We’ve been lucky enough to have Adam Jones aka Adam yn yr Ardd, a renowned gardener, visit Hill House to teach our Welsh language gardening group. Adam works with level 1- 2 students and the purpose of these weekly practical sessions is to include the Welsh language in a vocational setting. These tailored sessions will be a way of showing our students that the Welsh language is alive beyond classroom doors and that it is possible to work through the medium of Welsh.

Childcare students on both Tycoch and Gorseinon campuses have enjoyed singing workshops from Carys John of Ffa-La-La. Ffa-La-La is a company that trains people who work in nurseries on their use of Welsh. 

This week, each campus has celebrated Shwmae Day in style!

Biscuits, stickers, ‘selfies’ with our orange Welsh badge, resources for staff, and more important than anything - meeting and greeting in Welsh with people across the College. Over the last five days, we have greeted thousands of learners with a friendly ‘Shwmae’!

This year, Gower College Swansea held a Welcome Day for Welsh-speaking young people who are joining us in September.  The aim of the day was to help new students become familiar with the campus, meet other Welsh speaking applicants, meet Welsh speaking staff, and learn about the Welsh language opportunities at College. 

This year, with the majority of our learning community and staff working from home, we decided to celebrate St. David’s Day a little differently.

We launched the day with a What is Wales/Welshness to me? competition, inviting a variety of statements, photos, videos and pieces of work that represented Wales to some of our staff and students.

We received nearly 50 entries, from a variety of areas across the whole College, with many ESOL students taking part.

On Monday 25 January, Gower College Swansea celebrated the Welsh patron saint for love St. Dwynwen’s day a little bit differently.

We decided to award positive stories by asking staff and learners to nominate a person who has been friendly, loving and shown community spirit over the past year.

Residents of a Swansea care home have enjoyed a series of bilingual singing workshops due to a collaboration between Ffa-la-la and Gower College Swansea.

Thanks to funding support from Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, the College arranged for three sessions to take place at Hengoed Park Care Home in Winch Wen where residents and staff were encouraged to take some time out of their busy day and sing together in Welsh.

Fine Art students from Gower College Swansea have enjoyed a felt workshop with Vivian Rhule, a felt and print artist from Swansea who draws her inspiration mainly from local landscapes and nature.

The workshop was an opportunity for students to create pieces of felt work to include in their portfolios.

The students made one large piece of felt in a variety of colours that will support and form new ideas for future projects. They also had an invaluable opportunity to experience and visually engage with the work of a professional working in today’s Welsh felt industry.

Five students from the Gorseinon Campus of Gower College Swansea recently participated in the Urdd Regional Swimming Gala, which was held at the Dyfed Road Swimming Pool, Neath.

Staff at the Broadway Hair, Beauty and Holistic Centre recently enjoyed a Welsh Celebration Day as part of inset week.

Kicking off the day with a lot of laughter were comedians Ignacio Lopez and Daniel Glyn. They were followed by a session on Welsh place names with Bethan Mair, and a Welsh-themed treasure hunt. For the latter, staff used a dictionary app to search for the English versions of keywords used in a salon – a little task they can now adapt for their students.