St Cyres School

Coordinates: 51°26′17″N 3°11′42″W / 51.438°N 3.195°W / 51.438; -3.195

St Cyres School

Established	1958
Type	Comprehensive school and Sixth Form College
Headteacher	Dr J P Hicks
Chair of Governors	Mrs A Males OBE
Location	Sully Road Penarth Vale of Glamorgan CF64 2XP  Wales
Students	1,100
Gender	Co-educational
Ages	11–18
Colours	Black Grey Red
Former Pupils	Old St Cyrians
Fundraising body	Friends of St Cyres
Website	St Cyres School Website

St Cyres School is a British co-educational Comprehensive school and Sixth form college located in the town of Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, 5.2 miles south west of the Welsh capital city, Cardiff. The school prides itself on pioneering the Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification, and its notable alumni, including international sportsmen and sportswomen.

The school enrols 1100 pupils between the ages of eleven and eighteen, through years seven to thirteen. The thriving Sixth Form has around 250 students.

Until June 2012, St Cyres School was split over two sites: the larger site at Penarth, and a smaller lower school (years 7 to 9) in the nearby village of Dinas Powys. The school has since been unified and moved into a new site, in the Penarth Learning Community.

Headmasters

Brian Lightman - Former headmaster Brian Lightman led St Cyres School for many years, before embarking on a secondment - subsequently becoming General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.

History

The school has had three names in its short history: St Cyres Secondary Modern School, St Cyres Comprehensive School, and, now, St Cyres School.

The school was established in 1958 and celebrated its 50th anniversary year during the Autumn term of 2008. Several special events took place marking the landmark anniversary.

Between 1958 and 1968 the school roll was bolstered by children from Radyr on the other side of Cardiff as it was quicker and easier for them to travel the nine miles by train to Penarth and attend either St Cyres Secondary Modern or Penarth Grammar School, than it was to walk or drive to nearer Cardiff schools. The arrangement only ceased when the direct rail link was removed by the Beeching axe.

Intake

The school is associated with five primary 'feeder' schools situated in Penarth and surrounding villages. Although, through parental choice, there has been admittance from pupils further afield, from Barry to Cardiff.

St Cyres School takes pride in its acceptance of many pupils with physical disabilities, hearing impairments, and other learning difficulties. Furthering this, the school provides pastoral care for students, with each year group having a Director of Pupil Progress and all students having a learning coach (née tutor).

Until 2014

The Penarth Site was divided into five parts, each built at different times: the Old Block, the Annexe, the New Block, the Terrapins ), and, the Science Block. The Penarth Site's 'New Block' (which housed the sciences, mathematics, geography, and the Sixth Form) was considered to be the highest vantage point in Penarth.

Until the creation of the new site, the school was in dire need of refurbishment. The school was due to receive a refurbishment and rebuild as part of a development package proposed by the Vale of Glamorgan Council to the value of £18 million. The package would also feature the refurbishment of two other schools in the county (Cowbridge Comprehensive school and Llantwit Major Comprehensive school). The estimate was that work would start at St Cyres in January 2011 with completion by early 2012, but funding delays prevented that original timescale.^[1]

The delayed development, which was eventually spared the axe in Cardiff Bay cost savings, was replaced with a £48 million plan that would see the transformation of the St Cyres site into a brand new learning campus, incorporating St Cyres School on a single site, along with Ysgol Er’w Delyn, Ashgrove and Maes Dyfan special schools. Completion would see the school reunited on the single Penarth site with the Dinas Powys lower school being closed.^[2]

St Cyres New Block

Welsh Baccalaureate

St Cyres has been one of the leading pioneer centres for the introduction and development of the Welsh Baccalaureate and was one of the very first schools to offer the course at Advanced Level (A Level) in Wales. St Cyres was also one of the first schools to offer the qualification at Intermediate level (GCSE). The Course has proved very successful, with many leading Assembly Members commenting on the course.

Penarth Learning Community

The Penarth Learning community is a key element to the 21st century schools investment program with the funding scheme provided by the Welsh Government and Vale of Glamorgan council under the Welsh Government 21st century program.

The project marked another step in the transformation of education delivery within the Vale of Glamorgan.

The site is located on the western edge of Penarth and the new build spreads onto the old St Cyres playing fields. The two schools (St Cyres School, and the SEN school) are accommodated within one building. St Cyres holds a larger section of the building, with 11,851 sqm, and the SEN school a gross internal area of 7,942 sqm.

Fairtrade school

In 2008, St Cyres was granted "Fairtrade status" by Fair Trade Wales and became the first secondary school in Penarth to be so recognised.^[3] It was also one of the first Fairtrade schools in the Principality. Penarth has been a "Fairtrade Town" since 2006. The school has a long-standing link with the Penarth Town Fairtrade Forum and its support was recognised when Penarth became the first Fairtrade Town in the area. The Forum consists of the Town Mayor, local councillors and business people, representatives from the voluntary sector and the school has had teacher and pupil representatives as members for twelve years. The pupils who run the Fairtrade scheme in the school were recognised in October 2009 by the award of the prestigious national Diana Award for Excellence"School of the Month". Fair Trade Wales. Retrieved October 18, 2011.  - made to groups of young people who have given of their time and energy to help others over a prolonged period. Under the chairmanship of Penarth Councillor Mark Wilson, the forum has gone from strength to strength and is delighted that the school is once again at the forefront of the forum.

Shares4Schools

St Cyres School was the only school in Wales that took part in the Shares4Schools investment competition, using real funds, amongst 84 schools in the rest of the UK.^[4]

The competition started in October 2007 and ran until June 2008, organised and partially sponsored by The Share Centre. Schools taking part had to initially raise £1,500 as their investment funds.

Penarth Rotary Club was one of the main sponsors of St Cyres. Rotarian Neil McFarlane went into the school once a week to guide and mentor pupils and make the investments along with St Cyres head of business studies Lisa Shearer. Mr McFarlane said at the time: "The aim is to have the team of students experience stock market investment for real, and in the process develop and enhance skills such as team working, decision making, research and analysis."

School badge

The school badge consists of a quartered shield depicting:

• A Castle Keep (relating to the Dinas Powys castle)
• A Celtic Cross (relating to the Welsh national symbol)
• A Welsh Harp (relating to Erw'r Delyn - the "Field of the Harp" - the original shape of the land)
• A Welsh Dragon (relating to the Welsh symbol)

The badge was originally created by Mr Stan Jones, Head of Art, when the school became a comprehensive secondary school. The use of the image in this article will have no effect on the school's commercial use of the image in question. To allow identification and critical commentary on school and school logo for article about the school itself.

Cyres Sound

On the 19 September 2011, St Cyres school launched its own radio station,^[5] This is an internet radio station broadcasting to communal areas in the school and around the world to any internet-enabled computer from their website. The idea was conceived by ex-producer for Real Radio Wales Richard Hopkin, who is now a music teacher at the school. During school hours pupils run their own live shows, pre-recorded shows are broadcast in the evening and weekends, including educational programmes produced by teachers. The genre of music is Pop/Rock although specialist shows are also broadcast.

Coverage

• St.Cyres Christmas Carol Service at Trinity Church; Christmas 2011

Head Pupils

Since 2000/2001, St Cyres has operated a 'Head Pupils' system, where a Head Boy/Deputy Head Boy and Head Girl/Deputy Head Girl are appointed by application and interview by the senior staff at the school.

Notable former pupils

• David Davies – Olympic long distance swimmer and winner of the silver medal in the 2008 Beijing 10 kilometre race.
• Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE, DL DBE – Paralympic all round athlete and winner of an all time record of 11 Gold medals in the Paralympics during her career. Now a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords
• Jamie Ringer – Welsh International Rugby union player who currently plays for Newport Gwent Dragons.
• Mark Isherwood - The first Rugby League Development Officer for Wales and current Quality Manager of Sporttrain Wales ^[6]
• Robert Morritt (Author) ("Sifta"), University of Manchester - Prehistory.Published works,' John Morritt - Travels to Troy 1794-96 '. 'Stones that Speak'- Linear A & B scripts,Paleography,Archaic trade routes. 'Echoes From The Greek Bronze Age', 'Terra Arctica', 'Terra Australis','Fragments-Early Appalachian Music & Recordings','Olde new England'- pre-Dominion Era,'Rockin' in the Desert".Advent of Recording Industry in, Arizona, 'Carson J.Robison,biography & discography.Morritt was one of the first pupils at St.Cyres in 1958

References

External links

• http://www.stcyres.org/ The St Cyres Homepage