Treorchy Comprehensive School is an English language,

comprehensive school A comprehensive school typically describes a secondary school for pupils aged approximately 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 res ...

in the village of

Treorchy Treorchy ( cy, Treorci; ) is a town and community (and electoral ward) in Wales. Once a mining town, it retains such characteristics. Situated in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf in the Rhondda Fawr valley. Treorchy is also one of the 16 c ...

Rhondda Cynon Taf Rhondda Cynon Taf (; RCT; also spelt as Rhondda Cynon Taff) is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It consists of five valleys: the Rhondda Fawr, Rhondda Fach, Cynon, Taff (Welsh: ''Taf'') and Ely valleys, plus a number of towns and vil ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The school is situated on the southern side of the valley, and is 500 metres in length from the main gate on Conway Road,

Cwmparc Cwmparc is a village and a district of the community of Treorchy, in the Rhondda Valley, Wales. History There is evidence of, and logic for, a medieval park, or hunting preserve, in the enclosed area called Parc Cwm Brychiniog. It lies in the ...

, to the rear gate at Tylecoch Bridge,

. Pupils who are identified as being proficient in Welsh will study RE, History, PE, PSHE and Geography through the medium of Welsh at KS3. At KS4, first language Welsh is offered at GCSE.

History

Formerly the site of the Tylecoch Colliery, Treorchy Comprehensive School began as the Upper Rhondda School and opened in 1965. In 1970 the school became a fully comprehensive school which could accommodate over 1,800 pupils taught by over 100 teachers. Subjects included English, Maths, General Science, French, Welsh, Geography, History, Physical Education, Art, Woodwork, Music and Religious Knowledge. The aim of the school is to satisfy the social and academic needs of children in the Upper Rhondda. The curriculum offers opportunities to study subjects in which pupils have a particular interest and aptitude. Pupils are placed in broad ability bands based on assessments from Primary schools they have attended. The school now serves 22 Primary Schools, 8 of which are in the catchment area and 3 of which are first language Welsh schools.

Facilities

The school contains a number of facilities, including I.T. suites spread across the school, sporting facilities, three canteens providing hot and cold foods, a swimming pool and drama and music suites.

Courses

Treorchy Comprehensive follows the basic English S.A.T. and

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

Curriculum. It offers French and Spanish as modern foreign languages, and Welsh and English as compulsory subjects for all pre-A level students.

Key Stage 3

The average Key Stage 3 pupil studies a maximum of 16 subjects taken from the National Curriculum, including English, Maths, Sciences, a modern foreign language, humanities, compulsory physical education, compulsory religious education, and compulsory Welsh. According to the last Estyn report, in 2006, the school achieves Key Stage 3 results just above the national average.

Courses

Key Stage 4 Key Stage 4 (KS4) is the legal term for the two years of school education which incorporate GCSEs, and other examinations, in maintained schools in England normally known as Year 10 and Year 11, when pupils are aged between 14 and 16 by August 31. ...

, students are offered to choose their own courses, which will be cut to 10 different courses, spread across a fortnightly timetable. The subjects from Key Stage 3 are offered at

GNVQ A General National Vocational Qualification, or GNVQ, was a certificate of vocational education in the United Kingdom. The last GNVQs were awarded in 2007. The qualifications related to occupational areas in general, rather than any specific ...

and BTEC levels. Compulsory P.E. and compulsory R.E. become 'short course' options, while students are offered the chance to study them as a 'full course' equal to a full GCSE. New courses are also offered at this level including Health and Social Studies,

Leisure Leisure has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leisure ...

and

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

Media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

and

Film Studies Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to cinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies. ...

and

Business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

and

Communications Studies Communication studies or communication science is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in differe ...

. The school has achieved an A*-G pass rate of over 90% since 2005.

A.S./A-2 A-Level Courses

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 aut ...

students are offered a range of courses to choose from. This range expands much more on the previous two key stages, and adds new subjects also. The student may choose a maximum of 5 or a minimum of 2 courses. The school is one of the few in the Rhondda that does not need pupils to travel to other schools to receive an A-level course. In 2007, the school began a compulsory

Welsh Baccalaureate The Welsh Baccalaureate ( cy, Bagloriaeth Cymru), or Welsh Bacc, is an educational qualification delivered in secondary schools and colleges across Wales. The Welsh Government says that it gives broader experiences than traditional learning pr ...

qualification for Sixth Form pupils. Other new courses on offer to pupils in the Sixth Form include

Politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

, and

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and

Electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

, as well as vocational subjects such as

Hairdressing A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A Hairdresser may also be refe ...

in the school's on site salon.

Extra-curricular activities

The school supports extra-curricular activity offers a wide variety of clubs and activities for pupils. These range from orchestra to rugby. The activities include:

The Arts

The school annually hosts performing arts events. As well as concerts in school, junior productions, the annual "Back To Broadway" performance and the Christmas concert, senior pupils perform a musical annually at the Parc & Dare Theatre. The performances are listed below: * 2020 - '' Our House'' * 2019 - ''

The Wedding Singer ''The Wedding Singer'' is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Coraci, written by Tim Herlihy, and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. The film stars Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, and Christine Taylor, and tells the ...

'' * 2018 - ''

Anything Goes ''Anything Goes'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The original book was a collaborative effort by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, heavily revised by the team of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. The story concerns madcap ant ...

'' * 2017 - ''

Fiddler on the Roof ''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Imperial Russia in or around 1905. It is based on ''Tevye and his Daughters'' (or ''Tevye the ...

'' * 2016 - ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

'' * 2015 - ''

Singin' in the Rain ''Singin' in the Rain'' is a 1952 American musical romantic comedy film directed and choreographed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, starring Kelly, Donald O'Connor, and Debbie Reynolds and featuring Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell and Cyd Charis ...

'' * 2014 - ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid-1 ...

'' * 2013 - ''

Miss Saigon ''Miss Saigon'' is a stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera ''Madame Butterfly'', and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed rom ...

'' * 2012 - ''

Phantom Of The Opera ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (french: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra) is a novel by French author Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serial in from 23 September 1909 to 8 January 1910, and was released in volume form in late March 1910 by Pierr ...

'' * 2011 - ''

We Will Rock You "We Will Rock You" is a song written by Brian May and recorded by British rock band Queen for their 1977 album ''News of the World''. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 330 of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and it placed at numbe ...

'' * 2010 - ''

Guys & Dolls ''Guys and Dolls'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Frank Loesser and book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows. It is based on " The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" (1933) and "Blood Pressure", which are two short stories by Damon Runyon, and also b ...

'' * 2009 - ''

Jekyll & Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is a 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old ...

'' * 2008 - ''Les Misérables'' * 2007 - ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons f ...

'' * 2006 - ''

Calamity Jane Martha Jane Cannary (May 1, 1852 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American frontierswoman, sharpshooter, and storyteller. In addition to many exploits she was known for being an acquaintance of Wild Bill Hickok. Late ...

'' * 2005 - ''

Carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...

'' The following activities take place daily within the school: *Drama Club *School Junior & Senior Brass Band *School Junior & Senior

Choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

*School Junior & Senior

Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

*Various School Shows in the Parc and Dare Theatre

Sports

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

Netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

Rounders Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running aroun ...

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

Gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

Circuit training Circuit training is a form of body conditioning that involves endurance training, resistance training, high-intensity aerobics, and exercises performed in a circuit, similar to high-intensity interval training. It targets strength building and musc ...

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

Dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

Hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Sixth Form Activities

Sign Language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

Support *Buddy Program *Sixth Form Council

School-wide

*Student Council *

Conservation Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws. Conservation may also refer to: Environment and natural resources * Nature conservation, the protection and manageme ...

Club *

Combined Cadet Force The Combined Cadet Force (CCF) is a youth organisation in the United Kingdom, sponsored by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), which operates in schools, and normally includes Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force sections. Its aim is to "provide a ...

(CCF)

Notable former pupils

Arts

Brad Evans Bradley Ray Evans (born April 20, 1985) is an American retired professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. Born in Phoenix, Evans was drafted out of University of California, Irvine in the second round of the 2007 MLS SuperDraft by ...

- author and political philosopher * Callum Scott Howells – actor, singer, and television personality *

Rachel Trezise Rachel Trezise (born 1978) is a Welsh author, born in Cwmparc, Wales. Her debut collection of short stories, ''Fresh Apples'', won the inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize in 2006. Early life Rachel Trezise was born in Cwmparc, Rhondda in 1978. Her fam ...

– author * Ian Watkins – West End Performer, and former member of the pop band Steps *

Wes Packer Wes Packer (born 1977)Stand-up award for new comedian
, ''BBC News'', 3 Septembe ...

– Stand-up comedian.

Business

Amanda Blanc Amanda Blanc (born 1967) is a Welsh businesswoman who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Aviva since July 2020. Aviva has 18.5 million customers across the UK, Ireland and Canada, £401 billion of group assets under management and 22,000 pe ...

– chief executive officer of

Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

Sport

* Andrew Bishop – Former professional Rugby Union Player for

and

Ospreys The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

David Bishop David Bishop may refer to: *David Bishop (writer) (born 1966), New Zealand novelist, playwright and comics writer *David Bishop (runner) (born 1987), British Scottish international middle-distance athlete *David Bishop (gymnast) (born 1990), New Ze ...

– Former professional Rugby Union Player for

Sale Sharks Sale Sharks is a professional rugby union club from Greater Manchester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. Originally founded in 1861 as Sale Football Club, now a distinct amateur club, they adopted the n ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

.
* Gemma Evans – Football player for

, Cardiff City Ladies and

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

Ethan Lewis Ethan Lewis (born 28 March 1994) is a Welsh rugby union player who plays as a hooker for Saracens. He was a Wales under-18 and under-20 international. Lewis made his debut for the Cardiff Blues in 2014 having previously played for their academy ...

– Rugby Union Player for

Cardiff Blues Cardiff Rugby ( cy, Rygbi Caerdydd) are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. They compete in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby competitions. Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arms ...

Jayne Ludlow Jayne Louise Ludlow (born 7 January 1979) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is currently the technical director of Manchester City Girls' Academy. In 2018, she was inducted on to the Welsh Sports Hall of Fame Roll of Honour alo ...

– Former professional Football Player for

and

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

now coach for Wales women. *

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

– Former professional Rugby Union player for the

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup (which ...

* Gary Powell – Former professional Rugby Union Player for the

Tomos Williams Tomos Williams (born 1 January 1995) is a Welsh rugby union player who plays for Cardiff Rugby as a scrum half. He is a Wales international, and played for the Wales sevens team during the 2013–14 IRB Sevens World Series. Club career Cardiff ...

– Professional Rugby Union Player for

and

Classes

At KS3 (years 7 and 8 at the school) most pupils are divided into one of several mixed ability classes. There is also one class for pupils with complex additional learning needs. Each class is assigned a colour. Pupils stay in these classes for both years. Pupils regularly complete assessments in all subjects. At the start of KS4 pupils are separated into one of two bands based on their maths, English and science abilities (determined throughout KS3). The band reflects whether a pupil will study for the Double Award Science GCSE (T band) or the three Triple Science GCSEs (P band). Pupils begin their KS4 studies in year 9 and complete them at the end of year 11. Pupils begin their KS5 studies in year 12 and complete them at the end of year 13.

References

{{authority control Secondary schools in Rhondda Cynon Taf Educational institutions established in 1965 1965 establishments in Wales Treorchy