Planning has been approved for Plasdŵr’s first primary school – and with it, the first chance to see its look and feel.
The new school is in the Groeswen neighbourhood and is expected to open its doors in September 2023.
A state-of-the-art school, contemporary architecture and colours will feature in the design, reflecting the character of the neighbourhood. The proposed school building will sit across two floors, with nursery, reception and infant classrooms on the ground floor, and junior classrooms accommodated on the first floor. The school façade will ensure the building is easily recognisable as a hub within the community.
The school will be dual stream, with one form offering Welsh-medium education and the other offering English with significant use of Welsh, providing a total of 420 places. Parents will apply for their preferred option during the application process. It will also provide 96 part-time nursery places, half Welsh-medium and half English-medium with significant use of Welsh. It will create 73 jobs, just a small percentage of the total number of jobs the development will create over the next 20+ years.
Applications for school admissions at the school will open in November 2022 for Reception and January 2023 for Nursery. The school will admit its first pupils in September 2023. Pupils in school years 1 and 2 will also have the opportunity to apply to the school from April 2023 to start from September 2023. Cardiff Council will determine its catchment areas.
The school will provide much-needed places for children living at Plasdŵr, as well as its neighbouring communities. It will also give local children access to high quality education on their doorstep for generations to come.
It has been designed in keeping with the character of the Groeswen neighbourhood, and follows the same garden city movement principles of “fresh air, sunlight, breathing room and playing room” that the Plasdŵr was inspired by, with plenty of green space and outdoor facilities for children to enjoy.
We are now moving to finalise discussions with Cardiff Council, with more detail to be announced on the specification as discussions progress.