Welsh-medium secondary school in Newport set to move to next phase

Newport City Council’s cabinet member for education and young people, councillor Debbie Wilcox, will now be asked to approve the publication of a statutory notice, which will allow the public to be consulted on the detail of the proposal before any final decision is taken by the council.

The proposed new school will be located on the Duffryn High School site and will have provision for pupils from Newport and south Monmouthshire, as part of £17 million development.

The existing Duffryn High School is to change its name to John Frost School, after the Chartist leader transported to Australia following the 1839 Rising, marking a new phase in the school's history according to head teacher Jon Wilson.

Formal consultation was held from March 1 to April 14 and a total of 214 responses were received with 79.9 per cent supporting the proposal, 18.2 per cent not supporting it and 1.9 per cent neither supporting nor objecting.

Following formal consultation it is now recommended that a statutory notice for the proposal is published for 28 days.

Welsh-medium secondary school provision is currently available across the South East Wales Consortium area at Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw in Torfaen and Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni in Caerphilly.

However, pupil forecasts show that from September 2016 there will be insufficient places to accommodate Welsh-medium secondary learners across the region.

Following a period of regional planning, a preferred option for Newport to host a new regional Welsh-medium secondary school was developed as a potential solution to meet increasing demand for places.

The school will be for 11 to 18 year old pupils and the implementation date is proposed to be with effect from September 1, 2016.

It is proposed the Welsh-medium school is created in one of three school blocks at Duffryn High School.

It will support Newport’s three Welsh medium primary school’s and Monmouthshire’s Ysgol Y Ffin.