大象传媒

As my daughter enters the sixth form, it's a relief to know that she's dropped those subjects that she found particularly challenging, in her case Maths and Science. Not only does it mean less agonising over complicated mathematical and scientific formulae 鈥� and frankly some basic problems with simple adding up - it also means fewer deductions from my bank account, which has recently been drained by tutors' fees to get her through the exams. 听I don't expect A鈥檒evels to be easy but I feel we're now on home turf. 听

I know many parents find it tough helping their child with Maths and Science revision. But when your children are taught through the medium of Welsh and your native tongue is English, it does add an extra dimension to the problem. When she started asking for help, I thought I was doing the right thing by buying Welsh language revision books. When the books remained largely unopened (she said she couldn't understand them) I tried to go through some of the notes with her, in the hope I could provide a simplified explanation.听

I did study Welsh to A'level a few years ago, but sadly the syllabus failed to equip me with adequate vocab to master instructions on how to do 鈥渉afaliadau cwadratig鈥� (quadratic equations) or 鈥渢rawsffurfiadau鈥� (transformations). We both made our way through the topics on her revision lists - again in Welsh, so unfamiliar to me and with words which you don't find in your standard Welsh/English dictionary. 听

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Faced with an increasingly despondent daughter and determined to avoid resits, I bought myself revision guides in English and took a week off work to get myself up to speed on some of the techniques I'd long forgotten since my O levels as well as others which I'm sure I never learnt in the first place.

Since I'm neither a teacher nor a mathematician/scientist, my help was of limited success. I guess I hadn't really reckoned with having to try and master aspects of subjects I never really enjoyed much at school听myself听鈥� and this time in a different language.

Luckily we're in the position where we could afford to pay for extra tuition outside school in Welsh 鈥� and found some great tutors through friends of ours, despite the huge demand. Several hundred pounds later we have what we wanted 鈥� good GCSE results and no painful retakes. Phew.

I've never regretted sending my children to Welsh medium school. They've always been incredibly happy and it's such a fantastic opportunity for them to be able to speak two languages. They like their teachers but there are always going to be subjects where some pupils are not so confident.

I'm also convinced that children are going to do better if they come from a supportive home. I really did want to help when my daughter didn't understand something but looking through the Welsh was like mental torture for me. I know parents who say their children cope fine on their own doing their GCSE revision with just a bit of encouragement - and achieve great results. That's fantastic and I'm crossing my fingers that will be the case with my 13 year old son.听

All's well that ends well so it seems the investment paid off. And one day in the future when my daughter finds the need to work out an angle within a polygram or solve a problem in Welsh using a quadratic equation she will, of course, be perfectly placed to do it 鈥� I wish!

Beccy Leach is a Producer in Interactive and Learning for 大象传媒 Cymru Wales.

To find out more about education in Welsh, go to 大象传媒 Wales School Gate page.

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