Ambition ‘absolutely there’ to open fourth Welsh-medium secondary school in Welsh capital
Ted Peskett – Local democracy reporter
The leader of Cardiff Council said the ambition is “absolutely there” to open a fourth Welsh-medium secondary school in the city.
Cllr Huw Thomas made his comments at a Cardiff Council cabinet meeting on Thursday, June 19, following a question from Liberal Democrats group leader at the local authority, Cllr Rodney Berman.
Parents in South Cardiff who have to drive their children halfway across the city to go to school are campaigning to get a new Welsh-medium option built closer to where they live.
As well as showing some support for their cause, Cllr Thomas cautioned that a number of steps need to be met before plans for a new school can progress and stressed that it shouldn’t affect existing schools.
Commitment
Answering Cllr Berman’s question on whether the council could soon be in a position to make a clear commitment on a fourth Welsh-medium school, the council leader said: “I think we suffer from decisions around geography that have located the current three Welsh-medium secondary schools… towards the north of the city and in turn that creates [a] long travel distance as we have expanded primary school access to Welsh-medium in the south of the city.
“That means unfortunately learners from those areas are having to travel longer than we would like.
“I think in terms of the will and ambition to establish a fourth medium school, that is absolutely there.
“What we have to be careful [of]… once we solve the challenging issues of site selection and funding, [is] moving froward with an expansion in secondary provision in a way that doesn’t destabilise the existing secondary schools either.
“Given where we are with birth rates and what is coming through and what we know is coming through the primary system, there is confidence in capacity at secondary level currently, or certainly that capacity can be managed.”
Campaigners
Cardiff Council data shows that the percentage of pupils admitted to Welsh-medium education has increased from 16.6% to 17.7% between 2014/15 to 2024/25.
Data from the local authority also shows that the percentage of four-year-old pupils attending Welsh-medium nursery has gone up from 13.8% in 2017/18 to 19.7% in 2024/25.
The existing Welsh-medium secondary schools in Cardiff are Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Plasmawr, and Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Bro Edern.
Campaigners calling for a fourth school have gathered outside Cardiff Council’s headquarters at County Hall a number of times over the past year and continue to put pressure on Cardiff Council and Cllr Thomas to enact a plan for the future.
Cllr Thomas told cabinet members that he intends to meet with campaigners and “work together to chart a way forward on this”.
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This is very much in keeping with Labour’s Welsh language policy generally – theoretical ambition in spades, but practical action? None.
I think ‘theorerical ambition in spades’ is the best summary of Welsh Labour in general that I’ve ever heard!
How can it be that the whole of South Cardiff has not a single Welsh-medium secondary school? In terms of population it’s a huge region, with some of the most deprived communities in the country and one of the few areas in Wales that isn’t almost entirely white. With all the talk of a million speakers, all the talk of a modern Wales where everyone belongs, how can it be that these children, living just down the road from the Senedd, don’t have the same opportunity as everyone else to become Welsh speakers?