1.
Background

Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain is an independent school for nursery and primary school aged children, in Hanwell in the borough of Ealing, West London. The school teaches through the medium of English and Welsh, with the aim that pupils become fully bilingual by year 6.

Although it is an independent school and therefore is not required to do so, Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain teaches the Curriculum for Wales, including the four purposes and six Areas of Learning and Experience, as documented on its website.  

Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain’s website has a set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), which include “which school do pupils attend after Year 6?”. The answer provided is “Some of our pupils move on to local schools in London; other families move back to Wales where the pupils can continue with Welsh-medium education.”

This petition has been submitted by the chair of the school’s governing body.

1.1. Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain’s financial model

Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain is a fee-charging school, whereby the cost is £4,374 per year or £364.50 per month (as of 2024/25) for children aged 5 years and older.[1]

The school does say it accepts all children regardless of the family’s ability to pay the full fees and that it has a “small fund to assist with this”.

The petition states that the Welsh Government provides £90,000 annually to Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain from the Cymraeg 2050 budget. An answer to a written question (WSQ96921) in July 2025 from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language stated that since 2015, Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain has received from the Welsh Government an annual grant of £90,000 per financial year. In 2022-23, it received a one-off additional payment of 4% of its annual grant, totalling £3,600.

The First Minister told the Senedd in July 2025 (para 2) that over the past decade, the Welsh Government has provided Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain with more than £1.2 million in grant funding.

2. The Welsh Government’s position

The Cabinet Secretary’s letter (dated 18 December 2025) says the Welsh Government has been considering “the fact that the number of pupils attending the school has decreased” and that it is looking at what are “the most effective ways of promoting the Welsh language in London”. It says this is as part of “grant evaluation and monitoring processes”. Both the Cabinet Secretary (25 June – para 34) and the First Minister (1 July – para 5) told the Senedd in summer 2025 that Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain had around only 10 pupils on roll.

The Welsh Government agreed in June 2025 to provide funding until the end of the 2025/26 academic year and have since invited the school to apply for funding for a further three years. The Cabinet Secretary’s letter says this is to be considered “in the New Year“.

2.1. Policies regarding Welsh Language Education

The Welsh Language and Education (Wales) Act 2025 requires that the Welsh Government’s Welsh language strategy includes a target of reaching at least one million Welsh speakers by 2050. The strategy must also set targets for increasing the number of pupils attending ‘Primarily Welsh Language’ schools, and for increasing the amount of Welsh language education provided in ‘Dual Language’ and ‘Primarily English Language, Partly Welsh’ schools.

The 2025 Act placed the Welsh Government’s existing Cymraeg 2050 target (set in 2017) on a statutory basis. The provisions in the 2025 Act relating to schools apply to maintained schools in Wales only. It has been mentioned in this briefing to give an indication of the Welsh Government’s policies towards the Welsh language, rather than being of direct relevance to this petition.

3.     Welsh Parliament action

As discussed above, there have been oral questions in the Senedd on this subject:

§    to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language on 25 June 2025 (paras 29-37); and

§    to the First Minister on 1 July 2025 (paras 1-9).

4. Media coverage

There has been some media coverage of this subject, including BBC articles on 19 June, 1 July and 13 November 2025.