)
- Ogmore Valley (transition to YGG Calon y Cymoedd)
- Bridgend Town (transition to YGG Bro Ogwr)
- Porthcawl (transition to YGG Ferch o’r Sgêr)
Each of the projects will be awarded £650,000 and will be developed by a partnership made up of BCBC’s education department, Welsh-medium primary headteachers, Mudiad Meithrin (Welsh-medium nursery society), Menter Bro Ogwr, Bridgend College, BAVO, Urdd Gobaith Cymru and the National Day Nursery Association.
The plans are currently at a preliminary stage and there are no details yet on where precisely they’ll be located. Also, as the upfront money is coming directly from the Welsh Government and ongoing costs will be met by end-users there are no costs to Bridgend Council.
