There are just a few days left for learners, parents, school staff and governors to have their say on ambitious plans to transform secondary education in mid Powys, the county council has said.

Powys County Council wants to address issues with the current operating model of Ysgol Calon Cymru, a dual stream secondary school operating across two campuses. The campuses are located in Builth Wells and Llandrindod Wells.

In September 2020, Cabinet considered a Strategic Outline Case (SOC) which identified a preferred way forward that could address these issues, which was:

A new 11-18 English-medium campus in Llandrindod Wells; plus
A new/remodelled 4-18 Welsh-medium all-through campus in Builth Wells.

Last month (December) the council has launched a questionnaire to help the council understand what people think about the preferred way forward, giving learners, parents, governors and school staff the opportunity to contribute to the development of the strategic vision for transforming education in the area.

There is also a section in the questionnaire that asks about Welsh-medium secondary provision in the area.

Cllr Phyl Davies, Cabinet Member for Education and Property, said: “Providing high-quality teaching and learning environments is one of the aims of our Vision 2025 and our Strategy for Transforming Education in Powys 2020-2030 will help us meet these aims.

“We want to improve learner entitlement and experience at Ysgol Calon Cymru by developing state-of-the-art 21st Century facilities at Llandrindod Wells and Builth Wells as well as establishing a Welsh-medium all-age school. However, this will require a large amount of capital investment and we must ensure that we get this right.

“Ysgol Calon Cymru is on an improvement journey, and whilst a great deal of progress has been made, it has become clear that the school’s dual sited model is restricting its ability to continue to grow and develop.

“The condition of the Llandrindod campus in particular is very poor, the Builth Wells campus also needs improvement and there is a need to significantly improve the learning entitlement and experience for Welsh-medium pupils and expand the limited offer of provision currently available.

“We believe that the preferred way forward for Ysgol Calon Cymru will address these issues. This is a large-scale highly complex programme of change with significant investment.

“We want to ensure that all stakeholders are able to contribute to the development of these plans and I urge them to take part by filling in this questionnaire.”

To take part in the questionnaire visit www.haveyoursaypowys.wales/ysgol-calon-cymru