Planning has been approved for Plasdŵr’s first primary school – and with it, the first chance to see its look and feel. 

Expected to open its doors in September 2023, the new school is in Plasdŵr’s Groeswen neighbourhood to the north of the development near Danescourt and Radyr.

Contemporary architecture and colours will feature in the design of the school, 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 of Plasdŵr 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.

Plasdŵr is identified in Cardiff’s Local Development Plan as the largest “strategic site” which will deliver new homes, district and local shopping centres and community infrastructure within phases. Up to 7,000 homes will be built at the site bordering Radyr, Fairwater, Pentrebane and St Fagans. Around 40% of Plasdŵr will be green space, including managed heritage woodland, parks and play areas.

Wayne Rees, Project Director of Plasdŵr, said:

“We’re delighted to have received planning approval to begin work on Plasdŵr’s first primary school. This is an important milestone in the development of Cardiff’s garden city, and although we’ve experienced some delays due to the pandemic, all being well we’re looking forward to starting work on its delivery this summer.

“This school will provide much-needed places for children living at Plasdŵr, as well as its neighbouring communities. 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.

“We’re looking forward to working with the Council on this project, but most importantly we are pleased to be creating a school which will give local children access to high quality education on their doorstep for generations to come.”

A Cardiff Council spokesperson said:

“This is an exciting milestone for the Plasdŵr development, helping Cardiff to deliver its commitment to providing modern, well-equipped learning environments which help improve the lives of children and young people in the community.

“Serving the early phases of the Plasdŵr development and spanning parts of Creigiau, St Fagans, Radyr, Morganstown and Fairwater, the new school will provide amenities accessible to the community during out of school hours.

“It will also present new and exciting opportunities in how the Welsh language is taught to pupils in an English-medium school, delivering an innovative variation on the traditional dual-stream primary school provision and supporting aspirations to grow the Welsh language that Cardiff has set out in its bilingual strategy.”