Ysgol Dyffryn Conwy is a bilingual co-educational

comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

in the town of

Llanrwst ; ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. It is on the east bank of the River Conwy and the A470 road, and lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county boundaries of Denbighshire (histori ...

Conwy County Borough Conwy County Borough () is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the north Wales, north of Wales. It borders Gwynedd to the west and south and Denbighshire to the east. The largest settlement is Colwyn Bay, and Conwy is the administrativ ...

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

. The school serves the community of Llanrwst and the many surrounding villages including the rural districts of

Betws-y-Coed Betws-y-Coed () is a village and community (Wales), community in Conwy County Borough, Wales. The village is located near the confluence of the River Conwy and the River Llugwy and is on the eastern edge of Snowdonia. The population of the co ...

Dolgarrog Dolgarrog is a village and community (Wales), community in Conwy County Borough, in Wales, situated between Llanrwst and Conwy, very close to the Conwy River. The village is well known for its industrial history since the 18th century an ...

and

Cerrigydrudion Cerrigydrudion, sometimes spelt ''Cerrig-y-drudion'', () is a village and community in Conwy, Wales. Until 1974 it was part of the historic county Denbighshire, when it became part of the newly formed county of Clwyd. When the county of Clwyd wa ...

. There are around 658 pupils on roll, including 137 in the sixth form, which is lower than the figures at the time of the last inspection in 2014. Most of them are

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

. The school has recently been moved onto one expanded site which had originally housed years 7-9 only. The site of the upper school (the oldest building and site of the original

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

) has been developed into an

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

centre. The

headteacher A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. Role While s ...

of the school from 2014–2020 was Elan Davies, the first female headteacher of the school in 400 years. The school was founded as Llanrwst Grammar School in 1610 by Sir John Wynn, which was situated in the building of the 'upper school'. In 1960 it was renamed Ysgol Dyffryn Conwy (Conwy Valley School) to reflect the fact that the school served the wider Conwy Valley. In February 2005 the pupils were all moved to the

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-owned site on Nebo Road.

Examinations

The school offers education for KS3, KS4 and Post-16 students. It offers

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 ...

, Entry Level examinations for KS4 and AS-level and

A-level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational ...

for Post-16 education. It is a Welsh Joint Education Committee accredited centre for presenting records of national achievement, using the WJEC as an examination board. This school was the first in Conwy to give Year 10 pupils a chance to get a qualification in Physical Education, without taking up the GCSE.

Notable former pupils

Glyn Wise Glyn Wise (born 9 January 1988) is a British television personality and Church in Wales minister from Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales. He is best known for being the runner-up of the seventh series of '' Big Brother'' in 2006. Early life Wise was bor ...

Kai Owen Kai Owen (born 4 September 1975) is a Welsh actor of stage and screen, known to Welsh audiences for his numerous roles on Welsh language television and to worldwide audiences for his portrayal of Rhys Williams in ''Torchwood'' and Pete Bucha ...

* Paul Griffiths *

Russell E. Morris Russell Edward Morris (born 8 June 1967) is a British chemist and Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews since 2016. He played first-class cricket while he was a student at the University of Oxford, and also repre ...

References

External links

*
Welsh Government Information 2000
(archive)

(archive) Llanrwst Secondary schools in Conwy County Borough {{Wales-school-stub