FLINTSHIRE COUNCIL ATTACKS WELSH-MEDIUM TEACHING.

It is extremely sad that Flintshire County Council intend to water down the county's current Welsh language provision by amalgamating the Welsh medium primary schools with English schools, effectively taking away our right to choose a Welsh language education for our children. This seems all the more ridiculous when it appears that Ysgol Glanrafon is oversubscribed and that a new Welsh primary school is about to be built in Gwersyllt in the neighbouring county of Wrexham. As a former pupil of Ysgol Glanrafon and Ysgol Maes Garmon, but coming from a mainly English-speaking home, the natural Welsh ethos and community of these schools enabled me to speak the language as fluently as those from Welsh speaking homes and to go on and work successfully as a Welsh Language Officer initially, and now as a Welsh translator. I wonder would this have been possible had I attended a bilingual school? It's vital that we keep Welsh medium education and the Welsh language alive in Flintshire rather than allow it to fade away.