Good schools in Caerphilly, Wales

[Fmblondon]

What are the schools in Caerphilly, Wales (UK) like? We are considering moving there and are looking for good primary and secondary schools there if anyone can help? I can't seem to find clear information on the performance of the schools in the town.
Sidenote: We are also looking at Cardiff, Barry, Newport, Caerleon and Usk as other nearby options to move to. Thanks in advance!

Bump.

The My Local School website will hopefully help, you’ll be able to see Estyn reports too (we don’t have Ofsted here).

https://www.gov.wales/my-local-school-guide

Out of Cardiff and Caerphilly for schooling I’d pick Cardiff, depending on where you’d end up moving within the city.

You have the option of English or Welsh medium schools in both places.

My children go to Y Castell, which is a Welsh one and are thriving. It's a lovely school! It's Welsh, but we're not Welsh speaking at home and it's made no difference. They've basically been bilingual since reception.

Most of Caerphilly is a shithole, couldn't pay me to live there. I wouldn't live in Barry or Newport either for the same reason. Don't know Caerleon so can't comment on that. Cardiff is a big city with very different demographic areas in it, some lovely, others dreadful, with some good schools, others not so good, as with most large cities.

The Caerphilly secondary schools are much of a muchness. Very average on the whole as Caerphilly is not a great area. Best schools in that area would be Cardiff High ( very expensive catchment), Radyr ( North Cardiff outskirts), Whitchurch (North Cardiff suburb) and Bassaleg (West of Newport) .
For value for money housing with a good school I would pick Bassaleg as it’s a nice location with lots of detached housing at a reasonable price. It’s also very well situated for the M4 and Cardiff/ Bristol and has a direct train line to Cardiff.

There are lots of excellent schools in the Vale of Glamorgan, both Welsh and English medium. I don’t know about other areas sorry.

@NotThisOldChestnutAgain wipes out whole towns claiming that they’re shitholes. I couldn’t disagree more. There are definitely some less desirable parts of the towns that they’ve mentioned but I wouldn’t completely rule out any of them.

What’s your budget @Fmblondon and what are you after house wise?

If you want outstanding secondary schools then it's Cardiff High in Cardiff or Cowbridge High in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan. However you will pay a premium for housing to be in the catchment. As an example of costs my son has just bought a 4 bed 20 year old detached house in a rural area in a Vale of Glamorgan village in Cowbridge catchment, £620k. It would be more than that to be in Cardiff High catchment.
As pp have said, so much depends on your budget.

Caerphilly as a council are a joke so I’d really consider moving to that borough. However I know friends whose children are in Cwmcarn Primary and he can’t say a bad word about that school. They’ve just had a good Estyn report too. High schools? I’ve friends with teens in Newbridge and Risca. Both are much of a muchness.

Cardiff is much more diverse - lots of options. Cowbridge is lovely.

Caerleon always used to be a good school, probably the best area. Usk is a lovely place to live, the nearest secondary schools are in Caerleon and Abergavenny.

Honestly I don't know what kind of area you're coming from but I'd look at Monmouthshire. Monmouth and Chepstow both have excellent secondary schools. The latter having two - one in Wales and one in England.

North Cardiff is just down the mountain so close. Primaries - Ysgol Y Wern and Melin Gruffydd are both Welsh medium and excellent. (Again, the kids just pick it up, you'd be fine without Welsh at home and they help them pick it up quickly if starting a bit late.) Both feed into Glantaf at the moment which is a really good secondary. Cardiff High is also an excellent secondary academically, but you'd need to be v close to get in.

What's your budget and how many bedrooms do you need?

Thank you so much everyone for your help and pointers so far. Very useful and I'm really grateful for your input. Does anyone know if the "mylocalschool" tool actually shows you the schools your would be eligible to attend? I put a Caerphilly postcode into it (ie just picking a cenral Caerphilly postcode as an example) and it gave me a long list of secondary schools, including the top ones some of you mentioned that are in Cardiff. Does that mean Caerphilly is in the catchment for those Cardiff schools, or would I be limited to the two secondaries that are actually in Caerphilly. Sorry, I'm confused!

It used to be that the councils would fund schooling in the neighbouring area, but that wouldn't happen now. The schools are so full, I'd recommend moving close to the school you want in the same authority, depending on budget etc. The councils have catchment area maps online if that helps? You'd be in a catchment for an English and a Welsh school in each authority.

The catchment area finder for Caerphilly Council is here
https://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/services/schools-and-learning/school-catchment-areas

I put a central.Cserphilly postcode into the catchment area finder for Cardiff Council and got "No result".

I would definitely find out about whether the schools in those areas have spaces as nearly every school in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan is currently full in most year groups. Even if you move into the local area, if there is no space your child would have to go to a school on the outskirts of the city, certainly in the case of Cardiff.

Note: I am not sure if that is true of Welsh language education if you were interested in that.

What year groups are your children in? Are you moving mid-year?

Thanks again everyone. That's helpful. God knows why the mylocalschool website gives you a long list of schools you wouldn't eligible for. Very confusing.
Arghh it's a mine field.
One of my childen is in Y1 primary, another will be starting Reception in September and the third will be 2 this year. But I'm looking ahead and want to buy something where we are in the catchment for decent primaries and secondaries, as after all, it's only 5 or so years before my eldest will be getting ready to go to secondary school.

If you are considering Welsh language, I'd call the council and ask about the immersion unit for the eldest two. It's really brilliant. They divide their time initially between there and school if coming in from English medium until they're ready for full time in Welsh. It doesn't take long to be honest and the kids really adore it. Just so you know that would likely be a thing before they'd start in a classroom full time. The heads will fill you in though. We looked around five or six schools in Cardiff before deciding where to move and everyone was really lovely in showing us around.

Look at abergavenny as they will be in catchment for Crickhowell high which had a 91% pass rate this year. Its better than other schools in Monmouthshire. You also could consider Caerleon and Bassleg over in South East Wales. Forget Caerphilly or Newport itself. I agree about Cardiff High and Cowbridge but it's an extremely affluent catchment and loads is spent on tutoring.

The Cardiff council website lets you put in a postcode which then shows you the schools in that catchment, so if you have seen houses you like you can check that. Not sure if the other councils do the same, but I’d imagine so.

Thanks so much everyone

I live in North Cardiff and have always thought Caerphilly seems a nice place to live, so not sure why pp called it a shithole. All towns have nicer bits and less nice bits. People who I know who lived there send their kids to Cardinal Newman secondary, which I believe is a catholic school but they are not commited Catholics. that seems a popular school. I don't know much about the schools in Caerphilly itself sorry.

If you wanted Radyr Comp in Cardiff, Tongwynlais is a very short drive to Caerphilly and in catchment, and has a lovely little primary. Or parts of Whitchurch catchment eg Rhwbina, or Llanishen catchment eg Thornhill also short drives over the mountain to Caerphilly.

You won't get in Cardiff High unless you live v close - even people who are officially in catchment get turned away most years.

Have also seen and heard good things about Bassaleg or Caerleon in Newport, and Bassaleg catchment not too far from Caerphilly.

Risca is in special measures. Newbridge is much better.

Thanks for all your invaluable input so far. A related question; do you have a site where you can check exam performance data for schools? Some schools have it clearly on their website, but some are quite opaque. Is there a national, independent site which details all the performance? I've googled my head off looking, but can't find what I'm after. Thank you!