Welsh Language

Welsh members have told NCPTA that they place greatest value on resources for PTAs to use with parents being made available in Welsh.

Whilst the Welsh Language Act 1993 does not place a direct legal obligation on voluntary organisations to offer services in Welsh the NCPTA was keen to understand how important it is to Welsh members that we provide bi-lingual resources.

With just under 800 members in Wales and 700 invites issued by email to participate in the survey, we are delighted to have received over 100 responses (a 15% response rate).

The survey found that most PTAs operate using English only including at meetings, for written documentation and to promoting events to parents.  Currently 27% of all active PTA committee members are reported to be Welsh speakers. 

This does rise considerably for the PTA committees of Welsh Medium Schools where 58% of members are reported as Welsh speakers.  The majority of PTAs in Welsh Medium School also tend to operate bilingually.  However, demand for NCPTA to translate resources is only seen as useful by the majority of Welsh Medium School respondents. 

The call for some as opposed to the majority or all of NCPTA’s resources to be produced bilingually is the same across all parts of the Welsh membership with the focus on resources for PTAs to use with parents, Welsh specific news for PTAs and key NCPTA resources.

NCPTA will use the results from the survey to develop a Welsh Language Policy and to consider specific member benefits to assist Welsh members to gain access to translations services.  The new policy will be available to members in the 2009/20010 academic year.

As ever, NCPTA would like to thank all those members who participated in the survey.