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North Wales Chronicle
16-05-2025
- North Wales Chronicle
Neil Foden: Gwynedd Council says ‘positive progress' made in response
Foden, 67, who was head of Ysgol Friars and strategic head of Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle, was jailed for 17 years last July for 19 counts of sexual abuse involving four child victims between 2019 and 2023. It was one year ago yesterday (May 15) that he was convicted of these charges, after a three-week trial at Mold Crown Court. The council said stakeholders have been informed this week that 'positive progress' has been made on several work streams including responding immediately to the recommendations of a specialist safeguarding barrister. These steps include: These developments come in the wake of the 'response plan', adopted by Gwynedd Council's cabinet in January. The aim of this plan is to set out the range of procedures and arrangements that the council will be implementing internally to: The council said: 'One of the tasks within the plan was to commission an independent barrister who specialises in safeguarding investigations to carry out an investigation into the specific incidents in 2019 highlighted during Neil Foden's criminal trial. 'This detailed work is now complete. 'The full report has been sent immediately to the independent investigators of the statutory Child Practice Review, which is being carried out by the North Wales Safeguarding Board. 'The content of the report will feed into the conclusions and recommendations of the review. 'Alongside this, Cyngor Gwynedd has received legal advice from independent experts on the next steps. 'As a result, the council's elected members have received all of the inquiry's recommendations and an update on how the council will be putting them into action.' Council leader, Cllr Nia Jeffreys, said: 'Neil Foden's horrific crimes continue to have a far-reaching impact on the people and communities of Gwynedd. 'The victims and their families remain in our thoughts as we investigate what went wrong and what more we can do to ensure children are safe in our schools. 'While we cannot undo the effects of Neil Foden's horrific crimes, as a council, we are determined to use this serious case to identify and learn lessons and use them to strengthen our arrangements. 'Our aim is to ensure that we have the best possible safeguarding arrangements to protect the young people of Gwynedd and which can also be of use to other councils across Wales. 'Creating the response plan back in December was the beginning of the journey. Since then, we have made progress in a short space of time with all the work streams, but we are fully aware that there is more hard work ahead especially when we receive the recommendations of the statutory Child Practice Review in the autumn.' Dafydd Gibbard, chief executive of Gwynedd Council, added: 'As a council, we have made it clear that we will leave no stone unturned in the search for answers and to learn and improve. 'The response plan helps us with this by setting out in a single document the measures that have been put in place. 'Council officers immediately started to implement the recommendations made by the independent specialist barrister who looked into specific incidents in 2019. 'In addition, the investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office has been completed and we have updated our Freedom of Information procedures. 'The council's scrutiny committee has started its investigation into safeguarding arrangements in our schools, and an independent investigation into a report commissioned by an independent complaints panel has been completed and will be shared with councillors soon. 'There is much more to do, and we won't rest until we are satisfied that everything possible has been done.'
BBC News
16-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Gwynedd: Fears Welsh teaching plan will hit recruitment
Phasing out teaching in English in one county could worsen a "crisis" in recruiting and retaining teachers, an education union has one of two counties where Welsh is spoken by the majority of people, laid out plans to phase out English-medium streams from the vast majority of secondary schools in a new draft Gwynedd said it was part of an effort to bolster the use of Welsh in a council meeting has heard it was already difficult to attract staff to the county and, nationally, teachers were leaving the profession "in droves". The comments were made during a debate over the draft revised education language policy last council is aiming for 70% of lessons to be taught in Welsh but the branch secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), Elise Poulter, has raised concerns over training, funding and the impact on the Welsh language immersion is already the predominant medium of teaching for across Gwynedd, but schools including Bangor's Ysgol Friars, Catholic primary Our Lady's School and Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn, are "transitioning" towards full Welsh medium provision. Ms Poulter asked the education and economy scrutiny committee meeting if there was provision for teachers who do not teach in Welsh to go on courses to "up-skill".Report author Rhys Meredydd Glyn, head of Gwynedd's immersion education system, said the council was "collaborating with" the National Centre for Learning courses were "tailored" for teachers in specific schools and there would also be tutors appointed for a catchment or school cluster, as well as courses geared towards teaching different subjects in Welsh, he said. Children coming from non-Welsh speaking areas could also be referred to the immersion education system, but he acknowledged it needed "the capacity to accept incomers and late comers". 'We will have to be patient' Mr Meredydd Glyn said there were "a wide range of courses available from the national centre" but Ms Poulter said she feared these measures would not stem the numbers of people leaving teaching."I do think we have to be realistic, in teaching we have a retention and recruitment crisis," she said."We want really really good teachers. I think any teacher who comes here would welcome the opportunity to learn Welsh fluently... But it will take time."Councillor Dewi Jones agreed that recruiting teachers was a "general problem".After the meeting, Ms Poulter told the Local Democracy Reporting Serviceday-release programme for this, with payment for staff cover" to achieve the goal.
BBC News
03-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Gwynedd: Bid to slash English-medium lessons to bolster Welsh in schools
English-medium education could be slashed in a part of Wales in an effort to bolster the use of Welsh language in one of two counties where Welsh is spoken by the majority of residents, plans to phase out English-medium streams from the vast majority of secondary new draft council policy from Cyngor Gwynedd would expect pupils to follow at least 70% of the curriculum in Welsh. The current arrangements expect a minimum of 60% of pupils to do council said the proposals would "remove bilingualism and bilingual teaching" as Welsh becomes "the principal language of education". One Gwynedd councillor said while children's English skills "develop quite naturally" due to the influence of largely English-speaking media, many needed extra help with their Welsh due to a "changing world".The plans have come under attack by the Welsh Conservatives, with the party's leader describing them as "axing the opportunity for parents and pupils to choose to be educated in English". The changes would primarily impact secondary but two of the county's 13 schools are already designated as "Category 3" Welsh-medium. This requires schools to offer "at least 60% of learners undertaking at least 70% of their school activities in Welsh".But the plans would effectively scrap English-medium streams, meaning all pupils would be expected to follow 70% of the curriculum through the medium of Welsh. Ysgol Friars in Bangor and Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn are designated T3 schools, which means they are in transition to become Welsh medium. They would not be immediately Gwynedd remains a Welsh language heartland, the percentage of Welsh speakers has 1981, 76.2% of its population could speak Welsh, but by 2021 this had fallen to 64.4%.The numbers also fluctuate within the county, as the city of Bangor and some coastal communities tend to have less Welsh speakers compared to the Seiont ward in Caernarfon and Llanrug. In Bangor, Gwynedd's only city, there was largely a positive reaction to the proposals."It would be good thing to be honest," said Callum Marler, who lives in Llandudno."I don't speak Welsh and I've lived here my whole life, I think it is a good idea."I did Welsh in school, I didn't really pay much attention but I should have… it's the language of the country," he said. Tony Walkden said he felt parents should be entitled to send their children to an English-medium school if they wish."In education I think it should be English, I agree that Welsh should be a strong language within this country," he said. "I've got grandchildren that are fluent in both languages. I think you should have a choice." Mared Rhys, a first-language Welsh speaker, said she agreed with what the authority wants to do."Its important that the language is promoted and that children leave school confident in their Welsh and English. I think its to be welcomed," she said. Student Jade Lambsale believed that leaving school bilingual had its benefits."I guess having English as a second language is very useful," she said. "I grew up in Italy so having two languages under your belt at such a young age is extremely useful to have."Having a bilingual brain helps you speak other languages in turn."Her friend, Georgina Mee, added: "I guess it can be difficult with science-based subjects because they'll probably have to travel for higher education."There's only a couple of [universities] in Wales and they often don't offer the subject in Welsh, so to progress you often do need the vocabulary in English as well." The draft measures "would not mean overnight changes" and would be subject to scrutiny and public consultation, the Plaid Cymru-run authority said. But the county's education portfolio holder, councillor Dewi Jones, said a revamp of the existing policy was overdue."There have been linguistic changes in the county and the lives of young people are very different now compared to 1984," he said."English, as a subject, will continue to be taught in English of course and parts of other subjects as well as extra-curricular activities." But Conservatives' Senedd leader Darren Millar said there was a "danger" the policy could "push people away from the Welsh language". "Axing the opportunity for parents and pupils to choose to be educated in English-medium schools is totally unacceptable," he said."While I fully support access to Welsh medium education in all parts of Wales, linguistic zealots should remember that there are two official languages in our country that all local councils and education authorities should cater for; English and Welsh." Gwynedd's cabinet member for education said the Welsh language immersion system for non-Welsh speaking newcomers would remain unchanged. "The current emphasis is on bilingual learning but we're moving towards a system of Welsh-medium education," said Jones. "Of course not all schools are at the same stage of the process and they will be ready to offer these changes at different points."He added support would be offered to Ysgol Friars and Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn as well as Bangor's Catholic Our Lady's School in the primary sector as they "continue on their journey" to eventually becoming designated Welsh-medium schools."We do have some non-Welsh speaking teachers who are already learning, it is not practical to change things overnight," he added. In the primary sector all pre-school and foundation phase education until the end of Year 2 will be through the medium of Year 3 onwards English would be introduced but at least 80% of pupils' education would be in Welsh, under the new and young people with additional learning needs would receive "equal linguistic opportunities in accordance with the policy".
