Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle, was warmly welcomed to Tonyrefail Community School on Tuesday, September 24, to see in person the fantastic language learning going on in partnership with Cardiff University’s School of Modern Languages.
The Cabinet Minister was welcomed by Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, Inclusion, and the Welsh Language, Councillor Rhys Lewis, were they had the chance to see Cardiff University’s Modern Foreign Language (MFL) mentoring programme in action.
Cardiff University’s MFL programme involves training university students to mentor learners in years 8 and 9 and support them as they prepare to choose their GCSE options. The programme helps learners to consider choosing modern languages as one of their GCSEs by teaching them the benefits of learning languages, which is an initiative that Tonyrefail Community School, alongside other RCT schools, has benefited from.
This year, nine secondary schools from RCT are working with the MFL project: Bryncelynnog Comprehensive School, Cardinal Newman RC, Porth Community School, Tonyrefail Community School, Treorchy Comprehensive School, Y Pant Comprehensive, Ysgol Garth Olwg, Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhondda, Ysgol Llanhari.
Schools are able to make applications to work with the project on a yearly basis. The project is funded annually by Welsh Government under the Global Futures strategy and currently in its tenth year, working across nine Higher Education Institutes in Wales: Cardiff University, Aberystwyth University, Swansea University, Bangor University, University of South Wales, University of Wales Trinity St David, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wrecsam University, and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. University students apply to participate with the project and are then trained by the project team to mentor.
During the visit, Tonyrefail Community School impressed the Cabinet Secretary with a tour of the 3-19 through school and showed a live demonstration of a mentoring session between year 8 and two Cardiff University students, Jake and Holly, who are Modern Foreign Language mentors for the MFL programme. The Cabinet Secretary then met with year 10, who spoke of the benefits they’ve gained from the programme and who were keen to learn about the Cabinet Secretary’s time studying in Florence, Italy, and how this benefited her educational and personal journey through life.
Reflecting on their time during the mentoring programme, leaners said that they felt comfortable connecting with their MFL mentors. They expressed that being similar in age meant that they were able to connect on their educational journeys and able to find out more about university in general in a relaxed environment and how the mentors use languages to excel in and out of the classroom. The learners proceeded to say that the mentoring programme helped them make clear decisions when it came to their GCSE choices, and were confident to choose their favourite language to excel in. Some learners are already considering where they would like to study abroad!
Gareth Pope, Headteacher of Tonyrefail Community School, said: “It was lovely to watch the interactions between the Cabinet Secretary and our learners as they shared stories and experiences of how languages had benefitted them personally and their enjoyment of learning languages.
“The partnership between the school and Cardiff University has been a huge success and credit must be given to Mrs Humphries and her team at Tonyrefail Community School for the passion and drive to ensure learning experiences in languages continue to be fun and engaging for all learners.
Our learners have once again shown that they are a credit to the school, demonstrating that they have a genuine love of languages and learning”.
Councillor Rhys Lewis, Rhondda Cynon Taf Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, Inclusion and the Welsh Language, Said: “The visit was a huge success and really showcased the benefit of the MFL programme. It was great to see that the pupils at Tonyrefail Community School are thriving and really enjoyed the opportunity. They were proud to show us their language skills Providing learners with access to languages is vital, and it was clear that the school really supports this programme and can see the benefits of it. The Council would like to thank both Cardiff University’s School of Modern Languages and Welsh Government for making this project possible.”
