Bishop Gore School

Bishop Gore School
Motto Virtue and good literature
Established 1682
Headmaster Mr. Ryan Davies
Location De La Beche Road
Swansea
SA2 9AP
United Kingdom
Coordinates: 51°36′55″N 3°59′18″W / 51.61525°N 3.98838°W / 51.61525; -3.98838
Local authority Swansea
Gender Mixed
Ages 11–18
Houses Rotherslade, Langland, Caswell, Limeslade, Bracelet
Colours Years 7–11 Maroon and Gold Years 12–13 Navy
Last Inspection May 2015
Pupils on Roll: 1579 Pupils
6th Form: 213 Pupils
Alumni Old Goreans
Website bishopgore.net

The Bishop Gore School (Welsh: Ysgol Esgob Gore) is a secondary school in Swansea in Wales, founded on 14 September 1682 by Hugh Gore (1613–1691), Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. It is situated close to the A4216, Singleton Park and the Swansea University. In December 2013 the school was ranked in the second highest of five bands by the Welsh Government, based on performance in exams, value added performance, disadvantaged pupils' performance, and attendance.

History

Grammar school

Established initially as a Free Grammar School for "the gratuitous instruction of twenty boys, sons of the most indigent burgesses, and in the event of a dissolution of the corporation, to sons of the poorest inhabitants of the town", it has since known several names and locations. Previously known as the boys-only Swansea Grammar School, Bishop Gore Grammar school and briefly Bishop Gore Comprehensive School, it has been on its current Sketty site since 1952 with a large extension built in the 1970s and further Design and Technology extensions in the 1990s. A previous 18th century building designed by Benjamin Bucknall on Goat Street in Swansea city centre was largely gutted by incendiary bombs during World War II although some of the original buildings remain as part of the Swansea Metropolitan University.

Comprehensive

Until 1970, Bishop Gore was an all-boys grammar school, then it merged with the girls' grammar school Glanmôr and Townhill Secondary School to become Bishop Gore Co-educational Comprehensive school in 1971.

School today

Currently Bishop Gore has around 1600 male and female students aged 11–18. The school also has a Sixth Form with separate lounge, facilities and uniform. The headteacher currently is Ryan Davies (September 2007+). Set just at the head of Singleton Park, close to the village of Sketty and the seafront, Bishop Gore was built around two quadrangles the red brick building has in the centre the second largest hall in Swansea, second only to the Brangwyn Hall. Each pupil is assigned to a House: Gwynne, Mansel, Aberdare or Gore, which they retain throughout their time at the school. Highlights of the school year include the Eisteddfod, the inter-house sports tournaments, the high quality productions by Bishop Gore Theatre Company,and the end of year Balls for the senior students.

In January 2010, an inspection report was published which awarded Bishop Gore the highest possible grades in all categories. As a result of this the school was featured as a 'best practice' case study by Estyn and was named in the chief inspector's annual report – being the only secondary school in Wales to achieve this recognition. Over the past 4 years, there has been a dramatic improvement in results with the performance at GCSE/KS4 in August 2011 placing it as one of the top performing schools in Swansea.

With 87% of pupils in 2011 leaving the school with 5 GCSEs grades A* – C, Bishop Gore is now second only to Bishopston in terms of this statistic.

Dylan Thomas and Bishop Gore

The most famous alumnus of Bishop Gore is almost certainly the poet, playwright and author Dylan Thomas. His father, David John (D.J.) Thomas was Senior English Master at the school, then known as Swansea Grammar School. Not a distinguished pupil, he nonetheless gained attention through publishing his first poem in 1926, "The Song Of The Mischievous Dog" and in 1928 winning the school's annual one-mile race.[1][2] He left in 1931 to begin work at The South Wales Daily Post as a junior reporter.

Old Goreans

Notable Old Goreans have included:

Rugby players

In addition, a number of Old Goreans have played rugby for Wales national rugby union team, including, GAD Wheel, Roger Blyth, Haydn Mainwaring, Paul Arnold, Idwal Rees, Stuart Davies, Richie Pugh (Wales 7s Captain at the 2006 Commonwealth Games) and winner of the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2009 and 2008 Six Nations Championship winner and Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones.

References

  1. "Dylan’s Swansea". Dylanthomas.com. City and County of Swansea. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  2. Turner, Robin (26 June 2013). "A teenage Dylan Thomas ‘was very athletic and loved running’". Wales Online. Retrieved 4 March 2016.

External links

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