Bridgend South Wales - Anyone local who can give me practical info and help?

[BakewellStart]

Hello, Looks like we are moving to Bridgend in South Wales before Xmas. We have lived nearer to Cardiff in the past for a couple of years but the kids were then in boarding school in England so have never done welsh before.

I know that its compulsary until the end of KS4 and have no problem with this - just how the hell will they cope joining a GCSE class having never learnt ANY welsh (other than cwtch and croeso maybe) before.

I have a child in Yr10 GCSE currently in England -doing mainly edexcel GCSEs.

I need some practical advice please about secondary schools, realistic commutes and buses.

A few people have told me Porthcawl school is fab but trickey to get in. To start with I could drive every day but realistically, I could do with knowing about buses (for when I get a job and cant do daily school runs) and if its is a realistic commute.

I would love opinions and local info on Bryntirion school as I think this is our catchment school and certainly our nearest.

I am putting this out there before contacting admissions at Bridgend Council, which I intend to do next week when out house purchase has hopefully progressed on a bit more.

Thank you

I'm not in Bridgend so can't advise on schools, but at my daughter's school they do the short course Welsh GCSE in yr 9. So your yr 10 child may have missed the compulsory Welsh element. It might depend on the school though.

Thank you very much for replying BeeBawBabbity. Thats interesting to know and something I now know of to ask about so thanks.

I'm not Bridgend either but our exam board in Wales is WJEC. This may cause an issue for your year 10 transferring. Although Welsh is compulsory you might get an exemption as in fairness our children are taught it from primary.
Would you consider private?

I would consider private as a last resort - but it would be a huge stretch financially. I would need to find a job pronto - we are moving with DHs job - so I am starting again if that makes sense.

Hi Bakewell, I'm from the area so can try to answer some questions for you. Porthcawl used to be a fantastic school but I would say had slipped in the past few years to being solidly decent. Brynteg is also supposed to be very good and, in the other direction, Cowbridge has a great rep. They could otherwise get a school bus into somewhere like Bishop of Llandaff in Cardiff. There are lots of kids that come to Porthcawl from Bridgend, particularly the Broadlands area, buses seem to be frequent (think there may even be a school bus). There is a small private school in Porthcawl which is pretty good and don't insist on Welsh (your kids will have to do Welsh, no matter what year they start in, I know of others in your situation. In fact, in Porthcawl they are put into the same set across all languages, so if a child is okay at MFL but particularly bad at Welsh, they will be bumped down to a lower set). I would look at the GCSE options blocks - some schools here have insisted on so many compulsory subjects that the pupils only get free choice of one or two GCSE subjects.