Cowbridge Comprehensive School | |
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Information | |
Type | Co-educational secondary comprehensive |
Motto | Education, inspiration and opportunities for life |
Established | 1974 (Original Grammar School 1608 and Girls High School 1896) |
Local authority | Vale of Glamorgan |
Head teacher | Debra Thomas [1] |
Age | 11to 18 |
Website | http://www.cowbridgecomprehensiveschool.co.uk |
Cowbridge Comprehensive School is a secondary school in the town of Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan, near Cardiff, Wales.
The school has approximately 1,500 pupils, 1,200 of whom are in the secondary years and 300 in the sixth-form years studying for Welsh Baccalaureate, GCSEs and A-Levels.
The present school buildings are located on Aberthin road, on the north-eastern outskirts of Cowbridge, in a semi-rural location. [2]
When the comprehensive school opened in 1974, replacing the former grammar school, the Sixth Form (Year 12-13) was based in the former Girls' High School building and the Middle School close by in Aberthin Road, whilst the Lower School (Years 7 and 8) were housed in the south-west of the town, nearer to the town centre. On 4 December 2008, a fire started in one of the temporary buildings at the lower school at about 08:26 am. About 400 11- to 13-year-olds were evacuated to Cowbridge Leisure Centre, and smoke was visible around Cowbridge as firefighters extinguished the fire. The lower school was temporarily closed whilst the building was made safe. No one was in the classroom at the time of the fire.
However, after the redevelopment of the school buildings, all departments were moved onto the main site, which catered for all ages, including years 7 to 13 and ATG. The buildings at the middle school site, which was under redevelopment from early 2009, were demolished and replaced with housing.
The new school buildings are on a single site in Aberthin Road; the development is estimated to have cost £21.5 million. The redevelopment of the main site included the complete construction of a new main building (A-Block) and the refurbishment of several existing buildings. In addition to this, a multitude of sports facilities were constructed. Several of these new facilities can be used by the public outside school hours. [3]
The new site opened to pupils for the first time in September 2010. The subsequent restriction on parents entering the school to drop off children, introduced in early 2015, resulted in criticism of the school's car park design and reports of near-accidents. [4] In the same year, the Vale of Glamorgan Council decided to amend the design of the reception area and extend sixth-form provision, the number of pupils having risen from 312 in 2013 to an estimated 406. [5]
In 2013, the Vale of Glamorgan Council passed the trusteeship of the Cowbridge Comprehensive School Trust to the Sir Thomas Mansel Franklen Trust, an arrangement that was inherited from the original Cowbridge Grammar School (whose main buildings were sold and redeveloped as apartments). [6]
Proposals were released in 2019 for the comprehensive school to be expanded to a "super school" for students aged between 3 and 18, requiring two new primary school buildings to be built on the premises. These were completed and opened in September 2023. [7] [8]
The Vale of Glamorgan, locally referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol Channel to the south. With an economy based largely on agriculture and chemicals, it is the southernmost unitary authority in Wales. Attractions include Barry Island Pleasure Park, the Barry Tourist Railway, Medieval wall paintings in St Cadoc's Church, Llancarfan, Porthkerry Park, St Donat's Castle, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park and Cosmeston Medieval Village. The largest town is Barry. Other towns include Penarth, Llantwit Major, and Cowbridge. There are many villages in the county borough.
Cowbridge is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately 12 miles (19 km) west of the centre of Cardiff.
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Barry is a town and community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. It is on the north coast of the Bristol Channel approximately 9 miles (14 km) south-southwest of Cardiff. Barry is a seaside resort, with attractions including several beaches and the resurrected Barry Island Pleasure Park. According to Office for National Statistics 2021 estimate data, the population of Barry was 56,605.
Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys (TWGSB) is a grammar school in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England.
Aberthin is a small village, just outside Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, on the north side of a shallow valley, less than a mile northeast of Cowbridge across the A48 road. Cowbridge Comprehensive School lies just to the southwest of the village. About 250 metres to the south is an old quarry, with a "faulted strip of grey oolite". Aberthin is also the name of a brook, the River Aberthin. The village was served by the Aberthin Platform railway station between 1905 and 1920, now a field to the west of Aberthin.
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Cowbridge Grammar School was one of the best-known schools in Wales until its closure in 1974. It was replaced by Cowbridge Comprehensive School.
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Cowbridge with Llanblethian is a community in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, which incorporates Llanblethian and the town of Cowbridge. It also covers the village of Aberthin to the northeast of Cowbridge. The population was 4,063 in 2011.
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Pendoylan is a rural village and community (parish) in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. The village has won many awards in Best Kept Village competitions and contains 27 entries in the Council's County Treasures database, 13 of which are listed buildings.
Stanwell School is a co-educational foundation status comprehensive school and Sixth form college located in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, for children aged between eleven and eighteen. The school is in the town of Penarth, 5 mi (8.0 km) south-west from Cardiff.
Brynteg School is one of the largest secondary schools in Wales. It is located on Ewenny Road in Bridgend, Wales. The school is one of seven comprehensive schools in the County Borough of Bridgend and mainly receives pupils from the Brackla, Litchard and Town Centre (Morfa) areas.
This article details a number of defunct schools that were once located in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. For details of currently operating schools in the area, please see: List of schools in Dudley.
The River Thaw is a river in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales. At 20 kilometres/12.4 miles, it is the longest river entirely in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Cowbridge Girls School is a former school in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. Designed by Robert Williams and built in 1896, it was the first school for girls built under the Welsh Intermediate Education Act 1889 and has been described as the first secondary school for girls in England and Wales. Unusually for a girls' school of the period it was built with a laboratory to allow the girls to study science. The school merged with Cowbridge Comprehensive School in 1974 and the building was used to house the combined school's sixth form until 2010. The building was sold to Hafod housing association in 2018 and in 2022 the Vale of Glamorgan Council granted permission for it to be demolished and replaced with a development of flats and houses, despite a local campaign to preserve it.