Fitzalan High School () is an 11–18 mixed, English-medium

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

and

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

in Leckwith,

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, Wales.

History

Fitzalan High School has links to Cardiff's first municipal secondary school at Howard Gardens,

Adamsdown Adamsdown (sometimes or , ) is an inner city area and community in the south of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Adamsdown is generally located between Newport Road, to the north and the mainline railway to the south. The area includes C ...

in 1884. The school later became Howardian High School and a Grammar School in 1941. Much of the school was subsequently destroyed by incendiary bombs in the

Cardiff Blitz The Cardiff Blitz (); refers to the bombing of Cardiff, Wales during World War II. Between 1940 and the final raid on the city in March 1944 approximately 2,100 bombs fell, killing 355 people. Cardiff Docks became a strategic bombing targe ...

during the night of 3–4 March 1941 in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The school's girls and boys relocated to newly built buildings, Lady Margaret High School for Girls (1948) and

Howardian High School Howardian High School was a secondary school that was established in Cardiff from 1885 to 1990. Howardian originated in 1885 as the ''Cardiff Higher Grade School'', which was founded by the Cardiff School Board at Howard Gardens, Adamsdown (), t ...

for Boys (1953), in

Penylan Penylan is a district and Community (Wales), community in the east of Cardiff, the capital city of Wales, known for its Edwardian era period houses and spacious tree lined roads and avenue (landscape), avenues. Situated to both the north and ...

. After the war the building at Howard Gardens was partially repaired. A new technical school was opened in September 1953 with around 200 boys. It was officially named ‘Fitzalan Technical High School’ in December 1953. The Howard Gardens site was to be re-developed (as

Cardiff School of Art & Design Cardiff School of Art & Design (CSAD) is one of the five schools that comprise Cardiff Metropolitan University. It originated as the Cardiff School of Art in 1865. History Cardiff School of Art & Design opened in 1865 as the Cardiff School of ...

) and Fitzalan Technical High School acquired new premises on the present site in Lawrenny Avenue,

Canton, Cardiff Canton () is an inner-city district and community (Wales), community in the west of Cardiff, capital of Wales, lying west of the city's civic centre. It is located adjacent to Pontcanna. Canton is one of the most ethnically diverse of Cardiff' ...

which were opened on Tuesday 3 March 1964. In January 1968 the school was renamed Fitzalan High School (dropping 'Technical'), becoming a comprehensive school. It was announced in 2017 that Fitzalan High School would be one of three major secondary schools in Cardiff to be completely rebuilt and replaced as part of

City of Cardiff Council Cardiff Council, formally the County Council of the City and County of Cardiff () is the governing body for Cardiff, one of the principal areas of Wales. The principal area and its council were established in 1996 to replace the previous Car ...

's £284 million improvement plans.

Organisation and communications

Pupils are grouped according to their abilities with the more able pupils placed in an express set. Pupils with special educational needs receive specialist support in class to ensure that they can access the curriculum fully. The school has four Houses: Dewi, Llewellyn, Glyndwr, and Hywel. The school has a website, and issues a regular newsletter on school activities. A School Council exists for pupils to raise any issues through this forum. It has many community links and local residents and interest groups, who are allowed to use the extensive facilities. The school has an established and published policy on 'anti-bullying' for all pupils. A Parent Teacher Association (PTA) was formed in 1978 called the ‘Friends of Fitzalan‛. It supports the school, raises funds, and helps organise social events. In 2007 the school embarked on a program to reduce its

carbon footprint A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country Greenhouse gas emissions, adds to the atmospher ...

after an audit by the

Carbon Trust The Carbon Trust is a consultancy established in March 2001, with offices across the world. Its aim is to accelerate the pace of private and public sectors decarbonisation and increase energy efficiency in organisations worldwide. The Carbon ...

. Steps taken included installing "eco-quiet" computers, one of which was to be powered by a demonstration

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

. The school was awarded the NAACE Mark for excellence in the use of ICT in November 2005. ;Organised Sports and Arts The school campus includes two gymnasia, a multi use dance studio, two indoor multi-use halls, two fitness suites, a sports hall, a swimming pool, four grass football and rugby pitches and an artificial cricket square. In addition daily access to the Gol Centre, comprising twelve five-a-side artificial football pitches, the Welsh International Athletics Stadium and artificial sports pitches. BTEC sport lessons take place both in the school and in Cardiff City Football Club. * In 1982, the school football team won the English Schools Football Association Cup, the first time that this cup had been taken out of England. * Fitzalan has traditionally had a strong chess team, winning the Welsh Schools Championship in 1984 and 1985, and in 2001 and 2002. * The school hall was used during filming for " School Reunion", an episode of the long-running

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

science fiction series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'', first aired on 29 April 2006. * A

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

documentary called "Fitzalan — School of Dreams" was filmed in March 2006. * The school transformed one of its gyms into a drama studio complete with brand new apparatus

Results

In January 2020 a class of fifteen to sixteen-year-olds, who had had the same maths teacher since they started the school in year 7, all passed their mathematics

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

six months ahead of schedule and all achieved A*, the top grade. Only 13% of pupils in Wales who had sat the WJEC GCSE the previous year had achieved A or A*. The achievement was widely reported in the British, Cameroonian and international media with the teacher Francis Elive described as 'The Maths Whisperer'.

Facilities

* A £300,000 refurbishment of the school's twenty-metre swimming pool, and named the Peter Perkins Swimming Pool in memory of the former chair of governors. It was officially opened in March 2009. Facilities are open to the local community after school hours. As part of the joint venture between the

Sport Wales Sport Wales ( Welsh: ''Chwaraeon Cymru'') is the national organisation responsible for developing and promoting sport and physical activity in Wales. Working alongside partners such as governing bodies of sport and local authorities, they aim t ...

’s Active Communities team and the school, a disused classroom has been turned into a fitness suite and multi-gym facility. * Fitzalan was the first school to install state-of-the-art 5-a-side astro pitches (identical to that of

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

), in partnership with Gôl Football Centres, and a new £600,000 sports hall. The hall has many uses, including

Cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

Netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

Tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

. * Two new full-sized astro pitches were recently completed, and are located next to the Leckwith Athletic stadium. * The school introduced a new 5x60 regime – a Sport Wales programme aimed at increasing the number of secondary age pupils taking part in sport or physical activity for 60 minutes, at least five times a week. Pupils of any age can take part after school. The activities include football, netball, basketball, cricket, hockey and dancing.

Head teachers

Fitzalan Technical High School, Howard Gardens *1953–1963, Mr Harold C. Eyre, BA Fitzalan Technical High School, Leckwith *1963–1967, Mr Harold C. Eyre, BA Fitzalan High School, Leckwith (as a comprehensive school) *1968–1979, Mr Peter L. Goble, MA *1979 - 1985 Mr Nick Jenkins *1985–2004, Mr Angus Dunphy *2005–2008, Mr Huw Jones-Williams *2008–, Mrs Cath Bradshaw

School inspections

Fitzalan High School is inspected every six years by the independent statutory body

Estyn Estyn is the education and training inspectorate for Wales. Its name comes from the Welsh language verb meaning 'to reach (out), stretch or extend'. Its function is to provide an independent inspection and advice service on quality and stand ...

, as part of the Welsh national programme of school inspection, funded by the

Welsh Government The Welsh Government ( ) is the Executive (government), executive arm of the Welsh devolution, devolved government of Wales. The government consists of Cabinet secretary, cabinet secretaries and Minister of State, ministers. It is led by the F ...

. In 2017 they gained a rare "double excellent".

Notable alumni

* Mel Rees, goalkeeper

References

External links

* {{authority control Secondary schools in Cardiff Educational institutions established in 1953 1953 establishments in Wales