A NEW prep school and nursery plus upgraded science laboratories are in the pipeline for a leading secondary school.

Rydal Penrhos, which has 400 pupils in Colwyn Bay, will also be introducing a second all weather pitch, an upgraded pavilion and exploring a new pre university residential Sixth Form Centre.

This comes following the recent £150,000 renovations of their swimming pool.

John Waszek, the school’s executive principal said: “The starting point is everything we do has to have at its heart the impact it will have on the pupils we want to be ahead of the curve.

“Clearly the first priority is what the curriculum should be like in the future. Pretty much everything else flows from that: the levels of staff needed and the type buildings we require.

“We have two-year-olds here who will hope will be going to university in 2035, so we have to plan our staff, buildings and what goes on inside them.

“We are doing what we are doing because we want to provide our children with the best education we can for the 21st century. If we don’t do this now we won’t be doing our best for the children. We have to think ahead.

“On top of that the school decided just a year ago it would cease take boarders. In the past the school had 200 boys boarding, now we have a school with about 400 boys and girls and all but 50 are day pupils and by 2021 we plan to have no boarders.

The ambitious five-year plan will see the school investing millions of pounds to meet the changing needs of pupils in second quarter of the 21st century.

To put the programme into context he said: “We have two year olds here who will hope will be going to university in 2035, so we have to plan our staff, buildings and what goes on inside them.

“We are doing what we are doing because we want to provide our children with the best education we can for the 21st century. If we don’t do this now we won’t be doing our best for the children. We have to think ahead.

“On top of that the school decided just a year ago it would cease take boarders.

“In the past the school had 200 boys all boarding, now we have a school with about 400 boys and girls and all but 50 are day pupils and by 2021 we will have phased out boarding.”

He added: “The boarding house building was originally a hotel and was partly used by the prep school. But this building will become redundant in 2021 when there will be no more boarders. What we want is a building that is more suited to the needs of the prep school children, and that is what we plan.

“We need to change this redundant asset to an asset we need.”

He explained another aspiration requested by parents, which the school’s governing body is also looking into, is a pre university residential sixth form centre, which will aid Years 12 and 13 with their transition from school to higher education.

“Rydal Penrhos employs 180 people in Colwyn Bay and add £4 million in wages and salaries in the area. We must be one of the larger employers in the town.

“The money for the programme will come from our turnover of £6 million, although £4 million of that is spent on wages and salaries in the area. Furthermore a proportion of what the school buys also goes into the local economy. We want to dispose of assets and to reinvest the funds that produces it back into education of the children.”

“The programme is planned to take five years to complete. What we are really describing is the direction of travel. Over time plans might change as the needs of children change as technology changes. For example a few years ago we had white boards and projectors in all our classrooms, they have now been replaced by touch screens.

“We have to be really focussed on what we try to do for the pupils.”