Monmouthshire County Council has a statutory duty to secure sufficient and suitable school places for children within the County, and in doing so ensure that resources and facilities are efficiently utilised to deliver the education opportunities that our children deserve.
As part of the School Standards and Organisation (Wales), the Council has a statutory duty to consult with members of the community and appropriate stakeholders when considering any significant school organisation proposals.
On 17th January 2024, the Council’s Cabinet agreed to commence the required statutory consultation processes on the following proposal:
- To relocate Ysgol Gymraeg Y Fenni from its current site of St Davids Road, Abergavenny, NP7 6HF, to the site previously occupied by Deri View Primary School, located at Llwynu Lane, Abergavenny, NP7 6AR
- As a result of the above relocation, it is proposed to increase the capacity of Ysgol Gymraeg Y Fenni to provide 420 pupil places plus 60 place Meithrin.
Statutory consultation processes took place between Monday 29th January 2024 and 11th March 2024, where consultees had the opportunity to read the Consultation Document and submit their views on whether proposals should proceed.
Next Steps?
Following the closure of the consultation period, the Council has a statutory duty to produce a Consultation Report seeking to inform interested parties of the outcome of the consultation by means of:
- Summarising each of the issues raised by consultees.
- Responding to these by means of clarification, amendment to the proposal, or rejection to the concerns with supporting reasons.
- Setting out Estyn’s view (as provided in its consultation response) of the overall merits of the proposal
The Council’s Cabinet met on the 5th June 2024 to consider the consultation report and the recommendations made to them. The decision made by Cabinet was to proceed to the next stages of the statutory process required to relocate and increase the capacity of Ysgol Gymraeg Y Fenni from 1st September 2025.
The statutory notices were formally published on Friday 21st June 2024 and allowed a 28 day window for any statutory objections. The objection period closed on 19th July 2024. The Council is required to produce an Objection Report which details any statutory objections received during this window, together with the Council’s response to these objections, however it is noted that there were no statutory objections received..
The Council’s Cabinet met on the 11th September 2024 to consider the content of the Objection Report, and made their final decision to implement the proposals as consulted on, namely, to increase the capacity of Ysgol Gymraeg Y Fenni to 420 places plus 60 place Meithrin through its relocation to the former Deri View Primary School site. This decision means that Ysgol Gymraeg Y Fenni will relocate to Llwynu Lane, Abergavenny, NP7 6AR with effect from 1st September 2025.
In determining the proposal, Cabinet Members gave careful consideration to key factors that concern school organisation proposals as identified within the School Organisation Code (November 2018). A summary of the considerations given to these identified factors can be found below:
- As part of the consultation process the Council has assessed the impact of the proposal on the quality and standards of Education. Following the outcome of the consultation and taking into consideration the feedback that has been received, Cabinet were confident that there will be an overall positive impact on the quality and standards of education.
- The proposal will not affect the quality of learning in any of the English medium schools in the Abergavenny cluster, however, for those currently attending Ysgol Gymraeg Y Fenni, the proposals are likely to have a hugely positive impact on their teaching and learning experiences as they relocate to an improved environment with excellent teaching and learning facilities.
- The relocation and associated increase in capacity of Ysgol Gymraeg Y Fenni is expected to have a positive impact on the Abergavenny community who wish to be educated through the medium of Welsh. We anticipate that there will be an increase in parental choice for Ysgol Gymraeg Y Fenni because the Council will be providing more Welsh medium places in an improved teaching and learning environment.
- The proposal demonstrates our commitment to increasing the number of children accessing Welsh-medium provision and meets our targets outlined in our Welsh Education Strategic Plan (WESP). It also supports the Welsh Government’s national strategy Cymraeg 2050.
- The development of Welsh-medium education has been a central priority for Monmouthshire as outlined in all our WESPs and it is a main priority in the current plan. We acknowledge that the relocation of the school provides the necessary foundations to enable Welsh medium education in Abergavenny to grow to be able to offer a two form entry (60 places per year group) which is something that could not be offered on their current site. This places us in a strong position to meet our target of 120 reception learners by the end of the current WESP in 2031.
The Council is excited to now move forward to implement these proposals and looks forward to working very closely with the governing body, staff and children to ensure that the transition to the new site is as seamless as possible.
If you have any queries regarding this consultation, please contact us via strategicreview@monmouthshire.gov.uk
Other useful documents relating to this consultation: