From September 2017, the National Assembly has made it compulsory for every child in Wales to study the Welsh second language GCSE full course.

Their aim is to create a bilingual society and provide pupils with the required skills to succeed in further studies, in the workplace and in their communities. A great emphasis is given to oracy and pupils will be encouraged to communicate and interact confidently and spontaneously in relevant situations.

The course is a unitised specification, all weighted equally at 25%. Pupils will sit two internal assessments (oral and listening) and two external assessments (reading and writing). The content for learning the language is organised under three topics of study:-

• Employment

• Wales and the world

• Youth

Within these topics, pupils will be given opportunities to develop a range of skills such as communication, working with other, critical thinking, literacy, digital literacy, numeracy and problem solving.

The new GCSE specification is an exciting change for second language Welsh.

It aims to develop curiosity about the language, to develop linguistic skills and strategies and to enable pupils to develop their grasp of Welsh further.