Multilingual Early Language Transmission (MELT) - Mercator ...

of the nursery and playgroups. In Wales there has been also a growth in the private sector
provision of these facilities, to take care of the children at somebody’s home.
In Wales, pre-school education is provided in the main groups; playgroups and nurseries. In
local authorities there are differences in policy and language use:
Welsh-medium playgroups
Children range from 2 to 5 years of age. These provisions are members of the
Cylchoedd Meithrin. 47 A setting where children are offered play and learning
experiences through the medium of Welsh, whilst also providing valuable help and
support to families from non-Welsh speaking backgrounds who have the desire to
learn Welsh. The playgroups operate for 2 to 3 hours in the morning and/or
afternoon mainly during term time.
Parent and toddler groups
In these groups (Cylch Ti a Fi 48 ) attend children from birth to school age and their
parents. With the aim to offer parents/carers an opportunity to enjoy playing with
their children and socialise in an informal Welsh atmosphere. The activities will
reinforce the use of Welsh language at home and gives non-Welsh speaking families
the opportunity to use Welsh for the first time with their children. Parents are
responsible for their own children.
English-medium playgroups
As with the Welsh-medium playgroups children are from 2 to 5 years old. Pre-school
provisions who have English as an instruction are members of the Wales Pre-school
Playgroups Association (WPPA 49 ) They give 'Blas ar laith' courses as an introduction
to the Welsh language for early years settings.
Day Nurseries
Day nurseries may be either Welsh-medium or English-medium. Welsh-medium
nurseries are usually members of Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin. 50 Some day nurseries
offer full day service for children aged between six weeks and 5 years, mostly for
working parents.
Childminders
Childminders are Welsh, or English or bilingual. 51 Childminders (a sort of babysitter,
mostly females taking care of the children in their house while the parents are
working) take care of children aged between 0 and 5 years old that are not related to
the childminder and for reward in the childminder’s own home. Care is usually
provided for the full working day.
A nursery or playgroup class in a local primary school
A nursery or playgroup class in the building of the primary school is either Welshmedium
or English-medium, it depends of the policy of the primary school. The ages
of starting at this classes are different, all are up till 5 years old.
Local authorities and municipalities will not be expected to provide childcare direct but will
47
These belong to an organisation called Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin (MYM), now called, in 2011, Mudiad Meithrin (MM), -
http://www.mym.co.uk/index.cfm?UUID=DE0484E7-70C8-4A56-A23367B950C328B3&language=en [Accessed June 2011].
48
http://www.mym.co.uk/index.cfm?UUID=D078C930-D56F-E4BD-52647C3C3C323C40 [Accessed June 2011].
49
Their umbrella organisation is called the Wales Pre-school Playgroup Association (WPPA) - http://www.walesppa.org
50
English-medium playgroups. Many English-medium nurseries (but not all) are members of the National Day Nurseries Association Cymru
(NDNA Cymru) - http://www.ndna.org.uk [Accessed June 2011].
51
Many childminders (again not all) are members of the National Child Minding Association (NCMA)
http://www.ncma.org.uk/MainWebSite/Homepageb51465f4.aspx?Map=163EB4336F1F8E141AF4FDF3DCD0FDA9 [Accessed June 2011].
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