Lansdowne Primary School

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Lansdowne Primary School is a Victorian primary school that opened in 1898 and still serves its original purpose today. The school is located on Norfolk Street, in the district of Cardiff called Canton.

Beginnings

Lansdowne Primary School opened its doors to pupils in 1898.

Present day

In the last 20 years the school has seen the fabric of the building being renovated with new double glazing on the first floor of the Juniors building. In the mid 1990's a nursery school was added and about a year after the schools centenary year the over grown and neglected nature garden was removed. On the cusp of the new Millennium the long standing headmaster, Mr Davies retired and was presented with a wooden garden bench as a mark of gratitude from staff and pupils. In the early 2000's Lansdowne School was granted grade 2 Listing as a historic building.

Today Lansdowne Primary School is a thriving happy and popular multicultural school. There are currently 382 children attending the school from nearly 200 local families. At a time when the Council is trying to promote safe routes to school and local schools for local children 71% of the children attending the school are from the local area and within walking distance. Lansdowne has a popular and over subscribed Nursery Unit.

In November 2007 Cardiff Council proposed to close Lansdowne Primary School to provide a new site for the welsh medium primary school in Canton. Despite the inaccurately quoted empty places argument this proposal would result in english medium capacity in Canton being reduced to 1260 places, despite a forecast english medium population of 1408 by January 2011.

On January 17th 2008 Lansdowne Primary celebrated its 110th Birthday. A strong community focus has been developed over the years with several generations of families having strong connections to the school.

In May 2008 the new Plaid/Lib Dem coalition administration in Cardiff had the foresight in their coalition agreement 'Capital Vision' to make a proposal that will not harm the educational welfare of any children in Canton but in the long run benefit all children with the proposal to provide a new welsh medium primary school in Canton and prevent the unjustified closure of this historic school.