Ysgol Clywedog

Ysgol Clywedog (English: Clywedog School), is a comprehensive school which serves parts of the town of Wrexham in north-east Wales.

Ysgol Clywedog is located in the south-west suburbs of Wrexham. The school takes its name from the nearby River Clywedog.The school's name was chosen by the public in a competition which the governors of the school judged.

History

In 2001, Wrexham County Borough Council decided to reorganise the secondary schools of Wrexham to solve the problem of surplus places and to update ageing infrastructure by merging the three town schools. The Groves High School, St Davids High School and Ysgol Bryn Offa were closed in July 2003. This was opposed by several staff, parents and pupils of all three schools, and a petition bearing more than 1000 names was made during 2002.^[1] The Welsh Assembly Government reinforced the local councils decision. In 2003 two new schools were established on the sites of St.Davids and Bryn Offa. In the same year work began on the new schools. The Groves site was used to house Rhosnesni High School in 2003/04 and Ysgol Clywedog in 2004/05 ^[2] Both Ysgol Clywedog and Rhosnesni High School were dubbed "super" schools by the media and the local council and were designed to cater for 1200 pupils each.^[1]

Performance

In March 2013 it was announced that the school had been put into special measures due to poor performance.^[3] The Estyn (the equivalent of Ofsted in England)January 2013 report, said that the school was 'Unsatisfactory' in several areas, the worst of the four judgement grades that could be used^[4] By March 2015 the school was removed from special measures following significant improvements in exam results and the quality of teaching.^{[5] [6]} The school achieved record exam results in 2014 and 2015.^[7] It was chosen as one of the 40 'Pathway to Success' participants in the Schools Challenge Cymru; a programme designed for schools anticipated to have the best potential to deliver swift and positive improvements for learners.^[8]

Alumni

Grove Park Grammar School for Boys

• Sir Robert Armstrong-Jones CBE, grandfather of Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon
• Urban H. Broughton, Conservative MP from 1915-18 for Preston
• Eric Corbett, former Archdeacon of Liverpool
• Prof A. H. Dodd
• Prof Austin Gresham, Professor of Morbid Anatomy and Histopathology from 1973-92 at the University of Cambridge
• Surgeon Major Thomas Egerton Hale VC
• Sir Ewart Jones FRS, known for the Jones oxidation, Waynflete Professor of Chemistry from 1955-78 at the University of Oxford, and first President from 1980-82 of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• Sir Philip Myers (police officer), first Chief Constable from 1970-81 of North Wales Police
• Air Chief Marshal Frederick Rosier, Commander-in-Chief from 1966-68 of RAF Fighter Command
• Sir Leonard Rowland
• Hugh Hamshaw Thomas FRS MBE, paleobotanist, President from 1955-58 of the Linnean Society of London
• Martin Thomas, Baron Thomas of Gresford, President from 1993-96 of the Welsh Liberal Democrats
• Bill Westwood, Bishop of Peterborough from 1984-95
• C. E. Wynn-Williams, physicist

Grove Park Grammar School for Girls

• Sandy Mewies, Labour Member of the National Assembly for Wales
• Veronica Roberts, actress
• Karen Sinclair, Labour Member of the National Assembly for Wales

References

External links

• BBC News: 'Super schools' (overspend) funding approved
• BBC News: 'Super' schools plan given green light