Raising a family in Pontyclun, S.Wales

[JoannaLouise82]

Hi all

My husband and I are planning a move to Talbot Green in Pontyclun. The local primary schools are Tonyguboriau Primary, Penygawsi Primary and Llantrisant Primary.

Can anyone provide any feedback on raising children in this area, school performance, community feel, etc., etc.?

Any and all feedback appreciated. My husband and I are planning a move from Bristol to Wales as I work in Cardiff and the commute is killing me!

Thanks a lot

Jo

Don't do it (not helpful)

Ok - it would be really helpful if you could elaborate a little..!

If you look under find your local mumsnet tab - you can pick wales then the area. After that there are various tabs including childcare and education section - links there list schools and included link to school webpages and inspection reports. There is also a local talk section.

Maybe worth looking there as well if you haven't already?

I lived close by with older kids until 4 months ago. I cannot help with schools much but the area is amazing for raising a family. You have the fabulous mix of convenient facilities like goood shops Tec, fabulous unspoilt beaches,choice of traditional seaside resorts and beautiful countryside all on your doorstep.
In all the years we have been moving around this place holds some of my happiest memories and the locals were warm and welcoming too. The Welsh are a friendly HAPPY bunch.

Good luck with your move. Am rather envious.

Your commute into Cardiff will still be hell, minus paying for the bridge admittedly. The traffic queues at J33 into Cardiff have to be seen to be believed.
Your children will learn Welsh at school. In Pontyclun you will always be an outsider unless you have family there. It's not all singing in the valleys..

That's just two reasons why I'd rather look for another job in Bristol than move to Rhondda Cynon Taf.

All utter nonsense Op. You'll be fine. Lovely area on the whole, lots of greenery, near shops, good travel links, relatively low house prices compared to nearby areas. They're sorting out the junctions on that bit of the motorway too.

Not sure they have electricity there yet

You can look up the latest inspections of the schools on the Estyn website. However two of the schools were last inspected in 2009 on the previous inspection regime. In fact Tonyguboriau Primary was inspected last week and therefore a new report will be out in July for that inspection.
It is difficult to equate the inspections with current school practice given that are 6 years old.

Any particular reason you're going for Talbot Green & not Pontyclun-proper? Pontyclun Primary used to be good, not sure what it's like now though.

FWIW, I've moved the other way - Pontyclun to Bristol - & find that I miss the sense of community everyone in a mile radius knew if you so much as sneezed & local-ness to it, even if it was frustrating having everyone know your business all the time. It's changed a lot since I grew up there so probably won't be such a culture shock to move there from a city as it would've been 20-odd years ago. There was a time when I could go pretty much anywhere local & be guaranteed to bump into either someone I knew or someone who I had friends in common with. I miss that.

We didn't have any local extended family & I was aware of that growing up - lots of my friends used to go to their nan's houses after school or have family at their birthday parties. It made me a bit sad that I didn't have that but I never felt that it excluded me. There were plenty of other people who didn't have local family plus I got to go off to places it took more than 5 minutes to drive to to visit my family! I knew people who'd never been further than Cardiff, although I was convinced that Tenby was abroad somewhere fancy for much of my youth!

My family of English origin are still local & I know of one family who've recently moved there from Brizzle, although they're originally from not far from Pontyclun anyway. It's really not all one big inbred family...

Personally, I could never move back there - my teenage years weren't exactly fun but that had a lot to do with individuals who were in no way indicative of the wider area. I do daydream about moving somewhere similar though!