PLANS to transform a Powys secondary school operating across two campuses will go before councillors next week.

Options to alter the way Ysgol Calon Cymru – a dual stream secondary school operating across campuses in Builth Wells and Llandrindod Wells – operates include introducing a new 11-18 English-medium campus in Llandrindod as well as a new/remodelled 4-18 Welsh-medium all-through campus in Builth.

Powys County Council’s (PCC) cabinet will look at options for the school on Tuesday, June 22, and will be told a preferred way forward that could transform education in both towns faces significant complexities.

If given the go-ahead, an informal public engagement will then take place in September and October this year.

The local authority wants to address issues with the current operating model of Ysgol Calon Cymru and in September last year, cabinet considered a Strategic Outline Case (SOC) which identified a preferred way forward – which includes the English medium provision switching exclusively to Llandrindod and the all-through Welsh medium school situated in Builth.

Cabinet will be told next week that officers have been considering and testing various ways of achieving the preferred way forward due to the significant complexities, constraints and dependencies that need to be factored in so that the plans can be delivered.

Councillor Phyl Davies, cabinet member for education and property, said: “Providing high-quality teaching and learning environments is one of the aims of our Vision 2025 and our Strategy for Transforming Education in Powys 2020-2030 will help us meet these aims.

“We want to improve learner entitlement and experience at Ysgol Calon Cymru by developing state-of-the-art 21st Century facilities at Llandrindod Wells and Builth Wells as well as establishing a Welsh-medium all-age school. However, this will require a large amount of capital investment and we must ensure that we get this right.

“The current operating model at Ysgol Calon Cymru is neither educationally effective, financially efficient or sustainable. The condition of the Llandrindod campus in-particular is very poor, while the Builth campus also needs improvement and there is also a need to significantly improve the learning entitlement and experience for Welsh-medium pupils and expand the limited offer of provision currently available.

“We believe that the preferred way forward for Ysgol Calon Cymru will address these issues. This is a large-scale, highly complex programme of change with significant investment, and we want to ensure that all stakeholders are able to contribute to the development of these plans.

“I will be recommending to cabinet that we start a period of informal engagement on the preferred way forward for Ysgol Calon Cymru.”

If given the go-ahead, an engagement report would then be produced for the consideration of cabinet towards the end of the year and, if approved, formal consultation would then proceed as part of the statutory school reorganisation process.