Welsh medium education

In Wales, it is a distinct advantage to be bilingual in at least English and Welsh. Someone speaking two languages has a wider range of skills than someone who only speaks one. We promote bilingualism and all of our pupils study Welsh until the end of Year 11. In addition, we offer the opportunity to study the majority of subjects through the medium of Welsh. This is called Welsh Medium Education.

Welsh Medium Education has proved to be increasingly successful since it has been developed at the school in 1994. Builth Wells High School is the designate school in mid Wales for Welsh Medium Education. The pupils in the Welsh Medium Stream will most likely have joined the school from the 4 feeder primary schools with Welsh Medium Streams. These are Builth Wells Primary, Ysgol Dolafon (Llanwrtyd Wells), Ysgol Trefonnen (Llandrindod), Ysgol Bryntirion (Rhayader), although occasionally pupils join us from other primary schools.

There is a Welsh Medium Tutor group in each Year. Due to the popularity of Welsh Medium Education, the size of the Tutor groups averages about 18 pupils every year in Key Stage 3, 4 and Year 12 has a Welsh class tutor.

Pupils follow the same curriculum as pupils in the English Stream except they study the following subjects through the Welsh Medium in KS3:

Cymraeg, Science, Geography, History, RE. Music, Design, Art, IT , Literacy and French. In addition, Health & Social and the Welsh Baccalaureate (WBQ) are offered in Welsh at GCSE level.

They are taught as a mixed ability group for these subjects. Our future aim is to enhance the range of subjects available through the medium of Welsh.

Six Welsh Medium A level courses are currently available:
Cymraeg, Bioleg, Cerdd, Daearyddiaeth, Hanes, WBQ.

Class size and teaching resources

Welsh Medium classes are smaller in size than English Medium classes and the number of pupils typically is about 18. As a result of the success and developments in the Primary Welsh Medium sector, our numbers in Welsh medium classes have grown recently. All Welsh Medium subjects are taught by experienced, well qualified and fluent Welsh speaking teachers.

In order to meet the individual needs of every pupil, we are constantly expanding our resource base and an increasing range of new books and teaching materials have been produced. All computers have Cysgair (Welsh-English dictionary), a Welsh grammar and spell checker, and Welsh fonts installed on them.

The suite of Welsh language classrooms occupies the ground floor of the purpose-built new building.

Transport and links with feeder primary schools

Builth Wells High School is the designate school for the provision of Welsh Medium Education in mid Powys and pupils may transfer without charge from Trefonnen, Dolafon, Rhayader and Builth Wells primary schools.
Transport for pupils transferring from these primary schools to the Welsh Medium Education in Builth Wells High School is provided free of charge by Powys County Council.

Extra-curricular opportunities

Pupils in both Welsh Medium and English Medium Education are able to enjoy an excellent range of extra curricular activities. In addition to offering a range of subjects through the medium of Welsh, we encourage pupils to participate in a wide range of extra-curricular activities which promote all aspects of Welsh culture and heritage. Pupils are involved in many kinds of Urdd activities and our Welsh Medium Coordinator makes regular visits to the Primary schools to organise joint projects. For example, a number of pupils and their teachers visited Patagonia to explore the links between Wales and South America. We also welcome a variety of visitors including Welsh poets and authors and we offer extensive links with Welsh speaking organisations in the local community.