Archbishop McGrath Catholic Secondary School

The new school is jointly funded by the Archdiocese of Cardiff, Bridgend County Borough Council and the Welsh Government.

The main building spans three floors and accommodates 750 pupils aged 11-18, including 150 sixth formers. Building the school on three storeys improves efficiency of land use and energy.  Its natural ventilation and high density concrete floors create thermal mass for passive temperature control.

Across the school, the core educational and social activities drive the connection between classroom areas.  The main entrance foyer, sports hall, main hall and canteen tie the teaching spaces together. Flexible classrooms and workspaces accommodate different class sizes and a range of teaching practices.

The design means that there is increased land for additional school sports and leisure facilities, which can be used by the wider local community in the evenings and at weekends.

Additionally the school has also been awarded at the Building Excellence Awards 2012, both the Best Education Building and Sustainable Project categories in these prestigious awards.

The project was praised for its design, which utilised the profile of the surrounding land.  It also received recognition for the collaborative approach undertaken by the design team. Judges from the Sustainable Project category of the Excellence Awards commented on the scheme, which achieved an Excellent rating under the BREEAM environmental assessment method. They said about the architect’s approach to passive design:

“[that it] was crucial to the project, not only to reduce the carbon footprint of the school, but also to reduce the running costs, which is a key driver for the local authority”.

Final tender stage approval was given on the 17 December 2009.  The scheme would replace the existing Archbishop McGrath RC High school in Tondu Bridgend and enable the construction of a 750 pupil secondary school, including community leisure facilities, on a vacant site at Brackla Bridgend. Work commenced in early 2010 with a new purpose built school at an overall cost of £21.4m with the Welsh Government contributing £14m to the project. The school was officially opened in December 2011 by the First Minister.