Swimming lessons for parents, babies and children in the Dwyfor and Bala areas have become more exciting by the introduction of Welsh songs and nursery rhymes to their lessons as part of a new initiative.
‘Welsh in a Splash’ aims to promote the use of the Welsh language among children and families as they enjoy themselves and at the same time improve their swimming skills.
Gwynedd Council’s Leisure Services hope the scheme will raise awareness among Welsh-speaking and English-speaking parents of the value of introducing the Welsh language to children at a young age, and that it will encourage families to have fun using Welsh at home.
A pack of Welsh songs and nursery rhymes have been developed to be used during parent and child swimming classes at Dwyfor Leisure Centre, Pwllheli, on Saturday mornings. Penllyn Leisure Centre, Y Bala, will also use the songs in after-school swimming lessons for children aged four and above.
The pack includes 13 well-known songs that have been especially selected for specific activities in the swimming pool. The words of some songs have been adapted, for example the song ‘milgi milgi’ has been changed to ‘pengwin, pengwin’ to boost children’s confidence to jump into the pool. The scheme has been introduced by leisure centre staff, and staff from the two centres have followed a special training session.
A waterproof booklet containing the 13 songs has also been produced and distributed to the parents, in the hope they will use it to sing the songs as they bathe their children at home.
Councillor Liz Saville Roberts, who leads on Education and Welsh language promotion issues for Gwynedd Council, said:
“This is a really exciting initiative which conveys a key message to parents and young children of the value and importance of the Welsh language as a skill, and as a language for communication and learning. The booklet that is presented to parents also stresses the benefits of bilingualism and includes a page that gives advice to parents in terms of different ways of introducing Welsh to their children.
“The hope is that the parents and children will sing some of the songs in the weekly sessions and that singing these songs will then become a habit at home.”
Carys Ferris, who is employed by Gwynedd Council as manager of the Dwyfor Leisure Centre, said:
“We were delighted to be the first leisure centre in Gwynedd to pilot this special initiative. We saw that parents and children were already going to parent and child sessions in the swimming pool, and that this would be a great opportunity to highlight the importance of bilingualism by combining it with an activity that families enjoy.”
The ‘Welsh in a Splash’ initiative is a ‘Hunaniaith’ project, which is supported by the Welsh Language Board and the Welsh Government, to promote the Welsh language in Gwynedd. The work of co-ordinating the project has been done by Iaith Cyf, which also runs the TWF initiative.
It is currently run as a pilot scheme, but it is hoped that it will be rolled out to other leisure centres in future.
For more information about registering for swimming lessons, please contact Dwyfor Leisure Centre, Pwllheli on 01758 613437 or Penllyn Leisure Centre, Y Bala on 01678 521222. For more information about the ‘Welsh in a Splash’ initiative, please contact Ifan Prys, Gwynedd’s Language Development Officer: [email protected]
