Events

Contents:
1  Our new president  Mr Cennard Davies
2  Cronfa Glyndŵr Biennial Dinner, 14 October 2017 (Synopsis)
3. Cronfa Glyndŵr Biennial Dinner, 24 October 2015 (Synopsis)
4. Cronfa Glyndŵr Biennial Dinner, 12 October 2013
5. Article for Ninnau, the North American Welsh Magazine
6. An electronic copy of a marketing poster – one example

1.  Mr Cennard Davies
It is a privilage to announce  that Mr Cennard Davies is our new president

2  Cronfa Glyndŵr Biennial Dinner, 14 October 2017

Mrs Catrin Stevens and our Guest speaker Dr Hefin Jones

2. A synopsis of Dr Hefin Jones’ address at the 2017 Cronfa Glyndwr Dinner.
It is a pleasure to address you as Dean of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol to celebrate with you the growth in Welsh medium education across all ages and disciplines.    
One of my research students has just submitted his PhD essay in Welsh – the first of the 36 PhD students I have supervised to do so.  In his remarks, he wrote: “This essay marks the final stage in my formal education, an education I have been privileged to receive in Welsh.” 
I was educated in Llandysul Grammar School in the 1970s.  Thanks to the efforts of the Welsh teachers, Miss Caron Jones and Mrs Janem Jones, our RE teacher who also taught Welsh History to Year 2, Mr Baker Jones, and the leadership of our Head Teacher, Mr Arwyn Pierce, we were made very proud to be Welsh in Llandysul.  Even though lessons were through the medium of English, the school fostered a love for our language and culture in its pupils. 
In his Pennal Letter, Owain Glyndŵr set out his vision for two universities in Wales.  I feel that the work of the Coleg Cymraeg shares Owain Glyndŵr’s aspirations for a strong nation.  Another important Welshman was William Salesbury.  His interests included science, theology, law, language and literature.  His greatest accomplishment was translating the New Testament into Welsh.  Its publication in 1567 lay down the foundations for written Welsh.  It is therefore appropriate, over 450 years later, that the motto of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol is ‘Mynnwch ddysg yn ych iaith/Insist on education in your language’.
I could spend much more time looking back at developments over the centuries since the Pennal Letter and the translation of the New Testament in the struggle to ensure education in our mother tongue.  Many of you will have witnessed the campaigns of the Welsh Language Society and Dafydd Glyn Jones’ and his fight for a Federal Welsh College. Despite these efforts, at the turn of the century, even though we had made great strides in primary and secondary education, higher education was still very slow in its development and relied heavily on the good will of individuals and ad hoc developments lacking any sense of national strategic planning. 
However, between 2007 and 2011, establishing the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol became part of Welsh Assembly Government’s policy via the One Wales agreement.  Professor Robin Williams, a former Vice-Chancellor at Swansea University, was invited to set up a committee to consider the possibilty of setting up the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol.  I was invited to become a member of this committee and for me personally things haven’t been the same since.  Allow me to explain.  At the time, I wasn’t fully supportive of the concept of a Welsh medium National College.  Even though I had made sure that Welsh medium provision was available for biologists in Cardiff University since arriving there in 2000, formalising the process made me – for some reason – feel a little uncomfortable.  When Professor Robin Williams rang me to ask me to join the committee, my instinctive response was to say that it wouldn’t be appropriate because of the doubts I had about the development.  “I know”, replied the Professor, “that’s why I want you to be a member!”
I joined the committee and we submitted our report by June 2009.  The Education Minister accepted the main recommendations in December 2009 and an Executive Board chaired by Geraint Talfan Davies was set up in April 2010.  This was an exciting time as we set about to deliver on Professor Robin Williams’ recommendations – we discussed should there be a Head, how could we get the support and ownership of the Universities, and what should be call the new body.  In March 2011, the Coleg’s Board of Directors was established and the first students enrolled in September that year. 
What is the Coleg Cymraeg trying to do?  Since its establishment in 2011, the Colle has strived to provide more opportunities for students to study through the medium of Welsh in partnership with the universities; it has funded, developed and trained Welsh medium lecturers, and has funded under-graduate and post-graduate scholarships.  Through its network of branches in the eight universities, the Coleg has provided support for students following Welsh medium courses and has worked hard to increase the number of students choosing to study in Welsh.  Hand in hand with this, the Coleg has developed modules, courses and resources of the highest standard for Welsh medium students. 
Has the Coleg succeeded?  The first funding period was over five years between 2011 and 2016.  During that time 115 lecturing posts were created, over 6,000 students were enrolled to study at least some of their course through the medium of Welsh and over 2,500 students studied at least a third of their course in Welsh.  Branches of the Coleg were set up in the eight universities, 27 substantial strategic projects were funded in at least 15 different disciplines, and over 700 digital resources were created. On top of this, over 50 Research Scholarships were funded and joint provision across universities was developed in Geography, Law, Modern Languages, Music and the Creative Industries.  During the last academic year, over 2,000 new students enrolled in the Coleg. A Welsh Language Skills Certificate was developed which is recognised by a number of companies in Wales as an acceptable standard for Welsh Language skills.  The academic journal Gwerddon publishes academic articles across disciplines. 
In August 2016, the Cabinet Secretary for Education set up a Task and Finish Group under the leadership of  Delyth Evans to review the work of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol. The Group’s task was to look at the feasibility of extending the Coleg’s remit and consider: is the current model and structure of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol appropriate and suitable for promoting and developing Welsh medium provision within Higher Education from 2017 on; what are the options for funding the Coleg; how sustainable is the relationship between the Coleg and HE establishments in Wales; should the remit include the post-16 sector; a what is the Coleg’s role in light of the Diamond Report and other recent policy initiatives.  The report produced was very positive about the achievements of the Coleg and there were 25 recommendations.  The most far-reaching was the recommendation that the Coleg should be responsible for the development of the Welsh Language across higher education, further education and Work Based Learning. 
To return to higher education, what is the current situation?  Has the battle been won and are we certain that there will be many more students who can say that they have received all their formal education through the medium of Welsh, like my PhD student?  It wasn’t an easy task to set up the Coleg and many staff have walked many extra miles, in particular Ioan Matthews, the Chief Executive, and Dafydd Trystan, Dylan Phillips and Gwennan Schiavone, the Academic Senior Management Team.  But challenges remain. 
We have seen an increase in the numbers studying through the medium of Welsh.  In my own University in Cardiff, the number studying 40 credits, one third of the course, has increased 126% over five years.  But, and this is an important but, only one in five of fluent Welsh language speakers choose to study 40 credits in Welsh.  In my discipline, Biological Sciences, only 3 out of 17 students who did their A levels in Welsh have taken the opportunity to study any aspect of their course in Welsh. And only 3 others, out of the 32 who are able to speak Welsh have joined them.  One must ask why.   And one must also question why there isn’t a higher take up from schools which have been categorised as Welsh medium schools?  The situation is different in some disciplines, for example the School of Journalism in Cardiff is far more successful and has a high percentage of students following their courses through the medium of Welsh. 
To turn back to Biology, anecdotal evidence suggests that students don’t want to be different to the 550 students in Year 1 Biology and that they feel that Welsh was something for school.  We must ask how schools where there is a high percentage of pupils from non-Welsh speaking homes tackle the issue of instilling a feeling of Welshness and loyalty to the language in their pupils? On the other hand, there are schools whose pupils always insist on following as many credits as possible through the medium of Welsh.  I could name one school in North Wales whose four pupils have come to study Biology have registered for every module available in Welsh and have sat every examination in Welsh. What is the reason?  The influence of a teacher?  A Welsh speaking community?  This should be a research area for someone.    
Even if every fluent Welsh speaking student enrolled to follow a Welsh medium module, we have to accept the fact that, in a number of disciplines, the numbers would still be small.  We have examples from every higher education institution which show how many students are needed to make a module economically viable and they are higher than any Welsh medium module could recruit.  This is true of the School of Biosciences in Cardiff but thanks to the support of the Head of School, I am allowed to hold classes with numbers which would never be allowed in an English module.  Unfortunately, heads like this are rare across Wales’ universities. 
Staying with sciences, English is the language of science.  For lecturers who are also researchers there are a number of challenges.  Our academic contribution is calculated through our publications in journals with a high impact factor, and these journals are English Language.  Who therefore is going to publish in a Welsh journal which will not be recognised?  The Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol must be praised for ensuring that articles in Gwerddon would be counted as part of the Research Excellence Framework.  However, it is more difficult to persuade heads of departments and universities that Gwerddon is an acceptable publication. 
There are still great challenges but we must persevere.  I have been in Cardiff University for eighteen years.  I previously spent eighteen years studying and working in Kings College and Imperial College in London.  When I was looking for a university, I knew that I wanted to go to a city.  I had interviews in Cardiff and London and back in 1979 there was very little difference between them linguistically, in my opinion.  There was very little Welsh in Cardiff.  But it is now a very different story.  The Vice Chancellor in Cardiff is very supportive of Welsh and there are changes afoot; we receive bilingually monthly messages from him, alternating Welsh and English first.  This year, we have seen the launch of Cardiff Union of Welsh Students, and the Welsh Society and Cymdeithas Iolo are flourishing – both in terms of events and membership.  Without a doubt, the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and its branch within the university, have been instrumental in many of these developments.  Another important development is the establishment of a branch of Coleg Cymraeg at Prifysgol Glyndŵr so that students and staff there have greater access to Welsh language courses and resources.  We are on a journey and there is no doubt that there is a long road ahead before we achieve our aim of first class Welsh medium education for all the students in Wales.  Higher education institutions are slow to change, and with funding and league tables of paramount importance, bilingualism isn’t high on the agenda.
Being Dean of the Coleg Cymraeg is one of the greatest honours I have had. The last few years have been really exciting.  They have been eye openers – both in a positive and negative way.  Every year I visit each higher education institution and some further education colleges too – it is called the Dean’s tour!   Witnessing the enthusiasm of our academic staff, who often have to face challenges unknown to their non-Welsh speaking colleagues, seeing the technical developments in Welsh language education, and the perseverance of staff is touching.  In classes full of committed students I witness lectures and discussions on topics as varied as Brexit, drama and forensic science...all in Welsh. 

3. Cronfa Glyndŵr Biennial Dinner, 24 October 2015

Our Chairman Gerald Latter, with our special guest, Professor Laura McAllister

3. The 2015 Cronfa Glyndŵr Dinner (Synopsis)

At Cronfa Glyndŵr’s biennial dinner on 24 October 2015, held at Radyr Golf Club, the audience of nearly a hundred was enthralled by the guest speaker’s address. Professor Laura McAllister is Professor of Governance at Liverpool University, and also Chair of Sports Wales. She drew on her experience in both fields to present a compelling and timely message.
                        Laura has studied the political scene in Wales for almost twenty years and her research work on devolution is internationally acclaimed. She is also an international athlete, having represented her country with the Welsh Ladies’ Soccer Team. She was therefore able to speak from experience, and with authority.
                        The main theme of Laura’s address was the future place of Wales within the emerging United Kingdom. There are great changes on the way and she voiced concern that there were certain factions who are not prepared to accept the new political reality, adhering to the out-dated concept of the Union where the Government’s sovreignty is supreme, all countries being subordinate, with England and Britain being synonymous.
            But if Wales is to be taken seriously in the new union which is inevitably developing, then we as a nation need a more united vision of the future we would wish for our country, we need more competent and more confident leadership, and we need to be prepared to be more critical – of others and ourselves, in a positive and constructive way. As with sport, she said, our Welsh athletes would not have gained the confidence required to succeed as they have without regular competition at international level and against opponents of the highest calibre.     
            She maintained that in Wales we are faced with a crisis as far as leadership in general is concerned – and one of the main problems is the under-use of women. Although some progress has been made in this field, she produced some revealing statistics:

• fewer than a quarter of our Members of Parliament are women;
• of the top 100 companies in Wales, only two women hold the position of Chief Executive;
• 98% of engineering trainees in Wales are men;
• a gap of 17% between men and women’s salaries.

 
            “This is a wate of resources,” she maintained. “If we are to be stronger, we must use all the talent we have in Wales, not just a fraction of it. We must develop a form of public leadership that is pioneering, ambitious and excellent, based on confidence, a desire to achieve, and a touch of positively channelled asperity. It will involve asking some awkward and difficult questions, but all based on personal challenge which, as it happens, faces us each day in sport – how prepared are we in Wales to be the best?
            Laura gave a detailed account of how Sports Wales have put Wales at the top of international success. ”We use our resources efficiently to spot sporting talent at the youngest age, we nurture it and provide coaching ... to ensure that no mistakes are made in the process of producing the next generation of champions.”
            But she also explained that Wales was at the forefront in involving ordinary people in physical activities, leading to a healthier life-style. There is not enough space here to record her full account of how this has been achieved, but the main point was that Wales has ventured to develop a policy which is different to all the other countries in the UK – making use of more ’unconventional’ means of attracting people to sport of all kinds.
                        Statistics were produced to show that Wales’s athletes are already a huge success on the world stage. Not only have they challenged the world, they have actually won notable victories, displaying great skill and self-belief. Laura’s message was that we must do the same in other walks of life, beyond the world of sport.
                        “If we want to achieve a different future for Wales, we must all set higher targets for the establishments in which we work, extending and widening our political and personal horizons. We must nurture citizens, men and women, who are ambitious, inspired and self-critical. Then perhaps we will have the leadership we need, and the success our talented nation deserves.”

4.  Cronfa Glyndŵr Biennial Dinner, 12 October 2013

Guest speaker Prof. Richard Wyn Jones (left) and Gerald Latter, Cronfa Glyndwr Chairman, with Mrs. Gwenda Williams, widow of the late Rev. Ifan R. Williams who was one of our first Honorary Vice Presidents



PROF. RICHARD WYN JONES’S ADDRESS (synopsis)

It was frustration with the Education Authorities to respond to parents’ demand for Welsh-medium education that prompted Trefor and Gwyneth Morgan to set up Cronfa Glyndŵr yr Ysgolion Cymraeg in 1963, with the aim of promoting the development of Welsh-medium schools throughout Wales.

Although the situation is still fraught with frustrations of all kinds, Prof. Richard Wyn Jones maintained that huge strides had been taken since 1963. He said that much of the progress was due to the actions of Cymdeithas yr Iaith, the Welsh Language Society, and that we should be proud to be associated with that campaign.

By now, the public attitude towards the language is much more positive, and it is regarded as a valuable asset, something to be proud of. 80% of the population in Wales would like to see more being done to promote the language. The growth of Welsh-medium education in recent years is a fantastic phenomenon, he said, with greater opportunities than ever before for parents to take advantage of the provision.

But yet there are still challenges to me met. Prof. Jones argued that there is a need for a wider campaign. For example, why is Gwynedd County Council more successful in safeguarding the language than Carmarthen and Ceredigion?

Another aspect of the language campaign is to safeguard standards.  Prof. Jones said there was ample evidence that standards were slipping, with more and more English words and phrases becoming part of every-day speech. Some people may argue, he said, that Welsh of any standard was better than no Welsh at all. But for others, the decline in standard was a worrying factor. The development of IT, the social media and games and apps provided another challenge. The dominant language in this field is English; its influence is tremendous, and we need to be aware of the situation.
     
Despite the huge developments in recent years, there is a danger of being too sentimental; how successful has the campaign been in reality? There is so much left to achieve! We must make a realistic assessment of the situation, and develop a new strategy for the future.

Since the 1979 referendum there has emerged a new political consensus in favour of a bilingual Wales. But there is an irony in that whilst we have gained a number of Welsh institutions, we have not used them to their full potential, and that can be regarded as a failure. We need to take stock; we need to plan how to utilise the institutions that have been created. This will involve the strategy of ‘lobbying’ – and this strategy must involve the older generation as much as the young people of Wales. “We must use our democratic rights to further the cause of the Welsh language,” said Prof. Richard Wyn Jones. “We must stop blaming others. If we don’t demand Welsh-medium services – and use them – then we cannot blame anyone but ourselves if we lose those services.”

5. Article for Ninnau, the North American Welsh Magazine

By Bryan James, October 2014 (actually published in the March 2015 issue)

50 years on – and still the battle continues! 

An example of a pamphlet published by Mudiad Ysgolion Meithryn / Menter Iaith Rhondda Cynon Taf with a donation of £1000 presented by Cronfa Glyndwr

bod_yn_ddwyieithog._being_bilingual_1.pdf
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Background
When the official channels of government ignore the just and reasonable wishes of the people, what can you do? Well, in the early 1400s, Owain Glyndŵr went to battle! In the early 1960s the battle was of a different nature. There was a growing demand throughout Wales for increased provision of education through the medium of Welsh – but the Local Education Authorities (LEAs) were reticent or dismissive in their response.

 

Out of pure frustration, in 1963, Cronfa Glyndŵr yr Ysgolion Cymraeg (The Glyndŵr Trust for Welsh Schools – and the name is significant) was set up with the specific aim of promoting and facilitating the establishment of Welsh-medium schools. The Trust was the brainchild of Trefor Morgan, a successful entrepreneur in the Insurance Industry, and his educationalist wife, Gwyneth.

 

One of the Trust’s first projects was the establishment of a Welsh-medium secondary boarding school at Bridgend, some twenty miles west of Cardiff. This was a very new concept for Welsh-medium education! But, as it was beginning to gain acceptance, Trefor Morgan sadly died at the untimely age of 56, the funds dried up and the establishment had to close.

 

However, the Trust then channelled its energy and funds into helping groups of parents to pressurise the LEAs into providing the education they were demanding for their children. The Trust doesn’t claim to be solely responsible for the phenomenal growth in the provision of Welsh-medium education since those early days, but its contribution has been significant.

 

The current situation
At a fund-raising dinner on 12 October 2013 to mark the Trust’s fiftieth anniversary, the guest speaker was Professor Richard Wyn Jones, Director of the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University. In a powerful message he said that since the ‘No’ vote in the Referendum on Welsh Devolution in 1979, there had been a sea-change in the public attitude towards the Welsh language, with more than 80% now in favour of more being done to safeguard its future.

 

This is certainly reflected in the explosion in parental demand for Welsh-medium education in the last twenty years, especially in the more anglicised parts of Wales – the Northeast and the Southeast – areas where there is a ‘lost generation’ of Welsh speakers. Some of the LEAs are responding, albeit reluctantly, and several primary and secondary schools have been opened – but still the supply falls way below demand, and parents in all parts of the country still have to ‘do battle’ with the authorities. Early in 2014 the Welsh Government demanded that each LEA produced an official Strategic Plan for Welsh-medium Education. All these plans have been approved by the Government and are now in place. This is a significant step forward – but it remains to be seen how well they are implemented in the next few years!

 

The 2011 Census figures show that only 19% of the country’s population are able to speak Welsh – down 2% on the figures of 2001. This has sparked a Welsh Government-backed National Debate on the future of the Welsh language. Economic and social factors – employment, housing and population movement – are now acknowledged as being of vital importance to the survival of Welsh-speaking communities. However, one interesting and encouraging statistic is that of the 19% who are Welsh speakers, 30% are aged between 3 and 15! This would indicate that education has a vital role to play in future plans for the language – and this is why we believe that Cronfa Glyndŵr’s contribution is important.

 

There are other organisations working towards the same end, notably Mudiad Meithrin (Nursery Movement) and Rhieni Dros Addysg Gymraeg (Parents for Welsh-medium Education). Cronfa Glyndŵr works closely with these bodies to decide where to make donations.

 

Since 2012 a sum of more than £10,000 has been distributed to various recipients, with donations ranging from £150 to small nursery groups to help buy essential resources, to £900 towards marketing projects to promote Welsh-medium education in certain areas. Individual donations may be small but they are much appreciated and reports show that they do ‘make a difference’ – which is our motto.

 

More information about our activities is available on our website, www.cronfaglyndwr.cymru   

 

Funds
The Trust is a registered charity and the original Trust fund, augmented by later donations and bequests, has been carefully invested in Stocks and Shares so as to yield an annual income. We also receive gifts and donations amounting to around £2,000 per annum. We try to ‘live within our means’ without delving too much into our ‘capital reserves’, but this is becoming more difficult as the country’s general economic situation is tightening.

 

Any donations are greatly appreciated and can be made via bank transactions using the following information.

Name of Charity: Cronfa Glyndwr yr Ysgolion Cymraeg

Name of recipient bank: Swansea Building Society:

IBAN: GB84 BARC 2084 4103 9568 73

 Swift Code: BARCGB22

 Reference: 32013079002

 

Diolch yn fawr am eich diddordeb yng ngwaith Cronfa Glyndŵr.
Mae sefyllfa addysg trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg yn sicr wedi gwella yn ystod y blynyddoedd diwethaf ond mae’r hen ddihareb yn dal yn wir: ‘Nid da lle gellir gwell’. Rhaid dal ati i frwydro am ein hawliau, ac mae’n rhoi boddhad i ni feddwl bod ein cyfraniad at yr achos yn ‘gwneud gwahaniaeth’.

6. An electronic copy of a marketing poster – one example