This week Ospreys in the Community have launched an exciting new initiative which aims to increase school pupil’s use of the Welsh language, thanks to a grant from the Welsh Government.
It’s been another busy week for the Ospreys in the Community team, as they launched their latest project Trosiad, the first of it’s kind in Welsh rugby, which will enable hundreds of primary school children to practice their Welsh speaking and learn new Welsh words and phrases.
This half term will see the OitC team travel to schools across Ospreylia, delivering bilingual rugby sessions, introducing them to new sporting phrases as well as practising the basics such as colours, numbers and shapes. Schools taking part will also receive bilingual resources to use alongside the project, including flashcards, a poster featuring rugby terminology and a pack of games/rugby drills ideas to use with the pupils in the future.
OitC Community Officer, Alyn Lake, who is leading the programme for the Foundation commented on Trosiad:
“It’s really exciting to see the concept and the programme go live this week with the launch of Trosiad. Giving children the opportunity to learn and use more Welsh is really important, and by doing it through the medium of rugby hopefully we’ll be making it more fun and giving them a different environment to practice and use it in.
“The aim of the project is not just to expand the children’s knowledge of Welsh, by introducing words that they perhaps wouldn’t usually be taught, but also to give them the confidence to use the language in situations outside the classroom.”
Paul Whapham, OitC Foundation Manager, Ospreys in the Community, added:
“We’re delighted to have been successful in our application to the Welsh Government for the grant for this project.
“It’s also very pleasing to see just how much interest there has been from schools. We initially had a target to take this programme out to around 350 pupils at schools across Ospreylia. However due to the demand from schools we’ll actually be delivering it to more than double that with many more schools already on waiting list.
“This is only possible due to the hard work of the team, both in preparing for the project, but also in taking it out to so many school children in a short space of time. It’s something we’re really excited about and we’re looking forward to seeing how much the children have learnt, and enjoyed, so we can look to build upon that in the future.”
This project has been made possible thanks to the help of the Welsh Government’s Cymraeg 2050 Grant contribution. The Cymraeg 2050 Grant is a key element of the Welsh language strategy, Cymraeg 2050: A million Welsh speakers. It’s provided funds to innovative, short-term projects which aim to increase people’s daily use of the language and to promote technology which supports the use of Welsh.
With a total of £425,000 awarded across 26 innovative projects, other key funding includes projects from the Welsh Rugby Union, RNIB and the National Trust.