St. Michael's School (Welsh: ) is a private day and boarding school for pupils aged from 3 to 18 years old in

Llanelli ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Carmarthenshire and the Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county of Dyfed, Wales. It is on the estuary of the River Loughor and is the largest town in the Principal areas of Wales, ...

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

. The school is divided into four sections, comprising the Pre-Preparatory School, Preparatory School, Senior School and Sixth Form. The current

head teacher A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management Management (or managing ...

is Benson Ferrari.

History

The school was founded in 1923 by brothers Bill and Percy Rees and has been situated in the east Llanelli village of Bryn since 1928. Upon retirement of the Rees' brothers, former head boy Mr Vaughan-Evans was appointed Headmaster in 1962. The school's main building, St. David's House, dates back to the 19th century and was originally a large house belonging to a local industrialist. The school's Pre-Preparatory School is housed in a converted former public house, The Royal Oak, which was purchased by the school in 2012

Ownership

The school was acquired in 2019 by Chinese company Bright Scholar, as part of a £150m purchase of colleges in the UK. Bright Scholar is also the largest operator of international and bilingual schools in China. The deal for St Michael's, along with Bosworth Independent College, specifically cost the company a sum of £38m.

Results

The school offers

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

and

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 ...

qualifications, with 60.9% of all A-Level entries graded A* or A in 2018, winning the

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

2018 ''Welsh Independent Secondary School of the Year'' award. In 2020, the school won the

2021 ''Welsh Independent Secondary School of the Decade'' award.

Incidents

In 2012 the school appeared in national headlines after accusations arose that education officers at Cognita UK, a rival education company, had posed as parents at St Michael's in order to obtain commercial information. Cognita at the time operated nearby Ffynone House School in Swansea but denied all of the allegations.

Notable former pupils

Notable former pupils of St Michaels' include: * Robert Buckland MP, politician, former

Lord Chancellor The Lord Chancellor, formally titled Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom. The lord chancellor is the minister of justice for England and Wales and the highest-ra ...

* Cerys Matthews, singer * Kirsty Williams AM, politician, Minister for Education and Skills for Wales * Ivor Richard, politician and diplomat, British Ambassador to the United Nations * John Geoffrey Jones, British judge * Siân Gwenllian AM, politician St Michael's alumna and singer Cerys Matthews has acknowledged in interviews that her career benefited from attending St. Michael's, because "through the public school system, you've had so many leg ups", and avoids playing music by privately educated acts on her 6 Music show. She is subsequently an advocate for state educated acts in the music industry.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:St Michael's School, Llanelli Boarding schools in Wales Llanelli 1923 establishments in Wales Schools in Carmarthenshire Private schools in Carmarthenshire