Anyone live in Aberystwyth? Advice on schools please!

[basilbrush]

Hello lovely ladies -

DH is considering a job in Aberystwyth. We have two DC, aged 1 and 3.5 years. Can anyone tell me what the primary schools are like there? Up here in Scotland, DS can choose to start school at 4.5 or at 5.5 years old as he is born in February. Is it true that in Wales he would have to start the Sept after his 4th birthday i.e Sept 2010?

Also - I am a Modern Lang teacher, working part time at present. I see that there are two secondary schools, one Welsh and one English speaking. So basically, only one school - Ysgol Penglais - where I would have any hope of getting a job! (my Welsh is a little rusty ) Any info on the school gratefully received too!

BB xx

[Lcf2011]

Hi BB,

We are in the same position you were in in 2009 and I would appreciate any information or advice - what school did you end up sending your children to and how are you getting on?

Thanks in advance,

LC.

[MK1993]

Lcf2011, I would say that without a doubt Ysgol Gymraeg Aberystwyth is the best school in the area. It's a Welsh-medium school(only an advantage, in my opinion) has excellent inspection reports, good results, and is just generally pleasant.

I'm almost 18 now and I went to this school, and I'm so glad I did. I got all level 5s in my Year 6 SATS(as did the majority of my class), and generally loved every day of school. I found in Year 7 that I already knew a lot of what we were taught. The only downside was that all the other schools hated us because we won all the sports/Eisteddfod competitions and "thought we were better than everyone". That's the one complaint I had about the school: it was way too competitive. In sports, singing etc. winning did often seem more important than taking part.
Good ethos in the school too. I don't recall myself or my friends EVER being bullied while I was there, which is not something many people could say about their primary school. It has quite a bit of money too, so it provides a lot of opportunities and a lot of help with regard to disabilities, special needs etc.
It's obviously different now since that was all six years ago, but it seems to have only got better. I highly recommend it.

tbh, all the schools in the area are pretty good. The other two nearest schools are both ENglish-medium. Plascrug school and St. Padarn's school.
Plascrug has had some recent renovation and I've heard people saying positive things about it recently. It's by far the most multicultural.
St. Padarns is a Catholic school, but most of the pupils aren't Catholic as far as I can see. It's quite good, but I don't know why anyone would send their children there if they weren't Catholic because there's nothing particularly outstanding about it.

I don't know how far from the town you live. There are lots of smaller rural schools. Out of those I'd steer clear of Talybont school. Rhydypennau school is good though.

So basically to sum up...YGA is the way to go!

If you want any more specific advice, I'm happy to help!

[JemimaMuddledUp]

I live near Aberystwyth.

Ysgol Gymraeg does have a very good reputation, but a lot of people don't send their children there as it can be quite cliquey. Plascrug has an equally good reputation without the cliqueyness, and I know a lot of parents who have sent their children to St Padarns and rave about it.

Just outside Aberystwyth Comins Coch school also has a very good reputation.

If you are moving to a village rather than Aberystwyth itself though have a look at the village schools. My DC attend the small school in our village and are very happy and doing well. There are lots of good village schools: Rhydypennau, Penrhyncoch, Talybont, Penllwyn, Llanfarian, Llanilar, Llanafan to name a few.

[Anghofio]

^Cliquey in terms of the children, or in terms of the parents?
I've heard people saying things like "In Ysgol Gymraeg you have to have important parents to get parts in the school concerts" and things like that, which is ridiculous.

As an originally-English speaking single parent who moved to the area, I didn't find this to be the case at all. My child was given fair opportunities(despite me not being a governor, or whatever an 'important parent' is supposed to be.), and the other parents were friendly.

I would definitely say YGA and Plascrug are the leading contenders, especially with Ysgol Gymraeg's excellent 2009 Estyn report.

[JemimaMuddledUp]

Lol, in terms of parents

I certainly don't mean that all parents there are cliquey (I have quite a few friends whose children go to YGA) but that is the reputation that it has.

Personally I prefer my children to go to a smaller school. When there are that many children in a school it is harder to get into the choir/sports teams etc as there is just so much competition. My DC really enjoy competing in the Urdd Eisteddfod (both on stage and in the arts and crafts) and in sports events and as they are in a smaller school they get to compete in pretty much what they want as there are fewer children to chose from.

[MK1993]

Ah, yeah, I know what you mean. ^

I recall when choosing the hockey teams, the teacher called out the names of each team in an order that was obvious to everyone from best to worst. Pretty awful for the few children whose names were called last.
Also, I remember a friend in Year 3 crying because he wasn't chosen to be in the Dawnsio Gwerin group.

It's true that in a smaller school, less able but enthusiastic children would have more chances in sports/Eisteddfods.