Porthcawl Welsh-medium seedling school proposals continue to make progress

Plans for Porthcawl’s first ever Welsh-medium seedling school have progressed to the next stage after Bridgend County Borough Council’s Cabinet approved the outcome of a recent public consultation.

Views were sought from a wide variety of participants including parents, pupils, teaching staff, governors, Welsh in Education Forum members, local childcare providers, the general public and Porthcawl Town Council.

The proposed seedling school is a ‘starter class’ with 30 full-time equivalent nursery places and 30 Reception places.

It is planned that the seedling school will be operated and governed by Ysgol y Ferch o’r Sgȇr, and pupils would transition to that school at Year 1 to conclude their primary education.

This will be until a Welsh-medium primary school is established in Porthcawl as part of a future band of the school modernisation programme, which Cabinet approved in principle back in 2020.

Porthcawl was also previously identified as a key location that would benefit from Welsh-medium childcare provision. It was considered that such facilities would help support transition from childcare into Welsh-medium primary school education.

The proposed childcare facility will have capacity for 16 full-time (32 part-time) childcare places, together with 6 places for 0 to 2 provision offering full care from potentially birth to four years-old. This includes afterschool and holiday provision, to offer full wrap-around care via the medium of Welsh. It is planned that this facility will be operated by a private provider.

It is currently estimated that if the proposal progresses to completion, the new provision would be likely to open in September 2025.

There is a strong Welsh language community in Porthcawl, and the proposal of a new Welsh-medium seedling school shows our commitment to growing the Welsh language throughout the county borough as a whole.

I’d also like to thank everyone who contributed throughout this important consultation process and it’s really pleasing that such a wide variety of people shared their views.

Cllr Jon-Paul Blundell, Cabinet Member for Education