Radyr Comprehensive School

Radyr Comprehensive School
Established 1972
Type Comprehensive
Headteacher A.Williams
Chair of Governors Dr David Silver
Location Heol Isaf
Radyr
Cardiff
CF15 8XG
 Wales
Students 1,400
Gender Co-educational
Ages 11–18
Colours

Shirt and Tie with Burgundy Jumper - Juniors

Shirt and Tie with Navy Jumper - Seniors

Shirt and Tie with Grey Jumper and Blazer - 6th Form
Website Radyr Comprehensive School Website

Radyr Comprehensive School (Welsh: Ysgol Gyfun Radur) is a coeducational comprehensive school and Sixth Form college in Radyr, Cardiff, Wales, that opened in 1972. The current roll is around 1,300 students from ages 11–18, with around 320 of those in the sixth form.

The school is controlled by the Cardiff Education Authority.[1][2] For the 2000-01 school year, demand for places from parents exceeded supply.[3]

History Of Radyr Comp.

A view of the school

Prior to 1968, the majority of children from Radyr travelled nine miles to Penarth County Grammar School and St Cyres Secondary Modern School in Penarth by steam train daily, a quicker and easier option than road journeys to closer Cardiff secondary schools. The arrangement ceased when the direct rail route was closed by the Beeching Axe. The new Radyr Comprehensive School opened in 1972. In 2004, a new state-of-the-art sports hall was built for the school, that includes a fitness suite.[1]

In June 2007, the school site was said to be worth £25m, and it was reported by the South Wales Echo that Cardiff Council are considering plans to close the school as part of a reorganisation.[4]

The school was criticised, in February 2008, after pupils aged just 13, were instructed by a teacher to write imaginary suicide notes in an English lesson, in order to "get into the mind of a troubled teenager". This was part of a study of the non-curriculum novel Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman. However, the school is just a few miles from Bridgend where there have been multiple teenage suicides. The headmaster of the school stated that "the task was a 'spontaneous piece of writing' where children were asked not to turn over the page to find out what the letter said - but to write their own version of the suicide note." and "the teacher setting the text did not associate the task with news stories but rather considered it part of the textual study of a serious book dealing with serious issues in a serious way". Several relatives of the recently deceased Bridgend teenagers expressed their sorrow and regret that the unsuitable subject featured in a school project for such young children.[5]

Academic performance

The proportion of pupils who achieved five or more grades A* to C in the 2003 GCSE examinations was well above the national average, though the proportion of students achieving A level success at grades A to C in 2 or more subjects was, however, below the national average.[1] In summer 2007, over 95% of the school's students achieved at least 5 A*-C GCSE grades, the highest yet.

However, in the last Estyn inspection in April 2004, the standards reached in Religious Education at Key Stage 4 were considered unsatisfactory, but the remaining assessments ranged between satisfactory and very good, with notable performances in Art, Music, and Physical Education.[1] In 2005, the school had a major reshuffle of its Religious Education department, hiring new teachers, and a new head for the department. Since this reshuffle the grades achieved in this department have predominantly increased.

Sporting Activities

The new sports hall

The girls' hockey team won the 2002 RAF Careers under-18 Schools Hockey Champions with a win over Chepstow School.[6]

In the Wales Region Hard Track Cycling Championships, held in July 2006, a pupil won the under-14 Girls' Omnium.[7]

Extra-curricular activities

School reception

The School's Big Band was invited to entertain guests at Disneyland Paris in October 2006 and on 1 March 2007.[8] The Band continued touring, and headed to Chicago in August 2008.,[9] for a packed week of events including a performance at the North American Welsh Festival and the Field Museum. The Jazz Band is run by students from 6th form with the help of the music department. The Jazz Band also has a training band which is open to students from Year 7 to Year 11. The Big Band in 2011, were invited back to Disneyland Paris and performed again, this time on the Videopolis (Disneyland Paris) stage.

The school's Green Flag Committee ensure that the school remains loyal to its eco-friendly policy, as set down in late 2008 following the granting of emergency powers to the Committee in order to deal with what was perceived as an imminent threat to the school's environmental well-being. With their main aim to aid the school in achieving the prestigious 'Eco Schools Green Flag Award', the Committee leads by example and tolerates neither litterers nor other undesirable elements. The school currently holds the silver award in the scheme, and is now aiming to achieve the award itself, which would firmly strengthen the influence of the Committee's Chairman, Adolf Barbie. In accordance with this, the green flag committee is affiliated with the Radyr and Morganstown Association. The RGFC has taken proceedings one step further recently, by taking on the duties of providing extra care to Radyr Railway Station as part of the Arriva Trains Wales adopt a station scheme. The Green Flag ceased production in early 2008. However, again in 2010, a subsidiary committee to the school council was set up, they will hopefully continue the work of the RGFC, into the future.

Notable former pupils

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Report of Inspection 26–30 April 2004, Estyn
  2. ↑ "Education", Radyr and Morganstown Community, accessed 14 July 2008
  3. ↑ School Decisions Committee, Cardiff Council, 8 May 2001
  4. ↑ "Shock plan to shut top school", Moira Sharkey, South Wales Echo, 28 June 2007
  5. ↑ "Outrage as pupils in school near 'suicide hotspot' Bridgend are told to write imaginary suicide notes", Luke Salkeld, Daily Mail, 26 February 2008
  6. ↑ "Hockey: Great career move for the Radyr girls.", South Wales Echo, 28 May 2002.
  7. ↑ "Wales Region Hard Track Championships", British Cycling
  8. ↑ "Education Matters", New Directions education, Spring 2007
  9. ↑ "School Newsletter October 2008", Radyr Comprehensive School Newsletter, October 2008
  10. ↑ Rowbottom, Mike. "Athletics: 'I had got sick of people telling me I wasn't running", The Independent, 24 October 2005. Accessed 12 June 2007. "Getting started: Always 'the fast kid at school', Benjamin excelled at sprints, winning first national title in 1997, at 14, in the Under- 17 indoor 200m. He was also the captain of the Welsh roller hockey team as a teenager and played rugby at Radyr Comprehensive in Cardiff."
  11. ↑ Davies, Gareth A. "My Sport: Tim Benjamin", The Daily Telegraph, 8 February 2005. Accessed 12 June 2007. "Running took over aged 14, although I carried on playing rugby for my school, Radyr Comprehensive."
  12. ↑ Bourton, Tom. "On the global Taff Trail", BBC News, 21 August 2002. Accessed 12 June 2007. "Making all the noise this week across the UK media is the premiere of Hollywood meets Bollywood flick The Guru, starring Jimi Mistry and Heather Graham.... I went to school in Radyr, and my wife's from Brecon, so my feet are firmly in Wales - I was always a regular in the hotspots of Cardiff, he said."
  13. ↑ X Factor UK series 6 finalist leak
  14. ↑ David Owens (2012-09-20). "Actor Harry Ferrier takes to the wrong side of the tracks in Before It Rains". Wales Online. Retrieved 2013-07-07.

Official website

Coordinates: 51°30′33.38″N 03°14′52.60″W / 51.5092722°N 3.2479444°W / 51.5092722; -3.2479444

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.