Marlborough Primary, Cardiff

Marlborough Primary is an English-medium school in Wales. Welsh schools are inspected by Estyn rather than Ofsted, and its latest report is published on Estyn's website.

It had 486 pupils in the 2025/26 school census.

10% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (three-year average).

Of its pupils, 9% have additional learning needs; 11% are learning English as an additional language; and 36% are from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.

Year groups range from 54 pupils (Year 1) to 66 (Year 5).

Its delegated budget for 2026-27 works out at £5,219 per pupil, against £3,843 in 2021-22. It ended 2024-25 with a deficit of £57k.

Estyn's report on its June 2026 inspection summarises Marlborough Primary like this:

"Overall, leaders provide a clear strategic direction and have created an inclusive, supportive community where most pupils are happy, behave well and demonstrate positive attitudes to learning. Leaders and staff share a strong commitment to helping pupils succeed. Consequently, many pupils make good progress from their starting points, including pupils with additional learning needs (ALN), those attending the specialist resource bases (SRBs) and those eligible for free school meals. The school’s curriculum is broad and engaging. It promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development well, helping them to develop as ethically informed citizens. Pupils benefit from opportunities to develop entrepreneurial, independent and life skills. There are strong opportunities for pupils to use and improve their literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum."

"Provision for developing pupils’ digital skills is a particular strength. Opportunities for purposeful exploration and play, indoors and outdoors are less well developed. Teachers provide pupils with many engaging learning experiences. They question pupils thoughtfully and purposefully and provide helpful verbal feedback that supports their progress. Many pupils make effective progress in developing their reading and writing skills and their mathematical knowledge and understanding. Most pupils demonstrate resilience, collaborate well and develop effective thinking skills. However, teachers do not always adapt learning sufficiently well to provide appropriate challenge or support for all pupils, including those in the SRBs."

"Few pupils develop their Welsh language skills strongly. The headteacher has high expectations of staff and pupils. She develops leadership at all levels thoughtfully. Through a model of distributed leadership, the school brings about improvements in provision effectively, for instance in pupils’ digital learning. However, monitoring activities are not always focused sharply enough on teaching and learning. Governors support the school effectively. Leaders do not ensure that the school’s culture of safeguarding is consistently strong."

Estyn made 3 recommendations: (1) Address the issues relating to safeguarding identified during the inspection; (2) Address inconsistencies in teaching to ensure that pupils are challenged and supported consistently; (3) Ensure that pupils have stronger opportunities to influence their learning and to learn through exploration and play, both indoors and outdoors.

The nearest other state primary schools to Marlborough Primary are Stacey Primary School (0.3 miles), Ysgol Y Berllan Deg (0.4 miles), Albany Primary School (0.4 miles) and St Peter's R.C. Primary School (0.5 miles).

The nearest railway station is Cathays Rail Station, about 0.9 miles away in a straight line.

18 bus stops are within a five-minute walk; the closest is Roath Court Place (before), 100 metres away.