Bridgend Council has dismissed concerns about changes to its admissions policy at Caerau Primary School (pdf).
The school admissions forum expressed concern in writing that a decision to formally increase reception intake at Caerau Primary School from 45 places to 60 would negatively impact the Welsh language.
The argument is that increasing English-medium primary school places makes it less likely that parents and guardians would choose to send their children to the closest Welsh-medium primary school – in this case, Ysgol Cynwyd Sant in Maesteg.
The decision to expand Caerau Primary’s reception intake was made due to oversubscription in 2018, which resulted in many children being denied places at the school. The council subsequently unofficially increased reception intake to 60 places, with that move set to be formalised for 2024-25.
BCBC undertook a Welsh language impact assessment (pdf), which concluded that while the decision may harm the Welsh language in the round, it wouldn’t have any impact on Ysgol Cynwyd Sant admissions.
Evidence supporting this showed that the unofficial increase in admission numbers to Caerau Primary since 2018 hasn’t reduced the number of admissions to Ysgol Cynwyd Sant.
In fact, since 2019 applications to Ysgol Cynwyd Sant increased from 8.9% of children living in the catchment area for Caerau Primary School in 2019 to 17.1% in September 2022.
