A FILM FROM WALES: WELSH IDENTITY AND THE CHILDREN’S FILM FOUNDATION

This article examines the work of the Children’s Film Foundation (CFF) in Wales. The CFF was founded in 1951 to make films for children and supported a network of Saturday morning cinema clubs which were popular until the 1970s. While considering the role of these clubs in Wales, the article focuses on CFF films with a specific Welsh dimension, particularly A Letter from Wales (1953), which was released in English- and Welsh-language versions. Made by the independent producer Brunner Lloyd, the film illustrates prevailing stereotypes of Wales and the Welsh. The article makes the case for its significance in establishing a lyrical image of rural Welsh life

Welsh-medium Education Strategy (information document)

"This Strategy sets out the ambition of the Welsh Assembly Government for a country where Welsh-medium education and training are integral parts of the education nfrastructure. We want to ensure that our education system makes it possible for more learners of all ages to acquire a wider range of language skills in Welsh. This will enable them to use the language in their personal lives, socially and in the workplace. We want to see a system which is responsive to public demand for an increase in Welsh-medium provision." - introduction

Welsh-medium education strategy : annual report 2010–11

"The Welsh-medium Education Strategy was published by the Welsh Government in April 2010 in fulfilment of a One Wales commitment to ‘create a national Welsh-medium Education Strategy to develop effective provision from nursery through to further and higher education, backed by an implementation programme’. An evaluation framework has been commissioned by the DfES Social Research team for this long-term strategy. Following the work on the evaluation framework, a three-year full evaluation from autumn 2011 onwards will research and evaluate the Strategy and a number of specific interventions. Work has progressed steadily during 2010–11, the first year of implementation of the Strategy, and has been monitored quarterly by a Project Management Board within DfES. In addition, a Ministerial advisory group for the Strategy has met to discuss a draft of this annual report and issues related to progress on implementation of the Strategy. Good progress on preparing for changes in methods of implementation has been achieved. Steps have been taken to establish new Welsh in Education Strategic Plans which will build on existing Welsh Education Schemes to enable streamlined focus by local authorities on the Strategy’s targets. Progress has been made in providing more targeted support to the post-16 sector to develop Welsh-medium and bilingual provision. Raising standards in Welsh first and second language is emphasised and has led to some developments which will be further implemented. Improving the Welsh-language and methodological skills of the education workforce will be key to achieving higher levels in Welsh-language, Welsh-medium and bilingual provision. The Sabbaticals Scheme training has been successfully piloted at foundation level and has been expanded to provide a national network of courses at three levels. This first annual report outlines the key developments and progress with implementation to date against each of the six strategic aims. The detail of progress towards the five-year outcome targets is also provided, though it should be noted that the latest data from 2009–10 provides only a very early indication of progress made in the context of the Strategy." - page 3

Good practice guide for sector and standard setting bodies (guidance)

"This guide is for sector and standards setting bodies to assist them in determining the demand for Welsh language skills, Welsh translations of national occupational standards (NOS) and vocational qualifications (VQs) through the medium of Welsh." - overview

Psychological types of bilingual and monolingual female undergraduate students in Wales

The aim of this study was to complete the psychological type profiles of bilingual (fluent Welsh speakers) and monolingual (nonWelsh-speakers) students in Wales. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® instrument was completed by 425 female undergraduate students attending a university-sector college in Wales that exercises a bilingual policy (English and Welsh). From the total sample, 102 subjects identified themselves as fluent Welsh-speakers (bilinguals) and 101 as nonWelsh-speakers (monolinguals). The remaining 222 were Welsh learners and were excluded from the analyses of the present study. SRTT analyses revealed that in the study sample, the bilingual students demonstrated significantly more frequent preferences for Extraversion and for Sensing compared with the monolingual students

Opening schools in extreme bad weather: guidance for schools (Information document)

This is a joint publication from the Welsh Assembly Government and the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), and provides "advice about what to consider when deciding if a school should close or stay open during extreme bad weather." - Overview

Organic Centre Wales Factsheet 19: Building markets for Welsh organic horticulture

This factsheet contains advice for organic Welsh growers. Areas covered include, challenges facing Welsh growers, market outlets, producer and marketing groups working together, horticultural prices and a list of sources for further information and advice

Letter from a Welsh Supporter to Geraldine Ferraro

Letter from a Welsh supporter to Geraldine Ferraro. Author wishes Ferraro and Mondale luck.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/vice_presidential_campaign_correspondence_1984_international/1101/thumbnail.jp

Editorial: North American Journal of Welsh Studies Vol. 6, 1 (Winter 2011)

The North American Journal of Welsh Studies was first published in 2001. It represents the continuing interest in North America in the origins of its immigrants, and also provides a valuable and important transatlantic link to scholars working on Welsh studies in Wales and Britain more generall

Clear red water? Devolved education policy and the Welsh news media audience

Preprint submitted to Participations, 2012.The long-running debate about the information gap between the Welsh voting public and the processes of devolution tends to revolve around structural, cultural and economic deficiencies in the media. However, there is little empirical evidence for assertions about the effects of these alleged deficiencies on public opinion, which typically argue that an inadequate news media fails to properly inform Welsh residents about the evolution of, and rationale for, devolved policy. The earlier work of Thomas, Jewell and Cushion (2003) examined the public consumption of news about Welsh Assembly elections, finding that ‘very substantial’ proportions of the population consumed little or no news relating to devolved politics. But fewer attempts have been made to examine the ways in which audiences understand specific areas of devolved policy via the media. This article focuses on a key area of devolved decision-making, education, and attempts to quantify that alleged ‘disconnect’ through the use of focus groups in which the parents of children progressing through the foundation stage of a Welsh primary school (a key post-devolution policy difference) are questioned about their understanding of the main issues