04 March 2016

 Primary teachers have collaborated with S4C to develop an educational resource that responds directly to new methods of assessment within the Foundation Phase Framework

Canolfan Peniarth has published a new educational resource for teachers which has been created using the colourful characters of S4C’s pre-school service, Cyw.

With the popular characters of Cyw central to the resource, this is a fun and engaging pack. The main aim of the resource is to develop oral skills of children from an early age, and has been designed in response to new assessment methods within the Foundation Phase Framework.

Canolfan Peniarth worked with a team of teachers and with S4C to create this exciting resource. It includes various scenes from the world of Cyw, with lesson plans and ideas for various activities to stimulate discussion in the classroom in order to develop and extend children's vocabulary.

The resource was published today, Friday, March 4, at Ysgol y Dderwen, Carmarthen, where some of the children got the opportunity to see, play and learn with the resources for the first time.

One of the teachers who has been part of a team to create the package is, Llio Dyfri Jones, Foundation Phase Leader at Ysgol y Dderwen.

Llio said, "As a group of teachers, we have welcomed the opportunity to collaborate with Canolfan Peniarth and S4C to develop a range of resources based on the characters from the world of Cyw. We sincerely hope that these resources will help raise standards of reading, writing and speaking within children across Wales on the one hand, while also supporting the work of practitioners in various educational settings on the other."

The resource is published by Canolfan Peniarth, which is University of Wales Trinity Saint David’s publishing house, and one of the leading publishers of educational Welsh medium and bilingual resources in Wales.

Canolfan Peniarth’s Director, Mr Gwydion Wynne said, "This is a very exciting development for us as publishers. After all the work that went in to the planning process between involvingus, S4C and the team of teachers, we are delighted that we are launching the resource today. We look forward to continuing our work with S4C and with teachers across Wales in the future to publish more resources for Cyw, and negotiations have already begun to adjust this package for schools that teach Welsh as a second language. "

Cyw already contributes to children's early education at home, but now children will learn with Cyw at school too.

Ian Jones, S4C's Chief Executive said: "One of the main objectives of S4C is to collaborate more with educational institutions in order to use the channel for the purpose of long term education work. Working with Canolfan Peniarth has allowed us to extend Cyw to the classroom for the first time - a step that takes S4C into new territory and to a even bigger part of the lives of young children and families. It adds to the large selection of Cyw programmes and activities that contribute to early years development - after all, Cyw’s main message is Play, Laugh, Learn."

Professor Medwin Hughes, University of Wales Trinity Saint David Vice-Chancellor said: "We are already working closely with S4C as they prepare to move the channel’s headquarters to Canolfan S4C Yr Egin which will be situated on the University’s campus in Carmarthen. We are therefore delighted to see the relationship between the University and S4C evolving as Canolfan Peniarth publishes these innovative educational resources.

"The University is also proud of its strengths and excellence in its bilingual and Welsh medium education provision. The University is a leader of teacher education in Wales and we have already announced our commitment to realise the aims of the Welsh Government. We therefore welcome these resources which on one hand, will help develop speech and literacy development, and on the other, support teachers in providing new methods of assessment within the Foundation Phase Framework."

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