Schools - Roath/Penylan or Penarth?

[hummingfish]

Hi all,

We're planning to move to Cardiff with our toddler and trying to decide which area of the city would suit us best (we'll be renting).

Our preference would be to go to Roath/Penylan (as it seems to be relatively close to the centre by bike or walking) but our main worry there is schools. My understanding is that Malborough primary is good but oversubscribed and with a very small catchment area, and the same goes for Cardiff High for later on. Any recent experiences? Any thoughts on the rest of the primaries around (e.g. Roath Park or Albany)? Lakeside Primary further north is supposed to be very good, but the area around feels very suburban to us (no shops around, car needed etc.) and we prefer busier/more urban environments.

The second option would be Penarth, which is further away but seems to have a centre of its own and you can easily reach the city by train. Schools seem good and maybe easier to get into (less oversubscribed)?

We'd be looking for an English speaking (and non religious) school as we already speak a different language at home. Private schools are not an option.

Any thoughts on this or recent experiences with schools around these areas would be greatly appreciated! 😊

Cardiff high is ridiculously over subscribed. And renowned for hot housing. (Their special needs support is pretty poor.). Friends moved 1/4 of a mile to get into catchment and overpaid on their house by about £50k to do so. One child has flourished but the other has ADHD and has survived, rather than thrived. Friend got very obsessed with getting her son into Oxbridge and was devastated when he didn’t get in. The competitiveness is everywhere. Not somewhere I would put my child. (She’s in Welsh medium anyway.)

Have a friend who teaches at Stanwell in Penarth. Could ask more about that but the parents I know whose kids go there are very similar to the Cardiff High parents, to be honest.

Both expensive places to buy houses, by the way. You haven’t said what your budget is.

Thanks a lot for this. Wow Cardiff High does sound like an extremely competitive environment.

Well we can't buy at the moment (I'm on a fixed term contract so not sure if we can stay anyway) and rents around good schools seem really high - we were hoping that in Roath/Penylan there could be some cheaper options in terms of flats but it sounds like you really need to get close to the schools if you want to have a chance and there's no way we can afford renting around Lakeside. Penarth is expensive too but from a quick look not as much as Cyncoed I think, and my understanding is there's not so much drama with schools so maybe a better option overall.