Ambitious plans to improve teaching, sports and dining facilities at a Welsh-medium secondary school in Newport have been revealed.
Proposals to extend Ysgol Gyfun Gwent Is Coed, located next to The John Frost School in Duffryn, include new teaching facilities, a new sports hall and a new floodlit 3G pitch.
An existing teaching block – which comprised of a catering kitchen, dining area, gym and changing rooms, science laboratories and design technology rooms – but which is out of use, will also be demolished.
The plans signal “a new start and lease of life” for the site, and aim to make the school “a modern beacon to Welsh-medium education in Newport.”
Under the proposals submitted to Newport City Council, the new three-storey building will house art, science and teaching classrooms, flexible learning spaces and learning resource areas, a dining area, kitchens and a sports hall.
A separate sports building will include a hall, changing rooms and access to outdoor pitches for use by the school and community.
A new all-weather 3G and grass rugby pitches are also planned on playing fields next to the school site on the other side of Lighthouse Road.
The plans also include a new, secondary access point for the school, proposed from Duffryn Way.
The project is planned to be carried out in two phases, with the first seeing temporary classrooms built to allow for the demolition of the existing teaching block, which will make way for the new build.
A planning statement says the plans will not change the school’s capacity set at 900 pupils, but the new facilities will “help to encourage families to choose Welsh-medium education and also deliver improved outcomes for the pupils.”
“This proposal will provide a ‘new for old’ replacement teaching, sports and dining facility for Newport’s Welsh-medium secondary school which will result in Ysgol Gyfun Gwent Is Coed benefitting from the most modern school buildings in Newport,” it says.
“This will further stimulate demand for Welsh-medium education in the city and ensure a strong future for the Welsh language in Newport.”
The scheme will also see some of the facilities used by the wider community, including the sports building, pitches and changing facilities.
The existing teaching block to be demolished is said to be in “the worst condition” of any across the council’s secondary education estate.
Its use is kept to “the minimum necessary for delivery of meals and other specific curriculum requirements.”
The plans will “complete the vision” started with the building of another teaching block at the school several years ago, it is said.
