The Urdd has produced magazines for the children and young people of Wales since the organisation was founded 98 years ago. It currently has three - Cip for primary school age readers, Bore Da for primary age Welsh learners and IAW for secondary school age Welsh learners. They are widely read in homes and used in school classrooms across Wales.
Mari Williams, Urdd's Communications Manager, said: “We are happy and excited to be able to offer our magazines for free, digitally, to children and schools in Wales during the next school year and that the Wales Books Council and the Welsh Government have agreed to this development. This means that we have the potential to reach every child in Wales with an attractive and colourful Welsh magazine, absolutely free! Another exciting development is the fact that Mellten will be exploding on to the pages of Cip too, which is great for our readers.”
Huw Aaron, who is responsible for Mellten, said: “I'm very excited that Mellten and Cip are teaming up, and am looking forward to working with the Urdd to create the world's best magazine! Hopefully through this, many more children will have the opportunity to enjoy the characters and stories that have been a part of Mellten over the past four years - such as Gwil Garw, Bloben, Cadi, Gari Pel, Boc - and others!”
The Covid19 period has highlighted the need for accessible content in Welsh for children and young people, especially Welsh learners and second language speakers who may not hear the language outside of school. The three magazines together with additional web content will make activities, stories, worksheets and comics available for free, for all.
Anyone wishing to receive the magazines will need to subscribe at urdd.cymru/magazines and the magazines will then be sent free of charge by email. There will also be additional content on the website along with back issues. It is hoped that schools will place the magazines on their digital classroom sites, share links with parents and carers and use them widely in the classroom. Some elements eg colouring in activities and worksheets will also be offered on the website to make downloading and printing easier.
Arwel Jones, Head of Publication Grants at the Welsh Books Council, said: "It’s great to know that some of Mellten’s characters will continue to have fun on the pages of Cip and we’re delighted with this new partnership. The collaboration has already been successfully tested with the #CriwCelf YouTube sessions with Huw Aaron, during the lockdown. At a difficult time, offering Cip / Mellten and other Urdd magazines free of charge and digitally for a year from September 2020 will be an invaluable resource for children and young people across Wales.”
The Welsh Government sponsors the Seren a Sbarc pages, the popular characters that encourage children to speak Welsh, in Cip and Bore Da magazines.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The Welsh Government is funding the publication of the Seren a Sbarc cartoon and activities in the Urdd magazines to help Welsh children achieve the Welsh Language Charter targets. We are delighted to confirm that we will continue to support the digital publishing of the magazines during 2020-21. This means that more children in Wales, whether from Welsh or non-Welsh speaking homes, will receive free Welsh reading material. ”
The new arrangement will start in September 2020 with the Urdd collecting subscriptions now and over the rest of the summer.