# Cardiff Wales - schools and good suburbs to live?



## lullrich (Feb 22, 2013)

My family and I (Husband and two children 5 and 2.5 year old) are relocating to Cardiff. We don't have jobs, schools, or places to live as yet. We are aware that schools take children based on which suburb you live and we rate this highly. Can anyone recommend good schools/areas to live? Research into this has been difficult and can't seem to find a school rating system or parents forum listing these? Thanks in advance


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## mehemlynn (Nov 16, 2011)

Education in Wales is a little different than in England. There are a few things to watch when you are looking for schools. There are both Welsh language schools. which are going to be listed as "Ysgol..." and English language schools "... school". We live in Llandaff and are still part of the Cardiff council school system. The website to look at the school ratings in Wales is Estyn

School starts as 1/2 day nursery in the term after the 3rd birthday., the Fall placements should be coming out in the next week or two.

Good luck on your search.

M


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

You have evidently not heard of the unemployment rate in Europe posted today ....
19 million people out of work.

You say that you have no jobs, place to live etc and possibly have no experience of Cardiff otherwise you would not be asking the questions.

One must ask as to why you would be moving at this time? and why to Cardiff?


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## cybi2010 (Jan 6, 2013)

lullrich said:


> My family and I (Husband and two children 5 and 2.5 year old) are relocating to Cardiff. We don't have jobs, schools, or places to live as yet. We are aware that schools take children based on which suburb you live and we rate this highly. Can anyone recommend good schools/areas to live? Research into this has been difficult and can't seem to find a school rating system or parents forum listing these? Thanks in advance


Hello. One of the links to help you might be via the Welsh Assembly Government website. It may be that looking at villages just outside the Capital might be more beneficial. Brynna is a lovely little village with two excellent Primary schools. The village is growing but is only 20-minutes from the city centre.
Local senior Councillor is Mr. Roger Turner which you should find under the list of local Councillors.


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## Rhettski (Sep 14, 2012)

I've been living in Cardiff for a bit over two years now. I quite like living in Cardiff, its a nice small city with lots to do, and the countryside is nice and close, great parks (Bute park/pontcanna/llandaff fiels is amazing right in the middle of the city) beaches etc. 

Bad things are the crime, drunks on the weekends in town, and the rubbish everywhere.

I dont have kids so can't comment on schools, but places I think are nice to live are (in the city):

Pontcanna
Llandaff
Heath
Rhiwbina

These are also the more expensive areas. I live in pontcanna and like it as its inner city so i can walk/ride everywhere, but you might want to live somewhere that offers more room for the money if yuo have kids. unless you want to shell out £400k for a place with a garden. there are many nice small villages around out of town if that interests you.

Places I have lived that I don't recommend:
Cardiff Bay - no soul, deserted in winter
Grangetown/riverside/splott/Ely/Gabalfa...

I came with no job and found one quite easily, but there is a significant unemployment problem in Cardiff, so unless you have skills that are in demand you may struggle?


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## lullrich (Feb 22, 2013)

*Thank you!!*

Thank you for your replies!! 
As we are coming from sunny Queensland we chose Cardiff/Bristol as we'd heard they are one of the more temperate parts of the UK. We are concerned about unemployment rates and are crossing fingers that we can land a job. Not to concerned about what we do as long as it pays the bills, but we do have bachelor degree's that hopefully can help. 
Looking on Google maps can be deceiving. We didn't really consider initially living a little out of town as we thought it would be too hard to commute daily. We are used to a poor public transport system in our home town and it takes a good 1/2 hour to drive from one side of town to the other as its so spread out. Looking at national express though it seems very viable in Cardiff for example I noticed Penarth (which looked quiet a distance on the map) has a train leaving every 15 mins to Cardiff and only takes 15 minutes to commute...FANTASTIC!!
Thank you for the suggestions on where to avoid or recommended nice areas, we appreciate it. I think we will hire a car and drive around a day or two to get a feel for the places also! The Eysted is amazing info too! Thanks


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## lullrich (Feb 22, 2013)

cybi2010 said:


> Hello. One of the links to help you might be via the Welsh Assembly Government website. It may be that looking at villages just outside the Capital might be more beneficial. Brynna is a lovely little village with two excellent Primary schools. The village is growing but is only 20-minutes from the city centre.
> Local senior Councillor is Mr. Roger Turner which you should find under the list of local Councillors.


I had just begun to realise how condensed the living was. What's Pontypridd like?


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## Crawford (Jan 23, 2011)

So what visas are you going to use to live in the UK, since neither of you appear to be British citizens?


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## Rhettski (Sep 14, 2012)

Pontipridd is not a particulary nice place to live.

Penarth on the other hand in nice, by the coast, and yes only a short train ride into town. I think it retains a nice village feel even though its pretty much part of Cardiff now.

What do you mean by condensed? Yes in town, the back yard of your house will be small, but the countryside is remarkedly close by.

oh and check out Buy Cheap Train Tickets for Wales & UK with Arriva Trains Wales for local Welsh train routes and timetables.

If you've got any questions about Cardiff I'm happy to help, I'm from Melbourne and been here for 2 1/2 years now.

regards,
Rhettski


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## AmyD (Jan 12, 2013)

_So what visas are you going to use to live in the UK, since neither of you appear to be British citizens?_

I wondered that too, especially since she said they don't have jobs so we know it isn't a company-sponsored visa. I'm really curious.


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## lullrich (Feb 22, 2013)

Crawford said:


> So what visas are you going to use to live in the UK, since neither of you appear to be British citizens?


My husband and children have German Passports and I have an EEA family permit


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