Learning from Canada to Strengthen Welsh-medium Education in Wrexham. (Taith Funded Project)

Learning from Canada to Strengthen Welsh-medium Education in Wrexham. (Taith Funded Project)

Wrexham’s Taith Pathway 2 project, “Learning from New Brunswick and Québec, Canada, to Strengthen Welsh-medium Education in Wrexham,” was an ambitious 24-month international collaboration exploring how successful minority-language education systems can inform the continued growth and development of Welsh-medium education and the subsequent cascading of key learning.

Funded by Taith – Wales’ International Learning Exchange Programme

The project was made possible through funding from Taith, enabling school leaders, local authority officers and Welsh immersion practitioners from Wrexham to learn directly from educational partners in New Brunswick and Québec.

This investment provided opportunities to visit schools, immersion centres, universities, research organisations, government departments and community agencies to understand how bilingual education has been successfully developed, sustained and expanded.

Importantly, Taith funding enabled participants to move beyond studying international practice from afar. It created opportunities to engage directly with practitioners, researchers and organisations working within established bilingual education systems and to consider how their successful approaches could be adapted to the Welsh context.

The project focused on language acquisition and immersion, strategic leadership and governance, and community engagement and inclusion. It explored areas including vocabulary and oracy development, language progression, family engagement, Additional Learning Needs, workforce development and the role of communities in sustaining minority languages.

Press release >> https://www.agw.cymru/wrexham-educators-awarded-grant-to-research-bilingual-education-models-in-canada/13

From International Learning to Local Impact

The value of the Taith investment is already being seen across Wrexham. Learning from the project has influenced classroom practice, professional learning and strategic planning, with an increased focus on vocabulary acquisition, oracy and effective immersion methodologies.

The project has directly influenced the learning experiences of approximately 900 primary pupils, 900 secondary pupils and more than 80 learners accessing immersion provision.

It has also directly supported Wrexham’s Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) and contributed to wider professional discussion across Wales about immersion education, language progression and the future development of Welsh-medium education.

Above all, the project demonstrates the power of Taith-funded international collaboration to create meaningful and sustainable change at home. Learning from New Brunswick and Québec will continue to shape practice beyond the lifetime of the project, strengthening Wrexham’s capacity to grow Welsh-medium education and contributing to Wales’ national ambition of one million Welsh speakers by 2050. You can read more in our impact report.

As part of our work, we have collaborated to produce a Parent & Carer booklet to highlight the opportunities of bilingual education.

Continuing the Journey

The learning and impact from the project continue to be disseminated across the Wrexham education community, ensuring that the benefits of the Taith-funded international collaboration extend well beyond those who participated directly. Findings, resources and effective practice are being shared through professional learning, school improvement networks, leadership forums and collaborative opportunities, supporting schools and practitioners to strengthen approaches to Welsh-language acquisition, immersion, oracy and vocabulary development. This ongoing work is helping to build collective capacity across Wrexham and supports the implementation of the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) and the wider ambitions of Cymraeg 2050, contributing to a sustainable increase in the confidence, visibility and use of the Welsh language across schools and communities.

Delegates created presentations to share their learning with colleagues through Network Meetings, Headteacher Conferences and Cymraeg 2050 workshops. You can find our impact report and a collection of presentations below.

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