WM education in Cardiff: alarm bells ringing

 
I've just received this press relaease from RhAG. Hopefully, the story will also be reported the mainstream media.

 

 
Serious concerns that a starter class for Grangetown and Butetown will not open as promised this September is an indication of wider failures by Cardiff Council in the planning of Welsh-medium education provision across the city.

This is RhAG’s response to concerns of local parents that the Council will not keep their promise to open the starter class hosted at Ninian Park School, as a seedling of the new school which is proposed to open on a permanent site in 2017.

On the basis of Council figures for July, RhAG is aware that 105 pupils were refused first choice applications for a place in the city’s Welsh-medium primary schools. It is unclear how many children have been lost to the English-medium sector, nor how many are still in the appeals system. This represents a loss of 13% of all applications for the Welsh-medium September 2015 Reception intake. The loss for September 2014 was approximately 5%.

Michael Jones for Cardiff RhAG said, "Warning bells should now be ringing as many problems can be found throughout the city. In the East, between Bro Eirwg and Penypil 13 children have been unable to obtain a place without another nearby school a practical possibility. Glan Morfa has been turning pupils away for 3 years and more, and the same situation has arisen this year with 5 application refused. In the North, the situation at Mynydd Bychan (19 refused) is unacceptable and the Wern, at 75 applications cannot meet the demand with 3 pupils not being offered a place. The applications for Melin Gruffydd is 7 over their Standard Admission Number and Pencae at 21 applications over their SAN. In the West there is an urgent need to do something for Nant Caerau and Treganna is packed with 16 applications above their statutory number.

"We need immediate action by extending current provision as an interim solution and to open new schools to meet the demand. Honouring the commitment to open a starter class to serve Grangetown and Butetown is an indispensable part of the Council's plans to develop Welsh-medium education in the city, as has been incorporated into Cardiff Council’s statutory Welsh in Education Strategic Plan, which has been approved by the Minister of Education. Although the council had announced their intention to proceed with the class, the fact that parents were not made known of this until May and arrangements not confirmed until August, meant it was all far too late; so the current crisis is the result of a lack of acting early enough which has weakened parents’ trust and confidence. The current administration needs to restore this by taking control of the situation and providing firm and proactive action as a matter of urgency.

"In addition, we call on the Council to conduct an urgent city-wide review of the catchment areas for Welsh-medium schools and a thorough review of the school admissions process in order to provide greater fairness, clarity and certainty for parents in applying for places in Welsh-medium schools."

 
Ceri Owen
Cyfarwyddwr Datblygu / Director of Development
Rhieni Dros Addysg Gymraeg
Parents for Welsh Medium Education

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Crisis for WM school places in Cardiff

 
A couple of days ago I received a copy of a letter from RhAG, the group campaigning for more Welsh-medium education, that has been sent to the Director of Education at Cardiff Council. It goes into some detail about the impending crisis in providing sufficient Welsh-medium places in Cardiff, demonstrated by the surprisingly large number of parents whose children have been refused places at the Welsh-medium school of their choice. As it was also copied to the Education Correspondent of the Western Mail the intention was clearly for it to be made public, but as the Western Mail haven't—or haven't yet—run the story, I thought it would be a good idea to publish it on Syniadau.

 

 
RhAG has expressed its concern generally at the level of refusals on first allocation in relation to September 2015 primary admissions for WM schools, which is at an unprecedentedly high level and which must be attributed to the failure to plan proactively for growth. However RhAG does appreciate that the LA now have to cater for EM growth which was absent from 1995 onwards until about 2 or 3 years ago.

On first allocation, 685 places were given at WM schools to applicants and 110 were refused.

The total number of available WM reception places was a potential of 787 places which realistically would probably cover the 795 who gave a WM school as their first choice having regard to the various events that can change the demand over the 3-4 months between application and allocation. There were therefore probably enough places to meet the demand if one treats the demand and places on a city-wide basis. However it is apparent that there were not enough places to satisfy parental demand for WM primary places as parents want a school which is reasonably close to home, and it is not reasonable to expect a child in Trowbridge to have to travel to Pentwyn, for example.

In fact the first allocation of places was actually lower in number at 685 this year than the 693 allocated at the same stage last year. The number of refusals at 110 is the highest ever and it is more than likely that of those 110 only a small percentage, probably less than 25%, will ultimately find a WM place because the parents will have reluctantly taken an EM place which has the merit of being local even though the child will in 90% of the cases have started in a WM setting in nursery for 1 or 2 years. This is a loss wholly unacceptable to those who have worked hard to persuade parents of the benefits of WM education and have succeeded, only to be frustrated by the inadequacy of the provision, particularly as the increase of the percentage in WM education is Welsh Government policy to which the LA has subscribed by preparing its Welsh in Education Strategic Plan.

RhAG suggest that the city and county of Cardiff must do better next year, by increasing the accessible provision and altering the method of application for and consequent allocation of places.

 
1. INCREASE OF ACCESSIBLE PROVISION

It is apparent that the shortage of places and consequent high level of refusals is localised. In 7 out of 16 catchments there were no refusals or only one. In 4 schools there were refusals above or close to 20 and in another 3 refusals of 8 or 6. To some extent those refused were applicants resident outside the catchment but there were a total of 23 refused who were resident in catchment, and we suspect that some out of catchment applications were made by parents who had every reason to believe that they had no hope of a place in their catchment school.

The following is a review of the schools area by area, suggesting the remedies advocated by RhAG.

a. Far East

In this area the 2 schools are Bro Eirwg and Pen-y-pil, where respectively 8 and 2 children were refused places. We believe that the 2 unsuccessful out-of-catchment pupils at Pen-y-pil were Glan Morfa pupils whose parents believed, correctly, that they would not get in to Glan Morfa after 2 years of 10+ children being refused there. We cannot guess the origin of parents from out of catchment seeking places at Bro Eirwg unless, yet again they lived in the Glan Morfa catchment. Clearly both schools are full and the growing need can only be met by expanding Pen-y-pil to 2 streams.

b. South East

Glan Morfa is overcrowded with demand for the third year exceeding provision. The LA has a plan to meet this need which is for publication at the end of this month which must include a proposal to make additional provision at Reception level in September 2016

c. East Central

Between them Y Berllan Deg and Pen-y-groes can cope with the demand in this area. It would be helpful if the availability of places at Pen-y-groes could be widely advertised.

d. North and North Central

In this area 3 of the 4 schools are under pressure, namely Y Wern, Mynydd Bychan and Melin Gruffydd and the one with spare accommodation Glan Ceubal is really convenient to take overspill only from the southern part of the Melin Gruffydd catchment. The buildings of Melin Gruffydd and Mynydd Bychan are not capable of extension. We suspect that the out-of-catchment demand for Melin Gruffydd comes from parents in the area of Heath south of Heathwood Road who are in the Mynydd Bychan catchment but who have no hope of a place at Mynydd Bychan due to pressure for places from pupils living nearer the school site. As RhAG has repeatedly urged the only sensible thing to do for Mynydd Bychan school is to reduce its catchment so that it serves only Cathays and Little Heath (Y Waun Ddyfal). The rest of Great Heath (MYNYDDBYCHAN i.e. south of Heathwood Rd) should be transferred into the catchment of Y Wern which can be extended to a full 3 FE which will be immediately taken up. The pressure to overspill Heath children into Melin Gruffydd may then be relieved. Glan Ceubal can take overspill from Whitchurch village as well as from the Pencae catchment. We understand why the LA was reluctant to see unfilled places at Y Wern and thus refused RhAG's urging that it be made 3 FE at once but taking this step is the only way of relieving pressure on both MG and Mb which is evident from this year's figures.

e. Far North West

Creigiau and Gwaelod-y-garth are both just full. Further growth can be expected and we urge the LA to close the small EM provision at Gwaelod-y-garth and transfer it to Pentyrch which used to have spare capacity.

f. West

Two of the three schools here (Pencae and Nant Caerau) are oversubscribed but cannot be expanded on their sites. Pencae suffers from being adjacent to a major place of Welsh employment and is a convenient place to take out-of-catchment children (20 refusals of out-of-catchment children; a repetition of last year). However the LA should have regard to the proposal for housing to take the place of the BBC studios which will further increase the demand at Pencae. The developers will need to provide a 2 stream WM school to replace Pencae. Nant Caerau serves an area with a different demographic. Last year 10 children were refused places at NC; this year 21 of which 7 were in catchment (we imagine that the other 14 were from Ely also very local for whom there are only 11 places at Coed-y-gof, the catchment school). Something must be done to expand the buildings available to Nant Caerau. RhAG accepts that expansion cannot be on site. The possibilities are:

     1. Part of Glyn Derw
     2. New build on Ely Mill where the county has s106 rights
     3. At Michaelston when Michaelston moves out onto the Glyn Derw site.

There are currently 11 vacant places at Coed-y-gof which are likely to be filled by:

     1. Ely children refused at Nant Caerau
     2. 20 out of catchment children at Pencae
     3. The usual late applicants.

The total of the above is more than the number of vacant places. Does Coed-y-gof need a third stream?

g. South Central

Here we have 2 existing schools and the new Grangetown/Butetown school for which starter provision is to be made in the buildings formerly occupied by Tan-yr-Eos. At Treganna 16 have been refused who can be offered places at Tan-y-Eos. The total of applications in the Four Wards so far this year seems to be 161 but we would expect some of those refused at Pencae to opt for Pwll Coch. (We are aware of one child resident on the east of Cathedral Road and thus in the Pencae catchment who is likely to do this) We would urge that there be provision to accept 60 at Tan-yr-Eos in 2016 next year, having regard to the magnetic effect of a new Welsh-medium school which the new school will be.

 
2. APPLICATION METHOD

RhAG would urge that the LA in its literature for new parents highlight the difficulty of matching schools to children precisely, warning parents that if they want to choose WM education and have started a child in a Nursery class then it would be wise not only to choose one WM school but also a second to enable the council to meet demand with some flexibility. An effort should be made to avoid presenting a parent with a choice of one local WM school or a local EM school. If a WM school has been the first choice the LA should not couple a refusal of a WM place with the offer of an EM place but rather should indicate that another WM place is available which should not be an impossible journey away. Only in this way will the council fulfil its duty to promote the growth of WM education.

RhAG has expressed its concern at one aspect in particular of the admissions this year, which is its failure to honour the sibling link priority for admission to primary school.

The aspect of particular concern is the total of 8 applications refused in spite of the existence of a sibling link, a link which normally gives a high priority to the applicant which derives from the county's own rules, dating back to 1985 after the case of R v South Glamorgan County Council, ex p Evans 1984.

RhAG fails to understand why the sibling link now been ignored in 8 cases, 5 in Nant Caerau, 2 in Mynydd Bychan and 1 in Glan Morfa. RhAG has been made aware of a serious consequence of these refusals of places to children who were in the Nursery Class with parents having already been in touch with some schools to say that they will be withdrawing the elder children as they cannot face the complications of having children in 2 different schools, a consequence which the LA should have foreseen. RhAG is yet to receive explanation for the authority's failure to comply with its own long-standing rules and offer a proposal to rectify what has been done by offering places to all 8 children in the near future.

 
Ceri Owen
Cyfarwyddwr Datblygu / Director of Development
Rhieni Dros Addysg Gymraeg
Parents for Welsh Medium Education

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Cardiff's re-think on WM school places

For those who might have missed it—and because the news doesn't seem to have been reported anywhere in English—I thought I'd re-post this report from Newyddion 9 yesterday evening.

     

Each local authority is required to produce a Welsh in Education Strategic Plan which, among other things, details how they intend to increase the provision of Welsh-medium education in their area. Cardiff's WESP (available here) had said that it intended to create another 47 reception places over the next three years, broken down as follows:

Ysgol Glan Ceubal ... 2 new places
Ysgol y Wern ... 15 new places
New school in Grangetown/Butetown ... 30 new places

Total ... 47 new places

But this has now been revised to:

Ysgol Glan Ceubal ... 2 new places
Ysgol y Wern ... 15 new places
New school in Grangetown/Butetown ... 60 new places
Splott/Adamsdown ... 30 new places

Total ... 107 new places

In addition to this, an extra 15 reception places would be available by refusing children who live in Rhondda Cynon Taf access to Ysgol Gwaelod y Garth ... although I think this would be a retrograde move as it is the most convenient school for Taff's Well, just across the river.

I've searched for details of the new plan, but haven't been able to find any so far. However I think it's fairly clear how the additional places would be provided.

First, it must mean that the new WM school for Grangetown/Butetown is going to be a two-form entry school from the outset. Cardiff produced a shortlist of six possible sites back in March, and I looked at each of these in some detail in this post. As I see it, the only two viable options for this new WM school are the Channel View Leisure Centre site in Grangetown (in turquoise) and the site immediately north of County Hall (in yellow).

     

Second, the most obvious way of expanding provision in Splott/Adamsdown is by increasing the size of the existing Ysgol Glan Morfa from one- to two-form entry.

Ysgol Glan Morfa shares a site with the English-medium Moorlands Primary (and Nursery) School. In the picture below Moorlands Primary is the two storey building, Moorlands Nursery is the single story building in the top left, and Glan Morfa is at the bottom.

     

On the right of the picture is a building which used to be a library but is now empty, although the grounds are used as a play area. My guess is that this would be used to provide the additional accommodation to make Glan Morfa into a two form entry school. The building is not in particularly good condition, so it might well be better to demolish it than try to refurbish it. But it was quite a handsome building in its day, and if it were up to me I'd look at a way of keeping the façade, but building something completely new behind it.

     

All in all, it is very good news indeed that Cardiff Council have re-thought their original plans, and are now aiming to provide more than double the number of new WM reception places originally proposed. These 107 new reception places will, as children move up through these schools, mean an extra capacity of 749 WM primary places. It will also make it all the more necessary for Cardiff to have a fourth WM secondary school.

The other piece of good news is that Cardiff intend to open the new Grangetown/Butetown school by 2016 rather than 2017 as previously proposed.

A new WM school in Grangetown/Butetown

Last week, Cardiff Council announced that they had reconsidered their previous decision to back track on their commitment to build a new one form entry Welsh-medium school in Grangetown – something which had already been approved by the Welsh Government and for which a share of funding had been arranged under the 21st Century Schools programme. Instead, they now intend to provide an additional 60 entry places for both Welsh- and English-medium education in the Grangetown/Butetown area, and have produced a shortlist of six sites that they consider suitable for development, as reported here.

This in itself is a major victory for both the parents who have been campaigning for it and for Neil McEvoy, who was able to use his position to "call in" the original decision.

The new proposals are set out in detail in this document, which is being considered by the Children & Young People Scrutiny Committee tonight. In this post I'd like to look at the shortlisted options.

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The map below shows the six sites. Two are in Grangetown: Ninian Park Primary in green and Ferry Road (behind Channel View Leisure Centre) in turquoise. Four are in Butetown: Mount Stuart Primary in lavender, St Mary the Virgin CiW Primary in blue, St Cuthbert's RC Primary in orange and unused land just north of County Hall in yellow.

     

If the Ninian Park Primary site were to be developed, it would be as a permanent extension to replace the existing temporary accommodation, probably in the area marked on the picture below, which will involve taking a small piece of land from Sevenoaks Park. It could therefore only provide English-medium places. It is a two form entry school at present, and the extension would make it a three form entry school.

     

My guess is that the Ferry Road site would be the area shown in turquoise below. It is a relatively small site, but it might well be enlarged by relocating some of the car parking at Channel View Leisure Centre and/or by taking a small piece of the Marl in the same way developing Ninian Park would take a small part of Sevenoaks Park. I do not know the exact site boundaries Cardiff have in mind, but it is worth noting that they believe the site is large enough and suitable for a two form entry school in their report, with the play/sports facilities on the Marl being used by the school.

Personally, I would have no objection to this site being developed as a one form entry WM school, especially as the site is relatively small, but Cardiff have a preference for larger rather than smaller schools.

     

Therefore if there is to be a Welsh-medium School in Grangetown, this is the only one of the identified sites that could accommodate it. The only alternative to a WM school on this site would be one in Butetown.

It is perhaps worth noting that in this post, Labour Councillor Ashley Govier is quoted as saying that the plan is to create "a fully integrated site of play, leisure and school", which might be taken to include the Grangetown Play Centre to the right of it in the image. He might well have inside information not available to the rest of us, but I do not see any reason why the playgroup should not stay exactly where it is, and the new school be built to the left of it.

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There are four identified sites in Butetown. Three of them involve building on the playing fields of existing schools, and one is a currently unused brownfield site.

Mount Stuart Primary is shown below. I would guess the most promising part of the site to develop is marked in lavender. The idea is to extend the existing school, making it a three form entry English-medium school. There is also the potential to enlarge the site onto the green public space to the west and the south of the site to compensate for this.

     

Cardiff have identified the need for an additional 60 English-medium entry places in Grangetown/Butetown, and I think the best way of achieving this would be to provide 30 of them at Ninian Park Primary and 30 of them at Mount Stuart Primary. However I might also say that although I think the figures for the overall numbers of additional children are probably right, I think that Cardiff are underestimating the numbers for WM schools and over-estimating the number for EM schools. They are working on an annual 4% "uplift".

St Mary the Virgin CiW school is shown below, and Cardiff have identified their playing field (marked in blue) as a site for development. I just can't see this working. Losing the playing field will affect the existing school very severely. For me, it's a non-starter. However I would not rule out creating some additional places at this school if there was a specific demand for more Church in Wales faith school provision. It might well be possible to build a small block of two or three classrooms immediately adjacent to the school without needing to build on the playing field.

     

The picture below shows two sites. The site shown in orange takes up part of the playing field of St Cuthbert's RC Primary and some adjacent land. I think it is possible to build a new wing to this school to increase it from a one form entry to a two form entry school, but I would again question whether there is specific demand for this many more Catholic faith school places, particularly as it would mean that the vital piece of maintained green space at Letton Road will be lost to the community. Providing just one or two additional classrooms could probably be done without having to take this public space.

     

In contrast, the site shown in yellow to the north of County Hall seems a much better proposition, and is so close both the St Cuthbert and St Mary's sites as to make no real difference in terms of travelling times. So why take much-valued playing space away from either of those two schools? To me, this seems an ideal site to develop as a two form entry school.

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So it is now a question of choosing which of these options are best. So far as Welsh-medium education is concerned, there are only two practical possibilities from the six sites that Cardiff has shortlisted: either a new school at Ferry Road (turquoise) or a new school at County Hall (yellow). In my opinion, it would be better to develop the Ferry Road site, because Grangetown is more densely populated and has the greatest immediate demand for WM places.

For children in Grangetown to have to travel east to the County Hall site would be almost as inconvenient as for them to have to travel west to Pwll Coch. Schools in urban areas should be within easy walking distance. There are already four EM schools in Grangetown (Grangetown Primary, Ninian Park Primary, St Patrick's RC Primary and St Paul's CiW Primary) so it is only fair that there should now be an equally accessible Welsh-medium school in Grangetown as well.

A small sign

The governors of Ysgol Teilo Sant in Cardiff were worried that pupils wouldn't be able to find the new school building, so they decided to put up a small sign.

     

Campaigning for a WM school in Grangetown

The weather wasn't at its best, but there was a rally yesterday in Cardiff in support of the campaign for a new Welsh-medium school in Grangetown. The school had been promised by the Cardiff Council, and had already been approved by the Welsh Government together with 50% of the funding for it. However Cardiff then changed their minds and announced that they wanted to make it an English-medium school instead, but rapidly withdrew that plan and now want to conduct another consultation.

Here are the speeches from it by Sioned Mills, Leanne Wood, Judith Woodman, Ben Foday, Dyfed Wyn Huws, Eluned Morgan and Neil McEvoy, taken from the Ymgyrch TAG YouTube page. I hope I've got them in the right order.

     

Ymgyrch TAG also has pages on Facebook and Twitter.

Full of kids

Last week I wrote about Ysgol Treganna's new building, and showed some pictures of it while the fitting-out work was being completed.

But it looks very much better when full of kids:

     

More new Welsh-medium schools

This is my second post on new Welsh-medium schools which are opening or moving to larger buildings at the start of this new school year. The first was here.

 
Ysgol Treganna, Cardiff

The story of finding a new permanent home for Ysgol Treganna is worthy of being called a saga ... not just in the sense of being an epic stuggle against the dark forces of the political underworld, but because you'd have to be over fifty to remember how it started.

Now isn't the time to retell the story. Suffice to say the saga is now at an end, and it's time to celebrate the fruits of victory. The days of teaching in cupboards and corridors are over, the staff won't have to queue to use one toilet, and the kids will have space in which to learn and play ... both indoors and in green space outside. The end product is certainly better than it might otherwise have been, but the time it took to get there could have been so much shorter.

As an overview of what the school looks like, it's probably best to use the original design images, as nothing is tidy enough to take glossy pictures of yet:

     

     

Now the design has become reality, and these are some images which I've taken from the school's Twitter feed.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

There will be challenges ahead for the new school. Ysgol Treganna had been a small, tight-knit school of just over 200 pupils in which everybody knew everyone else. When Tan yr Eos was set up as an overflow it again developed into a small, tight-knit school of just over 100. Now, not only have the two come together under one roof, but the intake will be increased to 90 each year, meaning that the school will eventually have 720 pupils including those in the nursery. It will be the largest primary school in Wales.

This is bound to change the ethos and character of the school for, even with the best will in the world, it will be now be hard for everybody to know everyone else. What before could have been done informally will probably have to be done more formally, and some will find it hard to adjust. But with good will and dedication any such problems can be overcome ... and perhaps even turned to advantage. I wish everybody concerned all the best in what promises to be a bright new future.

 
Ysgol Bro Edern, Cardiff

This is Cardiff's long-awaited third Welsh-medium secondary school. Although it has existed as a separate entity for the last year, it was located in temporary accommodation on the site of Ysgol Gyfun Glantaf. But it has now moved to a permanent new home in the buildings that used to house St Teilo's, while St Teilo's has moved into a brand new building which is so nice that it would be better not to show any pictures of it here. Let's not be envious ... well, not too envious!

It's much better to look on the bright side. Here are some pictures of Ysgol Bro Edern's new home:

     

     

The school has a new sign over the front entrance and even its own bus stop outside ... and the view from the top is fantastic.

     

     

     

There are lots of school buildings in Wales that are in worse condition. The important thing is that Cardiff now has a third Welsh-medium secondary school, with capacity for some 1,100 children, in a good location to serve the eastern part of the city. These are things that are worth celebrating. What matters more is the quality of the education and the dedication and enthusiasm of the staff, the pupils and their parents. I wish them every success as they stretch their wings and establish their own identity and ethos.

The next problem for Cardiff will be to find a location for a fourth Welsh-medium secondary – something that needs to be thought about now, because with the massive growth in Welsh-medium primary education in Cardiff, it will be necessary in only a few years' time.

Catering for demand

Work on the new Ysgol Treganna in Cardiff is progressing nicely. But it looks like the number of parents clamouring to move into the catchment area so that their children will get a Welsh-medium place is so great that a new housing development is going to be built right next to the school (on the right in the first picture) to accommodate them.

     

     

And very pleasant it is too. But at this rate another new Welsh-medium school will be needed. How about just the other side of that footbridge?

Steady Progress in Cardiff

I hardly think this will be a great surprise, but Cardiff Council have just confirmed that there were no statutory objections to the proposal to build new three form entry premises for Ysgol Treganna on the Sanitorium Road site. This means everything can go ahead without further reference to the Welsh government.

They've also announced that they're going to consult on extending the age range of three primaries to include a nursery class. Two of the three—Ysgol Pen y Groes and Ysgol Pen y Pîl—are recently established Welsh-medium schools. In the words of the news release:

Demand for provision continues to grow and there is need for a long term solution to accommodate the growth.

and

The establishment of a nursery at the school will help meet local demand for high quality, Welsh-medium nursery education.

Onwards and upwards.

Ysgol Treganna

When I wrote this post in September last year, it was clear to me that the problem of finding a new location for Ysgol Treganna had finally been resolved. But that still left the matter of going through the necessary procedures to make it happen.

The proposal went out for formal consultation in January, and the public responses have now been collected and appraised in this report which will go to the Executive of Cardiff Council on Thursday. The public view was overwhelmingly in favour (there were only two objections) although some of those in favour had concerns over the size of the school and its close proximity to Pwll Coch.

It goes without saying that it will be voted through; but under the rather ridiculous rules that govern schools reorganization, even one objection is enough for it to be referred to the Welsh Government for a final decision. However it's very hard to see any minister for education rejecting it, for the issue is very simple, as this comment from the children at Treganna, Tan yr Eos and Pwll Coch says perfectly:

It is a good idea as it gives more children the chance to learn through Welsh.

How could we put it any better? ... and there is a selection of other views from the children starting on page 29. Their comments are illuminating because it's nice to see things from a child's perspective, and good that the children in all three of the schools affected were asked.

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But there were two other things that are worth noting. The first concerns how the school will be paid for:

The issue of how the new school would be afforded was raised at several of the public meetings, with concern that in the current climate the Welsh Assembly may not be able to support the Council’s bid for funding. Furthermore there has been a suggestion that if all investment is put toward building a new school there will be less available for others.

Appraisal of views expressed

As part of the continuous review of the consolidated financial model, officers engaged in discussions with WAG officials on the level of support that could be made available in response to Cardiff’s programme-based approach to its Schools Building Improvement Grant (SBIG) Tranche 3 funding bid, which focuses on proposals in East Cardiff. As a result of these discussions additional support of £5.7m is now available. This has the effect of increasing the overall resources available within the consolidated model to support the Canton Primary Provision proposal to £6.185m.

Other schools with investment needs remain reliant on the outcome of the Council’s 21st Century Strategic Outline Programme bids.

It shouldn't really be any surprise that the Welsh Government made more money available in order to build this school. The row that erupted at Carwyn Jones' decision not to allow the school to move to the Lansdowne Primary site would have resulted in a judicial review unless there had been some sort of understanding that the Welsh Government would fund a substantial part of a completely new school. What has happened makes Rhodri Morgan's claim that the school might not be built because funding had not been secured look pathetic and foolish. As I said at the time, he was simply playing the "innocent ignoramus" in a rather clumsy attempt to make it appear that a deal had not been done. It's a political technique at which he is an undoubted past master, but I have no time for that way of doing politics.

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The second thing that I found interesting are these comments about Welsh-medium provision in Grangetown, because although this proposal will solve the WM needs of Canton for the next three or four years, the downside is that Tan yr Eos will now close, leaving children in Grangetown with a far longer journey.

Dr Gwenllian Lansdown – Chief Executive, Plaid Cymru

I fully support the option offered which is to build a brand new school off Sanatorium Road. If Ysgol Tan yr Eos is to close then careful consideration is needed to ensure Welsh education is extended in the Grangetown area of the city. It is obvious that Ysgol Pwll Coch and Ysgol Treganna cannot meet the demand and there will be a need for another school in the South of the city very soon.

Cerys Furlong, Richard Cook & Ramesh Patel – Labour Councillors for Canton

Canton Councillors wholeheartedly support the proposal for a new build Ysgol Treganna on a site we identified off Sanatorium Road, and have been working to encourage Canton residents to back the proposals. We agree that the catchment areas need to be revised, however we remain concerned at the particularly large catchment for Ysgol Gymraeg Pwll Coch. We believe that further consideration needs to be given to the need for a Welsh- medium primary school in the Grangetown (and Butetown) area, alongside these proposals. Any delay in considering this demand will only lead to further problems with demand exceeding supply.

As I said before, these three Labour councillors claiming that this solution was their idea was in fact the surest indication that a deal had been done; but the proposal for a new school was Plaid Cymru's idea and formed part of the Capital Vision document agreed between Plaid and the LibDems after the 2008 election. This plan was thwarted because the Welsh Government said that they would not consider a new build solution while there were so many surplus places in the existing schools.

But it is good to see that there is now a degree of cross-party support for another new WM school in Grangetown. The Council document did give us an insight into Cardiff's thinking on the matter in response to some views expressed in the consultation:

Views expressed

Concern expressed regarding the growing demand for Welsh-medium education from Grangetown and Butetown and suggestions that rather than build a 3 FE school the Council should have considered building a 1FE/2FE nearer to the bay. Sites suggested include The Marl playing fields adjacent to Ferry Road and the old cigar factory on Penarth Road. Some have also asked whether Tan yr Eos could remain a school in its own right and be relocated permanently in the Grangetown/Butetown area, in addition to providing the enlarged Ysgol Gymraeg Treganna.

Appraisal of views expressed

The proposed new school is intended to address demand coming from in and around the Canton area. The rise in the birth rate in the area as a whole, coupled with the steadily increasing demand for Welsh-medium education means that there is a need for a 3FE school in the Canton area.

It is acknowledged that beyond this proposal there will be a need to consider further provision to ensure the availability of sufficient places to cater for the demand from the Riverside, Grangetown and Butetown areas.

The Marl Recreation Ground has been investigated previously and was deemed unsuitable owing to issues relating to an existing deficiency of Public Open Space (POS) in the locality along with difficulties associated with being able to satisfactorily compensate for the loss of POS.

‘The Marl’ is located in the Grangetown Ward, which has a deficiency of recreational and play space relative to the standard contained in planning policy (the 2nd largest deficiency out of the city’s 29 Wards). Furthermore the next nearest facility with comparable facilities is Sevenoaks Parks which does not have any capacity to accept additional facilities to compensate for the loss of the POS at the Marl. Clearly, in a heavily built up inner city area, where POS is already deficient, the opportunities for compensating for the loss of POS will be few.

In contrast the Sanatorium site is amenity POS in an area with a reasonable supply of POS and the Council is able to fund some improvements to the POS available at the site.

The site previously known as the ‘Freemans Cigar Factory’ is in private ownership. Whilst it is no longer used for cigar production it remains intended for commercial use with planning permission granted for this site in December 2010 for “Partial demolition of front elevation of existing buildings and various buildings on site and sub-division of existing commercial unit to create 20 smaller units with revised parking and boundary treatment”.

Ysgol Tan yr Eos was established in order to relieve pressure on Ysgol Gymraeg Treganna and Ysgol Gymraeg Pwll Coch and was intended to remain on its current site at Ninian Park Primary School for a period of two years. The proposed new school will be able to meet demand from in and around Canton with the enlargement of the catchment area meaning some of the pressure will be taken off the demand for places at Ysgol Pwll Coch; thereby allowing it to provide more places for the some of the increased demand from the Grangetown/Butetown areas that remain within its catchment area.

In addition, demand for English-medium provision within the Ninian Park Primary School catchment area is such that the facilities currently occupied by Ysgol Tan yr Eos will soon be required by Ninian Park Primary School.

At least this shows that Cardiff have considered sites for a new WM school in Grangetown, but it's something else again to actually make a firm decision on which site to develop. The only certainty is that the parental demand for WM education in Cardiff is going to keep on growing, so they need to be working on a solution now.

A foundation for Cardiff's fourth WM secondary

I have to admit to being a little surprised by the decision to allow Whitchurch High School in Cardiff to become a Foundation School, especially in the light of the proposed Education Measure that would prevent schools becoming Foundation Schools in future. I assume that Leighton Andrews concluded that he could not reasonably block the application under the current rules. That's fair enough. I don't have any doubt that the school is perfectly capable of running its own affairs outside local authority control.

However in this instance, it seems that the major motive behind the application has been to sidestep Cardiff's plan to reduce it from a twelve form entry to a ten form entry school. Cardiff's reasons for wanting to do this were:

In recent years there has been a significant fall in the number of children residing in the catchment area of Whitchurch High School whose parents/guardians are requesting an English-medium education. This fall means that Whitchurch High School would have to rely in future on a much larger proportion of pupils commuting from across the city, if it were to operate at a size similar to its present level.

Establishing the school at 10 forms of entry will not only meet the future needs of the children in the local area but will also help to ensure that pupils in other areas of the city also continue to have a viable school in their local area. As school budgets at every school are largely dependent upon numbers on roll, these proposals aim to ensure that secondary schools have a more stable budget and can plan for a viable future.

Cardiff Council Website

My primary concern is the provision of Welsh-medium education; so even though the future size of the High School was part of Cardiff's overall proposals for reorganization of schools in the Whitchurch area, it was of much less concern to me than finding a solution to the problems of overcrowding and over-reliance on substandard temporary accommodation at Ysgol Melin Gruffydd. Leighton Andrew's decision at the end of January has at least found a solution to that.

However, alongside the need to increase Welsh-medium provision, Cardiff does have the problem of large numbers of surplus places in its English-medium schools at both primary and secondary level. Now to my way of thinking a twelve from entry school is much too large; but that's only my opinion, and I'm more than happy for parents to be free to make that choice for themselves. Yet as Cardiff said, one reason for reducing the intake at Whitchurch High was to increase the numbers of children going to other English-medium secondary schools in the city so that these areas "continue to have a viable school in their local area". The inevitable consequence of Whitchurch High remaining as 12FE school is that Cardiff will now have to look elsewhere to reduce the number of surplus places in the secondary sector, which will almost certainly mean closing one school.

And that, of course, will provide an obvious opportunity to create a fourth Welsh-medium secondary in Cardiff.

Cardiff currently has two WM secondaries, with a third due to open on the old St Teilo's site in September 2012. But the rapid increase in the numbers of children at WM primaries means that this fourth WM secondary will be needed by around 2015 or 2016. Any ideas as to where it might be?

Consistent inconsistency

I knew that Jonathan Morgan, the Tory MP for Cardiff North, was unhappy with the decision to reorganize schools in the Whitchurch area of Cardiff from Twitter:

I am shocked that Labour ministers have deserted the people of Whitchurch with their support of schools reorganisation plan.

WAG decision to back school changes in Whitchurch no benefit to English or Welsh medium schools. Labour don't deserve to govern after May.

Wondering if WAG open to judicial review on Whitchurch schools - inconsistent with Canton decision. One rule for them another for Whitchurch.

Following on from that, there is a rather garbled story in today's South Wales Echo, which somehow manages to claim that four primary schools will be closed by the decision.

But Jonathan Morgan is just going off on one without giving much thought to what he's saying. He claims that:

The issues there reflect the issues facing Whitchurch yet the minister has taken a decision which is inconsistent with his decision in the west of Cardiff.

In fact education minister Leighton Andrews refused to make the decision not to allow Treganna to move to the Lansdowne building: he transferred the decision to Carwyn Jones. Yet that detail aside, the problem is not that the Whitchurch decision is inconsistent with the Canton decision, but that the Canton decision was inconsistent with the Welsh Government's stated policies. Mr Morgan simply wants one wrong decision to become a precedent for another wrong decision.

As for his idea that the Whitchurch decision had:

completely deserted local families

He is rather ignoring the fact that there simply isn't enough demand from local families to support both Eglwys Wen and Eglwys Newydd at their current size. A large number of children going to these schools are not from local families, but from families outside their catchment areas. As we can see from the figures here, only 205 out of 326 at Eglwys Newydd and 158 out of 280 at Eglwys Wen were from the two catchment areas combined. This means that 237 children going to these schools were not from local families at all.
 

 
Update, 5 February 2011

I can't find a direct link to the decision letter, but I've embedded the Guardian's version from this page.

 

Swansea and Cardiff

It looks like Leighton Andrews makes decisions in batches, for hot on the heels of yesterday's announcement that a new WM school has been given the go ahead in Swansea comes the decision to allow Cardiff to reorganize schools in Whitchurch.

     Whitchurch schools shake-up gets go-ahead

The basic issue was that Whitchurch did not have enough children in the area to support both Eglwys Wen and Eglwys Newydd as two-form entry English-medium schools, and that these were only the size they were because of children coming from outside the area. Coupled with that, Melin Gruffydd—the WM school that currently shares a site with Eglwys Wen—was continually expanding resulting in an intolerable situation for both schools. Something had to be done, it was a question of what.

As I've said before in much more detail, I thought the ideal solution would have been to keep Eglwys Newydd as it is, but to build a brand new one form entry school at Heol Don for Eglwys Wen to move into, leaving Melin Gruffydd to use the whole site they currently share. As I read the situation, the main objection to that is that Cardiff prefer fewer, larger schools. The cost of building a new school would probably not have been that much greater than the extensive rebuilding work that will be necessary to convert the Eglwys Newydd building into a two-form entry WM school.

But we don't always get what we want, and even though the plan now approved by the Welsh Government is not as good as it might have been, it will do. It doesn't do anything to increase WM provision, for Melin Gruffydd's intake is already over 60, but it achieves the main goal of reducing the overcrowding on the shared site, allowing a each school a stable, sustainable future that doesn't rely on inadequate temporary accommodation.

     

As we can see from the aerial photo above, the Eglwys Newydd building is on a long, narrow site. The plan, as shown below, is to take down the temporary accommodation and build a new junior block which will take up all the hard play area to the south. It's all a lot tighter than I would like, but perhaps the detailed plan will not be so bad. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

     

As these two decisions have come at the same time, it provides an opportunity to look at the difference in attitude between Cardiff and Swansea Councils towards the expansion of WM education.

Swansea started by doing the right thing. They were one of the first local authorities to commission a proper survey of parental wishes, and if they had got their way Llwynderw would have been built as a 2 FE rather than 1.5 FE school. It was the Welsh Government that refused to allow a larger school to be built. But since then Swansea have sat on their hands and done nothing to increase the provision of WM places to meet the parental demand for it. The new WM school at Graig is their first new initiative for years, even though their own survey showed that 36% of parents would choose a WM school if there was one near them.

My greatest criticism of Cardiff is that they have never bothered to commission a survey of parental preferences. Yet they know that the demand must be there, and have taken steps to continually increase WM provision anyway. Although they've had problems with their proposals for Canton and Whitchurch in particular, their proposals for other parts of the city have been implemented without any real problems. Because of that, the number of WM places in Cardiff is continually growing. However, when they eventually do commission the survey, I'm sure they'll find they need to increase WM provision much more than they have to date.

In short, Cardiff's attitude has been to push forward proposals and to keep coming up with more if any of them fall though. It's sometimes messy, but it gets a result. Swansea's attitude for the past few years has been to ignore the wishes of parents, and do as little as they can get away with.

Cardiff's next Welsh-medium school

Cardiff published a consultation document on the new school to replace Treganna this week. Download it by clicking the image:

     

Nearly everything in it as we've been led to expect, and I can't imagine there'll be any serious objections. It's going to be a three-from entry school built on land owned by the council off Sanatorium Road, between the Arjo Wiggins paper mill site and Lansdowne Surgery.

     

The catchment areas for Treganna and Pwll Coch are to be revised as shown below. Again, nothing surprising. Perhaps they are a bit awkward because the two schools will be only a few hundred metres apart, but there is no other sensible way of doing it.

     

However there was one thing that particularly stood out in the document. This table shows the Welsh-medium intake for the current school year and the projected intake for the next three:

     

Pwll Coch is a 2FE school, and the new Treganna will be 3FE. This means that their combined intake capacity (admission number) will be 150 children. The problem is that the demand is projected to be 157 in September 2012 and 171 in September 2013, which is when the new school will open. Therefore even this new 3FE school (which is already bigger than I'd like any primary school to be) will be inadequate to meet the demand.

So where are the additional 21 places a year going to come from in 2013? A number which will certainly keep on growing in subsequent years. It should be very obvious that yet another WM school will be needed, and looking at the catchment area map, it seems obvious that this needs to be somewhere in Grangetown.

The possibilities will be either to build a new school, or for the new WM school to be set up in an existing EM school building. There are six in that part of the WM catchment area, four in Grangetown (Ninian Park, Grangetown, St Paul's CiW and St Patrick's RC) and two in Butetown (Mount Stuart and St Mary the Virgin CiW). Looking at the capacities and current numbers, two are over capacity, none of the others has any great number of surplus places, and the numbers in all but one are growing. So I don't want to put any of them into the firing line. The only general point I would make is that as more children go to WM schools, fewer will go to other schools. A proper analysis of population trends and parental preferences would be needed before any proposals could be made.

But it is clear that a solution does need to be worked out, and worked out urgently, because even on the day it is opened the new 3FE school will not be big enough to meet the parental demand for WM education in this part of Cardiff.

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However I do think there is an obvious temporary solution that might give bit of breathing space. At present, Tan yr Eos operates as an overflow for Treganna, but also draws children from Grangetown. Tan yr Eos was intended to be a temporary arrangement for a year of two in the existing buildings of Ninian Park Primary, but has now had to be enlarged with temporary accommodation in Sevenoaks Park. This is definitely not a good permanent arrangement, yet to me there seems to be no reason why the children presently there should not transfer to the new school as planned, but that Tan Yr Eos should begin again as a new starter class which can take the 21 places need in Grangetown in 2013 and maybe an additional 30 in 2014, to then move to permanent accommodation in 2015 at the latest. For that reason, I think it would be premature to arrange to dispose of the accommodation presently used by Tan yr Eos.

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The new Treganna on the Sanatorium Road site is designed to meet the existing, long-standing problems of overcrowding in Canton. It's taken a long time to get to this point, and it is now the only solution available. But the real challenge is to keep ahead of the game so that children in Grangetown won't have to endure the same sort of overcrowding. If Cardiff don't work on a solution now, the same problems are inevitable. As always, they need to be planning for the city's next Welsh-medium school.