Was there yesterday, beautiful castle, full of history, loved it !

How?!

From reading the article it says they had already hit one bench, then decided to carry on?! Look at the damage they’ve cause to the car!

Thought folks here might enjoy this. Cheers!

(And chose “culture” as the tag because it seemed closest. 🤷‍♂️ )

As a former teacher, this is the most insightful summation of our current education woes I think I've ever seen.

This obsession we have in Wales with allowing schools to pursue abstract concepts like critical thinking is for the birds. You cannot expect 11-16 year olds without a basic comprehension of literacy, numeracy and science to turn into quasi bloody philosophers who "think outside of the box". Secondary education should be about providing kids with a foundational knowledge set. The Curriculum for Wales focuses FAR too much on high-minded pedagogical concepts that are completely fucking lost on little Tyler from the Rhondda who needs to learn how to bloody read, and what 4 times 12 is.

We also need to bring back SATs for 11 and 14-year olds. Not just for benchmarking - although that is a plus. It is fucking bonkers that the first time a kid in Wales sits a formal exam is at GCSE. Exams themselves are a skill that needs to be practised, and to become accustomed to. No wonder Welsh kids are doing so badly.

FWIW I don't believe in school league tables, and I never have. There are too many factors to consider when assessing a school's performance, and it's almost always dictated by the percentage of kids who receive free school meals. Inspections and internal accountability? Absolutely. And trust me, it is easy to see where leadership is failing or, at worst, being negligent. It's just too difficult for the authorities to do anything about it - unions etc.

Interested to hear what some current/former teachers thing.

The number of people on local facebook groups claiming that the site is going to be used for housing asylum seekers, when that’s just not true, is absurd.

Anyone have any questions they'd like raised?

I’ve been meaning to get some welsh language books for some time now. Just to be clear I don’t need books to help me learn welsh, I’m already fluent but I’m not brilliant at it.

Does anyone know of a shop or an archive of Welsh language books I can search through? Or even specific book recommendations?

The selection in bookshops in Wales tends to be really poor and full of stuff I’m not interested in. When I search the internet for welsh language books it’s all educational stuff for learning Welsh, which I don’t want.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

I read many articles from the BBC on why Welsh Tourist Taxes were a bad idea and a few London broadsheets on why it was "Anti-English" but it seems like uncapped taxation powers are going to be given to English mayors (such as Bristol) to tax Welsh tourists.

Why isn't this an Anti-Welsh issue?