Questions - Welsh medium education

Council meeting 23 September 2014

Question to Cabinet Member for Education and Young People from Cllr C Suller 

Subject: Update on development of Welsh Medium secondary education in Newport

Question 1

Question: Can the Cabinet Member give the Council a progress update on the development of Welsh Medium secondary education in Newport?

Answer:

Strategic Outline Case:

Newport City Council has received approval from WG for a Strategic Outline Case which was developed to respond to the demand for regional Welsh-medium secondary education.

The Strategic Outline Case included many regional options, and Officers from the South East Wales consortia worked together to conclude that the preferred option was the concept of a Welsh-medium secondary school to be located in Newport.

Preferred Option:

The preferred option is to use the current site of Duffryn High School which is expansive, where the curriculum is currently delivered within three school blocks and education provision includes a Sports Hall also accessed by the community with considerable pitch acreage within and adjacent to the site. It is proposed that the project will be delivered by:

• Retaining English medium secondary education within the Duffryn High School site for 1200 pupils using two out of the three school blocks and creating additional accommodation

• Developing provision on site in the third school block for a separate Welsh-medium secondary school for 900 pupils who will be able to enjoy their own pitches and shared use of the Sports Hall.

Outline Business Case:

Full Cabinet in November will now be invited to take the decision to submit an Outline Business Case to WG by the end of December this year. This project will then commit Newport City Council financing which is also supported by funding from Monmouthshire County Council. WG are match funding the scheme. The Outline Business Case will include far more detail including designs, cost estimates and project management for each stage of the project development.

Statutory Consultation:

At the same time, a statutory consultation process will need to be taken forward to consult on legally establishing this new Welsh-medium secondary school.

It is proposed that the school will have one catchment area comprising the city of Newport and south Monmouthshire. This will support our three Welsh-medium primary schools and the south Monmouthshire school Ysgol Y Ffin. The school is expected to be opened in September 2016 with approximately 86 pupils in a seedling school.