Cardiff Council’s Executive has approved recommendations to revise the catchment areas for the city’s Welsh-medium secondary schools.
The Council recently carried out a public consultation on proposals to change the existing catchment areas of Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr to establish a catchment area for the third Welsh-medium secondary school in the east of the city that is due to admit its first pupils in September 2012.
A review of the current catchment areas was carried out to create a catchment area for the new school, which will be located on the existing St Teilo’s Church in Wales High School site, and achieve a balance between the remaining catchments of Ysgol Glantaf and Ysgol Plasmawr.
The catchment area for the new Welsh-medium school will include the primary catchment areas of Ysgol Bro Eirwg, Ysgol Pen-y-Groes, Ysgol Pen-y-Pil and Ysgol Y Berllan Deg.
Changes to the existing Ysgol Glantaf catchment area include the removal of the above areas and part of the Ysgol Gynradd Gwaelod Y Garth catchment area to the East of the River Taff. This part of the catchment will be added to Ysgol Plasmawr’s catchment while it is proposed that Ysgol Pwll Coch will transfer to the catchment of Ysgol Glantaf.
Following a series of meetings with Welsh-medium school headteachers, a public consultation on the proposed changes was held in February and March. Headteachers, governors, parents and others in the local community were invited to respond to the consultation.
The Executive considered a summary of the views expressed as part of the consultation and agreed to:
- Approve the catchment areas proposed so that the requirement to determine the admission arrangements is met and the arrangements may be implemented from September 2012
- Allow officers to consult at the appropriate time on the transfer of the Ysgol Pwll Coch catchment area to the Ysgol Glantaf catchment area from September 2013.
Executive Member for Education and Lifelong Learning, Cllr Freda Salway, said: “With the establishment of the city’s third Welsh-medium secondary school, opening in September 2012, it has been necessary to revise the catchment areas of the existing Welsh secondary schools to achieve a balance of numbers between the three schools across the city.”
