19-06-2025
England's only Welsh language school 'could close' as Welsh Government withdraws £90k funding
England's only Welsh language school 'could close' as Welsh Government withdraws £90k funding
Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain, in Ealing in London is the only Welsh language school outside of Wales
Pupils at Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain/London Welsh School in 2023
(Image: London Welsh School )
The future of a Welsh language school in London is said to be in doubt if the Welsh Government withdraws its funding. Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain, in Ealing in London, has been teaching children in the capital to become bilingual in both Welsh and English for seven decades.
However, the school fears it will lose a £90,000 Welsh Government grant. The school had been receiving funding via the Cymraeg 2050 strategy, a Welsh Government strategy to achieve one million Welsh speakers by 2050.
The school has reportedly received this grant for many years, but has now been told it will be withdrawn by March next year. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here
The Welsh Conservatives say the school's funding was never intended for formal education. Losing it will mean closure, it is claimed.
A source close to Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain said: "The decision to cut funding is abrupt and unjust. Not only have we been given less than a year's notice, but the funding is being withdrawn part-way through an academic year — an approach that is both unreasonable and deeply disruptive.
"It leaves teachers in a position of anxious job uncertainty and families with no viable school alternatives.
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"The closure of the school would mean losing a unique educational setting, a deeply rooted community, and a proven model of cultural and linguistic transmission.
"The school is already doing everything the Cymraeg 2050 strategy sets out to achieve: creating fluent speakers, embedding Welsh in daily life, and building an intergenerational community around the language.
"Re-directing funding elsewhere would not only dismantle this success, but require years of investment to even begin replicating it — with no guarantee of the same results."
Conservative shadow Welsh secretary Mims Davies said: "This is yet another example of these two Labour governments working in tandem to fail Wales.
"It is appalling Labour is continuing to shoot down opportunities both in Wales and beyond with their policies on independent schools and now withdrawing this funding.
"For the sake of all of our young people, I urge these governments to wake up and stop failing our youngsters."
The issue was brought up in the Senedd by independent MS Rhys ab Owen. He said: "The grant of £90,000 to Ysgol Gymraeg Llundain, the London Welsh School, will come to an end in March of next year, in the middle of the school's academic year.
"The school is clear: without that £90,000, the school will close, and thereby bring to an end 70 years of Welsh education in London.
"The school has ensured generation after generation of Welsh speakers. For such a small figure £90,000, the implications are huge for the school—teachers will lose their jobs, children will have to leave the school in the middle of an academic year, and the impact will be huge on the broader London community.
"It would be a great shame if the school had to close because the Welsh Government wasn't providing £90,000 to them."
The school, originally founded in 1958 by a group of parents who sent their children to Welsh lessons in London, began with 30 pupils.
In 2015 it moved from Wembley to Ealing and has started new initiatives to bring in income and pupils, including a mother and toddler group, a before and after school club and hiring out hot desks to parents to work from inside the building.
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In 2023, the school said it had seen its number fall as families returned to Wales post-pandemic. You can read about that here.
The Welsh Government has been asked for comment.
