St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

voluntary aided A voluntary aided school (VA school) is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust (usually a religious organisation) contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school. In m ...

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

situated on Albert Avenue in

Flint, Flintshire Flint () is a town and community in Flintshire, Wales, lying on the estuary of the River Dee. It is the former county town of Flintshire. According to the 2011 Census, the population of the community of Flint was 12,953, increasing to 13,732 ...

, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1954 to serve the Catholic population of Flintshire. It is one of three Catholic secondary schools in the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Wrexham The Diocese of Wrexham () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Wales. The diocese is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia. History The diocese ...

, the others being St Joseph's Catholic & Anglican High School,

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

and Blessed Edward Jones Catholic High School,

Rhyl Rhyl (; , ) is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire in Wales. The town lies on the coast of North Wales, at the mouth of the River Clwyd. To the west is Kinmel Bay and Towyn, to the east Prestatyn, and to the south-east Rhuddlan ...

History

When the school was founded in 1954 it was named Blessed Richard Gwyn Roman Catholic High School. However, in 1970,

Richard Gwyn Richard Gwyn (ca. 1537 – 15 October 1584), also known by his anglicized name, Richard White, was a Welsh teacher at illegal and underground schools and a bard who wrote both Christian and satirical poetry in the Welsh language. A Roman C ...

was canonised, and the school was renamed St Richard Gwyn Catholic High School. It is a mixed school, currently serving 861 pupils (2016) (including a mixed

sixth form In the education systems of Barbados, England, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, and some other Commonwealth countries, sixth form represents the final two years of secondary education, ages 16 to 18. Pupils typically prepa ...

of over 120). It draws its pupils and students from the Roman Catholic parishes of

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

Holywell Holywell may refer to: England * Holywell, Bedfordshire * Holywell, Cambridgeshire * Holywell, Cornwall * Holywell, Dorset * Holywell, Eastbourne, East Sussex * Holywell, Gloucestershire, a List of United Kingdom locations: Ho-Hoo#Hol, location in ...

, Queensferry,

Mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures that certain fungus, fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of Spore#Fungi, spores containing Secondary metabolite#Fungal secondary metabolites, fungal ...

Saltney Saltney is a town straddling the counties of Flintshire and Cheshire on the England–Wales border. The local government Community (Wales), community of Saltney lies entirely in Wales, while the English areas are Unparished area, unparished. The ...

, Buckley,

Connah's Quay Connah's Quay (), known locally as "The Quay" and formerly known as Wepre, is a town and community in Flintshire, on the River Dee and next to the border with England. With a population of 16,771, it is the largest town in Flintshire. The ...

Hawarden Hawarden (; ) is a village and community (Wales), community in Flintshire, Wales. It is part of the Deeside conurbation on the Wales-England border and is home to Hawarden Castle (medieval), Hawarden Castle. In the 2011 United Kingdom census, ...

and Pantasaph. Its patron Saint,

St Richard Gwyn Richard Gwyn (ca. 1537 – 15 October 1584), also known by his anglicized name, Richard White, was a Welsh people, Welsh teacher at Underground education, illegal and underground schools and a bard who wrote both Christian poetry, Christian a ...

, was

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of sa ...

in 1970; prior to this, the school was called " Blessed Richard Gwyn Roman Catholic High School". To mark the

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

of St Richard Gwyn on 17 October the whole school has a

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

, preceded by themed lessons as part of a 'focus week'. Since 2008, there has been a

House System The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries. The school is divided into units called "houses" and each student is allocated to on ...

in the school. The houses are named Dewi,

Winefride Saint Winifred (or Winefride; ; ) was a Wales in the Early Middle Ages, Welsh virgin martyr of the 7th century. Her story was celebrated as early as the 8th century, but became popular in England in the 12th, when her hagiography was first writ ...

and

Beuno Saint Beuno (;Baring-Gould & Fisher, "Lives of the British Saints" (1907), quoted a Early British Kingdoms website by David Nash Ford, accessed 6 February 2012 640), sometimes anglicized as Bono, was a 7th-century Welsh abbot, confessor ...

. The school's head teacher is Catherine McCormack. Past headteachers include: * Mr Burrows (1954 to circa 1973) * Tom Quinn (2002–2005) * Derek Doran (2005–2011) * Ronald Keating (2012–2016) * Maria Rimmer, interim (2016–2017) * Carole Philpot * Mark Philpot * Patrick Dominic Bryon

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(for services to Education in Wales)

Estyn reports

In 2016 the

Estyn Estyn is the education and training inspectorate for Wales. Its name comes from the Welsh language verb meaning 'to reach (out), stretch or extend'. Its function is to provide an independent inspection and advice service on quality and stand ...

inspection report labeled the school "unsatisfactory" and placed the school into special measures. This contrasted with the 2008 Estyn Report which labeled the school as "Good". Multiple problems were raised in the report including that performance from 2012–2016 at GCSE level had been "poor" with leadership at the school also being criticised. Ron Keating, headteacher at the time of the report, stated, "We have already started the work of addressing the findings of the Estyn report with the full support of staff, governors, parents and the local community. All these are working in partnership to make this a rapidly improving school." In November 2017, Estyn removed the school from the list of schools requiring special measures. The monitoring report stated, "The school is judged to have made sufficient progress in relation to the recommendations following the core inspection in May 2016. As a result, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales is removing the school from the list of schools requiring special measures."

Notable former pupils

Michelle Brown Michelle Margaret Freda Brown (born 30 December 1969) is a British lawyer and former politician who was a Member of the Senedd (MS) for North Wales (Senedd electoral region), North Wales from 2016 National Assembly for Wales election, 2016 to 2 ...

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP, ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of parliament (both through defect ...

, Member of the

National Assembly for Wales The Senedd ( ; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, Its role is to scrutinise the Welsh Government and legislate on devolve ...

* Paul Draper, lead singer of the band

Mansun Mansun were an English alternative rock band, formed in Chester in 1995. The band comprised vocalist/rhythm guitarist Paul Draper (musician), Paul Draper, bassist Stove King, lead guitarist/backing vocalist Dominic Chad, and drummer Andie Rath ...

Claire Fox Claire Regina Fox, Baroness Fox of Buckley (born 5 June 1960), is a British writer, journalist, lecturer and politician who sits in the House of Lords as a non-affiliated life peer. She is the director and founder of the think tank the Academy ...

, director of the Institute of Ideas, member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

and former MEP for

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of 7,4 ...

* Fiona Fox , director of the

Science Media Centre The Science Media Centre is a charitable company, first formed in 2002, two years after the United Kingdom House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), Select committee on Science and Technology's third report on "Science and Society" in 20 ...

Simon Nixon Simon Justin Nixon (born 7 August 1967) is a British billionaire businessman, the co-founder of and former deputy chairman of Moneysupermarket.com. Early life Nixon was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, on 7 August 1967. He spent the early part o ...

, billionaire businessman, co-founder of

Moneysupermarket.com MONY Group plc, trading as Money Supermarket, is a British company which specialises in technology-led money-saving platforms including several Comparison shopping website, price comparison websites. The company enables consumers to compare pri ...

Ian Rush Ian James Rush (born 20 October 1961) is a Welsh former professional association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He is regarded as one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best Welsh playe ...

, footballer *

Hannah Blythyn Hannah Blythyn (born 17 April 1979) is a Welsh politician who served as the Minister for Social Partnership in the Welsh Government from 2021 to 2024. She was previously the Environment Minister from 2017 to 2018 and the Deputy Minister for H ...

Member of the Senedd, Deputy Minister for Social Partnership

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Richard Gwyn Catholic High School, Flint Secondary schools in Flintshire Catholic secondary schools in the Diocese of Wrexham Educational institutions established in 1954 1954 establishments in Wales Flint, Flintshire