WHAT? WHERE?

St David’s College is a non-selective independent co-ed boarding and day school for children aged 9 to 19, set in 30 breezy acres just outside Llandudno, North Wales. Based on Christian principles from its inception in 1965, the school currently has 260 pupils in a 60/40 split between boys and girls, maintaining small class sizes of up to 15. The USP for St David’s is that it’s a mainstream school boarding school that also happens to have 60% SEND pupils (primarily dyslexia). The teachers are all post-grad trained to teach dyslexic children and the curriculum offers a wide array of BTEC and creative subjects in addition to the staples of Maths and English – a holistic educational model that allows for teaching outside what some might see as the rigid exam-oriented perimeters of some schools.

The handsome grey stone 15^th century manor house of Gloddaeth Hall, along with a few less picturesque pebble-dash buildings, looks out over the Eryri/Snowdonia National park, with the beach and Victorian seafront of Llandudno a couple of miles the other way.

St David’s College is very much as a boarding school at its core (its extraordinary extra-curricular and weekend activities being a real draw). Boarders currently making up 36% of the cohort, with a third of these being international pupils. Day pupils tend to come from the surrounding towns and villages, with some travelling from as far as Anglesey and Chester.

FACILITIES

/SPORT

For a school that won the 2020 ISA Outstanding Sports Provision (Small School) award, you might expect St David’s to be awash with shiny facilities but the school does extraordinarily well with the basics. There are the usual rugby fields, an astro turf or two, four tennis courts, outdoor netball courts for the girls and a strength and fitness gym, with plans in progress for a new indoor sports hall and cricket pavillion.Swimming is taken off site to Llandudno Swimming Pool and there are good external links with Llandudno Cricket Club and the local professional rugby club, RGC. No surprises in terms of the main school sports – it’s rugby and netball in the winter (with a thriving girls rugby team coached by former Wales rugby international Jess Kavanaugh), and tennis, cricket and athletics in the summer.

With 260 pupils across 9 year groups, you won’t be surprised to read that St David’s doesn’t always win against its larger rivals, though there continue to be notable successes, including supporting multiple international athletes to represent Great Britain and Wales at rugby, sailing, skiing, wind-surfing and climbing, to name few. This is as well as a burgeoning elite programme to support the string of promising athletes that rise up through the school. Please note Tiger Parents, winning here is not the primary goal! Competing, working together, supporting and understanding how to learn from defeat have higher value here.

Beyond the curriculum sport, St David’s biggest calling card – maybe even its dealer’s deck – is its own dedicated outdoor education programme (OEP) which has been handed a coveted AHOEC Gold Award, one of only three schools in the UK to achieve this status. The OEP is where sport, education and pastoral dovetail at St David’s. A mind-boggling four times every week plus a full day each fortnight, the Year 5-10 kids head to the school’s onsite education centre, pick up kayaks or wetsuits, ropes or whatever is needed for the day’s adventure, and head off with the school’s specialist instructors to rock-climb, abseil, canoe, gorge-walk, cave, surf, sail and ski. The idea is to promote confidence, teamwork, physical movement and community in a meaningful way – I saw the timetable of events on the wall, and it literally had the benefits of each activity spelt out so the kids understood what they were trying to achieve. Paddleboards – self control; Orienteering – Memory: Mine Exploring – Kindness.

Its inventiveness is paying off. In 2018 the programme won the Independent Schools Association (ISA) award for Best Extra-Curricular Education, and the school was also a Finalist in the Muddy Stilettos Awards for Most Inventive Sports Programme (2022).

/CREATIVE ARTS

High on St David’s wish list is a Performing Arts Centre – planning is underway for the ambitious project. Until then, students use the well-appointed drama rehearsal rooms and Assembly Hall (fully kitted out for lighting and sound) for school drama lessons and take over the local theatre for the yearly school production.. Drama is taken seriously enough here to offer a BTEC in Level 2 to 3 in Performing Arts.

The school’s 2019 production of High School Musical was nominated by the National Operatic and Dramatic Association for the ‘Best Youth Production Award’ across Wales and Ireland. The success continued with the lead actor in the 2020 production of Peter Pan the British Musical being given the NODA Performance Award for his role as Peter Pan.

In terms of music, the recent appointment of a new Director of Music has breathed fresh life into the school’s musical output and ambition. Currently there’s no orchestra here, but there is a thriving school band comprising students and staff alike – filling the corridors with a certain joie de vivre during their regular lunchtime practice sessions –as well as various chamber ensembles and choirs (I mean, it’s Wales!). There’s also a recording studio and the opportunity to take a BTEC Level 3 in Music Performance.

The art spaces are a bit basic compared to many other private schools, though show their creativity in offering photography, pottery, print design, 3D art while the big beast here is the multi-award-winning DT block, a space that offers everything from woodwork to a metal work forge and everything in between.

The main manor house is gorgeous, with wood-turned stairways, the small, stunning Minstrel Hall, stained glass windows and an air of scuffed grandeur that feels special but homely. The dining room, in a separate building, is large and modern, and the kids and staff are justifiably proud of it. The food it provides is exceptional, with a choice of hot meals and a deli-style salad bar with a large assortment of healthy options. Fresh fruit is available throughout the day. The children play happily around the chaplain’s quarters, often dropping in for some ad hoc supportive words in the counselling ‘shed’ there or popping into the chaplain’s lounge for a chat.

SIXTH FORM

There are currently 65 pupils in Sixth Form, and roughly 70% go on to study at university, and the remaining 30% taking up apprenticeships, going straight into work or travelling. Destinations for recent A level students included Manchester, York, Lancaster and Cardiff dispelling any notions that St David’s doesn’t deliver academically for its most able pupils.

ACADEMICS

As a mainstream school with 60% students here having some kind of SEND (mainly dyslexia, but also dyspraxia, dyscalculia and a small number with ADHD), the challenge has been to simultaneously find a way to teach all the pupils to reach their potential. The schools big calling card is its award-winning outdoor education provision (see SPORT), its strong family and community atmosphere, and its refreshing take on what constitutes a successful education.

The school is hard-wired to untangle dyslexia for its pupils, with all teachers taking the post-graduate BDA Level 5 Certificate (or equivalent) in Dyslexia, Literacy, Support, and Intervention. The Cadogan Centre, the school’s specialist one-to-one support centredelivers roughly 500 support lessons a week with its own dedicated teaching rooms (online is now, inevitably, also available) through its postgrad level qualified teachers, all holding the Teaching Dyslexic Learners Level 7 qualification from Bangor University or equivalent.

Academic results are good in independent school terms, without blowing the manor house doors off. In GSCEs in 2024, over 70% of GCSEs & BTEC Level 2 were at A*-C or equivalent.

In 2024, 73.4% of A Levels were graded at A*-C, The Value Added score for L3 BTECs is where the school particularly shines, with pupils averaging nearly a whole a grade higher than the national average.

In terms of the curriculum, it’s varied and designed to pique interest. For Years 7-9, Digital Technology, Outdoor Education and Sport are all core subjects and in Year 9 pupils can opt to take Engineering. From Year 10-11, General Social Education and Entrepreneurship are added. By the Sixth Form, alongside the usual academic A Levels (or instead of), pupils can study for BTECs in Performing Arts, Production Arts, Music, Outdoor Education, PE, Business Studies and three levels of CAD (Computer-Aided Design) qualifications.

PASTORAL CARE

This is an area where St David’s shines. Most boarding schools I visit will describe its environment as feeling like a family, but St David’s gets the gold star on this one. Ex-pupils can’t seem to stay away and regularly come back to teach. The Head of Pastoral care has been here for 18 years and even got married in the grounds. The headmaster plays keepy-uppy with the kids at breaktime and the other teachers are out throwing rugby balls around or playing netball at lunchtime with the girls.

Support, community and, crucially, time together talking are the blocks used at St David’s to rebuild pupils whose confidence has often hit rock bottom by the time they reach the school. In terms of structured support, there’s an individual plan developed for every child here on arrival, a full time Pastoral Care Officer (a former PSE teacher at the school) who is available every day for drop in chats as well as time-tabled support. The new Chaplain has been a hit with the younger children in particular so their availability for support is now highlighted to the kids who need little encouragement. There’s a medical centre with three nurses (one of whom was previously in safeguarding). The school has developed a strong relationship with CAMHS and professional counsellors are also available, though these are at a private cost.

BOARDING

Currently around 40% of pupils board from Year 5 upwards. St David’s sees itself more as a boarding than a day school and is looking to increase its boarding further to 50% – the girls boarding houses has recently been extended by 17 beds which will go towards that. The majority of kids board full-time though weekly is also possible and occasional boarding (not flexi) for day pupils is offered when space is available. Many day pupils will be seen around school on Saturdays or taking part in the weekend trips organised by the outdoor ed department.

There are 5 boarding houses here – four for boys, one for girls, one attached to the main manor house and others dotted around the grounds. The boarding houses are in the process of being refurbished with updated bedrooms, extensions, and new facilities (Snowdon House, Hettie House, and Augusta House are completed; Cader House and Tryfan House are still being made over). Boarding facilities are spacious and homey and pupils tell me that the atmosphere in these homes-from-home is cosy and familial. When there’s space, day pupils often choose to board for a couple of nights each week for the sheer fun of it.

THE HEAD

Andrew Russell  has been at St David’s for over 30 years – in teaching terms, that’s like having his own Platinum Jubilee. A former competitive cross-country runner, Russell has taken on almost every job there is at St David’s over the years, from maths teacher to cricket coach to Head of Year to House Master, and has been head since 2017. Quick to laugh and very likeable, Russell has three of his own children at the school (none of whom have SEND as it happens), and clearly takes his role at the school as more of a calling than a job – along with his wife he runs the active alumni society, teaches entrepreneurship and drives the local minibus on the school run three times a week. Under his leadership, particularly in the last few years, the school has grown in confidence to buck trends and think differently – the passionate sports teachers I spoke to at length have been given the freedom to up-end traditional sports coaching to make it about personal growth rather than just winning – a successful model that is putting St David’s now at the forefront of sports teaching and, ironically, has made them more successful on the pitch.

QUIRKS

Honestly, where do you start? The whole ethos of St David’s throws the stuffy private school model out the window. The Outdoor Education provision extends over the weekend for both boarding and day pupils, while all pupils are encouraged to show that they’ve taken part in robust physical activity over the weekends even if not part of the school’s provision. At the last Open Day, visitors to the school were witness to outdoor cookery session, while one of the boarders provided musical accompaniment on the guitar – all making for a very homely and convivial atmosphere. Courses in motorbike maintenance and a powerboat driving qualification are on offer too. In many ways, it feels like the carefully-managed risk-taking offered to the children on a daily basis and the personal qualities associated with successfully managing that – judgement, teamwork, the ability to listen, and self-control – is the secret to St David’s success. It kind of helps too that this is exactly the stuff kids love to do.

SEND PROVISION

Clearly it’s immense. A school with a 60% SEND rate that remains mainstream shows real strength and depth in its SEND provision. With all teachers taking the post-graduate BDA Level 5 Certificate (or equivalent) in Dyslexia, Literacy, Support, and Intervention, and the Level 7 teachers at The Cadogan Centre offering 500+ one-to-one lessons a week (bearing in mind there are only 260 pupils at the school), you’ll struggle to find better care in a school environment.

ESTYN REPORT

The most recent report is from an inspection in November 2023, published in January 2024 with Good and Excellent judgements and the school passing all regulatory requirements.

“The school provides an extensive range of engaging, enriching and authentic learning experiences.” – Estyn Inspection Report, January 2024

MOBILE PHONE POLICY

Up until Sixth Form, phones are allowed on-site, but must be handed in at registration and can be collected after the school day has finished.. Boarders have to hand their phones in at Dorm Call and can collect them after breakfast the following morning. For Sixth Formers, there is no official policy and students are expected to police themselves.

It’s worth noting that phones and tablets are not insured by the school, so parents/guardians are advised to insure them themselves.

TRANSPORT

65% of pupils live locally, and the school puts on buses from Anglesey, St Asaph, and Llandudno Junction Train Station with 3 buses across 3 routes.

For boarders, the school is a five minute taxi journey from Llandudno Junction train station, three hours from London and roughly an hour from both Liverpool and Manchester stations. At the beginning and end of every term, St David’s organises chaperoned group travel between Llandudno Junction and London Euston, with staff collecting students from Euston at the beginning of term and dropping them off at the end of term. Holyhead Ferry Terminal, 50mins by car, also allows for excellent links to the Republic of Ireland.

FEES

Day fees are reasonable, from £4,785 – £7,585. Boarding fees are more punchy, from £8,750 – £12,525 £9,890 – £14,155, but it’s easy to argue that the extraordinary extra-curricular programme throughout the evenings and weekend justifies it. Additional support starts at £284 a term for small group support and £585 a term for 1-1 support.

WORD ON THE GROUND

Very positive. The family atmosphere is the big thing for parents at St David’s along with the inclusive, tolerant atmosphere. Many feel passionate about the school and how it’s ‘rebuilt’ their children. Most recognise the facilities could do with a shine but are very happy with both the academic and pastoral aspect of the school.

THE MUDDY VERDICT

Good for: Learning here for all pupils is holistic and 100% child-centric, with the focus on the successful child as a whole rather than just the exam results. That might feel a bit frightening to parents who are hell-bent on a string of A* grades for their kids, but most parents now accept that hot-housing isn’t the way to go (and neither does it help university entrance). If you have a child who wants to grow in confidence, feel nurtured, get outdoors and experience the kind of extra-curricular education only seen in American summer camps, here’s your chance. There’s a strong pulse of entrepreneurialism here that will appeal to many – pupils from St David’s won the global Business & Enterprise Student of the Year in 2017, 2018 and 2019!

Not for: Children who aren’t joiner inners. Although the school adeptly supports the academically able child, you’ll also want to take advantage of everything else that is on offer here. The pebble-dash and temporary buildings may offend those with a waspish interiors eye. The North Wales location might seem a shade too far for those who their children back at weekends, but the school is surprisingly only three hours from London on the Euston to Holyhead line, less than 90 minutes from Manchester and with easy reach of Manchester and Liverpool airports.

Dare to disagree? Find out for yourself at their next Open Day or request an individual visit, tour or taster session Sign up here!

St David’s College, Gloddaeth Hall, Llandudno LL30 1RD, Tel: 01492 875974, www.stdavidscollege.co.uk, Email: admissions@stdavidscollege.co.uk

St David’s College, Llandudno

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