Language Mats for teachers

Are you studying the PGCE PcET course? (Post Graduate Certificate in Education, Post-compulsory Education and Training). Speak Welsh, or want to increase your confidence in using the Welsh language? Catch up with this session! Sgiliaith joined us to give advice on how to encourage and support students to work through the medium of Welsh, and an experienced staff member who now teaches bilingually in the sector highlighted some useful resources.     This session took place on 29 January 2025.

Are you currently studying the PGCE PcET  (Post Graduate Certificate in Education, Post-compulsory Education and Training) course? Do you speak Welsh, and are you keen to use the Welsh language in your career? If so, these videos are for you!   The series includes six videos from staff who teach bilingually in the further education and apprenticeships sector and who have recently completed the PGCE PcET course. It is an opportunity for you to hear about their experiences and to get tips and learn good practices as you start your career in the sector.

The decline in relation to mental health issues among children and young people in Wales (School Health Research Network [SHRN] 2023) and recent curriculum reform (Welsh Government [WG] 2022) has led to the introduction of statutory guidance to promote a whole-school approach in supporting positive emotional and mental well-being among all stakeholders within the school community (WG 2021). The ‘Framework on embedding a whole-school approach to emotional and mental well-being’ (the Framework) (WG 2021) focuses on embedding the three core values of ‘belonging’, ‘efficacy’, and ‘voice’ across all aspects of school provision to create a positive social and emotional community. This integrative review explores literature that focuses on whole-school approaches to emotional and mental well-being and identifies some key facilitators and barriers in its successful implementation. Findings suggest that many schools are still not fully engaging with the Framework (WG 2021), particularly regarding the whole-school approach, and this paper concludes with some recommendations regarding the way forward. Authors: Nanna Ryder, Charlotte Greenway, Siobhan Eleri

This article surveys the considerations regarding sleep in Welsh literature by analysing the popular poems of Vicar Rhys Prichard (1579–1644). Religious and cultural considerations regarding sleep, as found in the Vicar’s poems, are analysed. The main characteristics of the Vicar’s sleep poems are identified, and we gain an insight into how some people slept, or how the Vicar believed or wished them to sleep. As a result, the article shows the importance of sleep during the period and that people took it seriously. In doing so, it is emphasized that it should be remembered that real people, of flesh and blood, are studied, and although they only exist in texts from our point of view, they should be treated as human beings that, in the context of this article, slept. Author: Dewi Alter