RJ: "Cwrs Carlam" is a teaching approach
that was designed to enable pupils
who come from English
medium primary schools
to develop the linguistic skills
in the Welsh language
that they're fluent by the time
they leave the comprehensive.
The idea behind it is that
by the time they're in year 9,
so after three years
in a comprehensive school,
the pupils will be in a position
to set their GCSEs in Welsh Language
and they will then go on in year 10 and 11
to study for their AAS and Welsh language.
Beyond that, they will leave
the school when ready
to further education or employment
with the language skill developed.
BW: Well, the Cwrs Carlam obviously
gives the pupils an opportunity
to live themselves
within the Welsh language
and to hear the Welsh language
within a classroom and around school
and the extracurricular activities
that we have on offer
and also to gain
two extra qualifications early.
We have two transition teachers employed
by the school in the primary school
so they're involved with teaching
their pupils on a weekly basis
and they are then involved with
working in collaboration with the primary
school teachers and assessing them
on a termly basis
in the language skills:
reading, writing, and oracy, of course.
With the main emphasis on oracy
within the Key Stage 2.
At the end of year 6,
their results with regards to the key
stage levels in Welsh second language
as well as teacher assessments
across the board in the core subjects,
CAT scores then decide
which pupils are suitable
for the fast-track class.
With any language if it's about speaking
and gaining the confidence
so giving them as enough opportunities
to hear and use the Welsh language
is of the utmost importance,
and that is why we teach those five
other subjects bilingually as well.
that would be history, RE, PE, PSC
so that they can hear
the language all the time.
LC: In doing other subjects
through the medium of Welsh's.
I think has widened
our grasp with that subject
and give us a more
complex grasp with that subject
and then in terms of Welsh
giving us a wide vocabulary.
I think it has definitely improved
my confidence linguistically
and just in communication
and teamwork in skills
FT: I thought it'd be
quite a hard transition
because I'm from
an English-medium primary school
but I found that it was quite easy
because this is not on your own
you've got all the teachers
helping you as well
and then soon you doing subjects
in Welsh like history, geography, and RE.
And soon you remember words in history
like 'canrif' is century
and 'chwyldro' is revolution
so it was much easier
than I thought it was going to be.
BW: The results with regards to Welsh
at Key Stage 3, 4, and 5 are excellent
and, you know, well above national
averages and local authority averages.
So I definitely think that it's benefited
the school and the pupils in general.