Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles.
One app.

Start reading

Get all your news in one place.

100’s of premium titles. One news app.

Start reading

Wales Online

National

Abbie Wightwick

The hardest secondary schools to get a place at in Cardiff in 2023 revealed

Cardiff (Geopolitical Entity) Rob Browne Cardiff Council

The most in demand secondary schools in Cardiff have been revealed with places are confirmed for September. Families heard whether or not their child had got into the school of their choice in the city today.

Parents have now been told if their children have secondary school places for September. They have until March 15 to accept offers. Anyone wanting to appeal must do so by March .

Once again Cardiff High was the most oversubscribed maintained secondary in the city, although applications and refusals fell this year. It had to turn down 295 applications compared with 379 refusals last year and 336 the year before. It currently accepts 240 children every year but received 535 applications this year, well down on the 619 applications last year.

The second most popular school once again was Fitzalan High. It had 149 more applications than spaces, but again this was down on last year when it had 173 more applications than spaces to offer. Radyr Comprehensive had 325 applications for 240 places and Llanishen Comprehensive received 337 applications for 300 spaces.

Welsh medium secondaries Ysgol Glan Taf and Ysgol Plasmawr also had slightly more applications than places to give. Ysgol Glan Taf with 240 places had to turn away 17 applications while Plasmawr, with 210 places, had to refuse 15.

Cathays High, Eastern High and Cantonian all of which were slightly over subscribed last year, had fewer applications than places to offer this year. Willows High and Ysgol Bro Edern also had more places than applications to start in September 2023.

The list, from Cardiff Council, does not include applications and offers to Whitchurch High or the city’s religious secondary schools – Corpus Christi, Bishop of Llandaff, St Teilo’s, Mary Immaculate, and St Illtyd’s. Applications to some of these are not done through the same process as applications to maintained secondary schools. Offers from these schools are due imminently.

Cardiff Council said the city is entering a spike in demand for secondary school places and to address this an additional 90 spaces have been added for September 2023. As of today there are still 246 places available across the city after the initial offers and 156 duplicate offers in the system being held across the city - these include children who have also applied to a faith school or Whitchurch High and are waiting to hear back.

The council said 93.8% of children who applied have secured one of their preferences for secondary school in September place, up from 92.3% last year, while 98% of children have got a place in one of their top three preferences up from 92.7% last year.

A potential 402 available places will be released into the system for reallocation during the next round of offers, as those parents who applied for faith or private schools and may have more than one offer, decide which they would prefer and release places into the system for reallocation.

Cabinet Member for Education, Employment and Skills, Cllr Sarah Merry said: “I sympathise with those who have not received the offer they would have liked, however this is only the first round of offers and places will be released into the system for reallocation, as parents who applied for faith schools decide which place to take up.

“The trend of improvement across Cardiff schools continues, and although the council recognises that some schools are more popular with parents than others at the moment, a more even demand for places is being created for the future.”

Appeals

Parents of children who don't get the secondary school places they want can appeal, but chances of winning are slim. Data from Cardiff Council shows for the school year 2020-21 of 423 appeals just 53 were upheld. In 2020-21 there were 407 appeals, only 40 of which were successful and in 2019-2020 just 39 out of 457 appeals were agreed.

The oversubscribed schools

Some of the children refused places may be able to get into the school if not all of those given places accept them.

Cardiff High