Bishop Gore School

Updated on Dec 01, 2023

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Established 1682 Ages 11–18 Founded 1682 Local authority Swansea		Headmaster Mr. Ryan Davies Phone +44 1792 411400 Gender Mixed-sex education

Location De La Beche RoadSwanseaSA2 9APUnited Kingdom Houses Rotherslade, Langland, Caswell, Limeslade, Bracelet Colours Years 7–11 Maroon and Gold Years 12–13 Navy Address De-La-Beche Rd, Sketty, Swansea SA2 9AP, UK Motto Virtue and good literature Similar Olchfa Compreh School, Gowerton School, Bishop Vaughan Catholic, Morriston Compreh School, Penyrheol Compreh School Profiles Twitter

The Bishop Gore School (Welsh: Ysgol Esgob Gore) is a secondary school in Swansea in Wales, founded on 14 September 1682 by Hugh Gore (1613–1691), Bishop of Waterford and Lismore. It is situated in Sketty, close to Singleton Park and Swansea University. In December 2013 the school was ranked in the second highest of five bands by the Welsh Government, based on performance in exams, value added performance, disadvantaged pupils' performance, and attendance.

Grammar school

Established as a Free Grammar School, initially in Goat Street (a site now part of Princess Way in the city centre), for "the gratuitous instruction of twenty boys, sons of the most indigent burgesses, and in the event of a dissolution of the corporation, to sons of the poorest inhabitants of the town", it has since known several names and locations. In September 1853 the school moved, as the boys-only Swansea Grammar School, to Mount Pleasant into a new building designed by the architect Thomas Taylor. The building was extended in 1869 to a design by Benjamin Bucknall. The building was largely gutted by incendiary bombs during World War II although some of the 1869 building remains as part of the Swansea campus of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

After the war the school was moved to the Sketty area of Swansea where it subsequently became Bishop Gore Grammar school and briefly Bishop Gore Comprehensive School. It has been on its current Sketty site since 1952 with a large extension built in the 1970s and further Design and Technology extensions in the 1990s.

Comprehensive

Until 1970, Bishop Gore was an all-boys grammar school, then it merged with the girls' grammar school Glanmôr and Townhill Secondary School to become Bishop Gore Co-educational Comprehensive school in 1971.

School today

Currently Bishop Gore has around 1800 male and female students aged 11–18. The school has a sixth form with separate lounge, facilities and uniform. The headteacher is Ryan Davies (appointed September 2007). Set at the head of Singleton Park, close to the village of Sketty and the seafront, Bishop Gore is built around two quadrangles the red brick building has in the centre the second largest hall in Swansea, second only to the Brangwyn Hall. Each pupil is assigned to a house: Caswell, Langland, Bracelet, Rotherslade or Limeslade (named after beaches on the nearby Gower peninsular), which they retain throughout their time at the school. Highlights of the school year include the Eisteddfod, the inter-house sports tournaments, the productions by Bishop Gore Theatre Company, and the end-of-year balls for the senior students.

In January 2010, an inspection report was published which awarded Bishop Gore the highest possible grades in all categories. As a result of this the school was featured as a 'best practice' case study by Estyn and was named in the chief inspector's annual report – being the only secondary school in Wales to achieve this recognition.

With 88% of pupils in 2015 leaving the school with five GCSE grades A* – C, Bishop Gore is now second only to Bishopston Comprehensive School in terms of this statistic.

Dylan Thomas

The most famous alumnus of Bishop Gore is almost certainly the poet, playwright and author Dylan Thomas (1914–1953). His father, David John (D. J.) Thomas was senior English master at the school, then known as Swansea Grammar School. Not a distinguished pupil, he nonetheless gained attention through publishing his first poem in 1926, "The Song Of The Mischievous Dog" and in 1928 winning the school's annual one-mile race. He left in 1931 to begin work at The South Wales Daily Post as a junior reporter.

Old Goreans

Notable Old Goreans have included:

Martin Amis, novelist and journalist

Donald Anderson, Baron Anderson of Swansea, Labour MP for Swansea East 1974–2005

Gareth Armstrong, actor

George Bell CBE, Director of the Plant Breeding Institute at the University of Cambridge 1947–71

Timothy Beynon, President from 2000–4 of the British Dragonfly Society

Kenneth Bryn Thomas, anaesthetist

Henry Bruce, 1st Baron Aberdare, Home Secretary 1868–73

Prof Sir John Cadogan CBE, Director General of Research Councils UK 1994-8, Forbes Professor of Organic Chemistry 1969–79 at the University of Edinburgh, former BP executive, and President of the Royal Society of Chemistry 1982-4

Rt Rev Graham Chadwick, bishop and anti-apartheid campaigner

Ronald Cour, sculptor

Sir George Curtis CB, Chief Land Registrar at HM Land Registry 1947–63

Glyn Davies, Marxist–Leninist thinker and Socialist worker

Dr Hywel Davies, cardiologist and author

David Dykes, Director of the National Museum of Wales 1986-9, and President of the British Numismatic Society 1999–2003

Prof Sir Sam Edwards FRS, President of the Institute of Physics 1972-4, Vice-Chancellor of the University of London 1985–90

Paul Ferris, journalist, novelist and biographer

Charles Fisher, journalist

Brian Flowers, Baron Flowers, FRS, physicist

John Ford CBE, Chief Executive of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, and the Driving Standards Agency 1993–2000

Mr Alan Pearce Fuller, 1929–2010, Ear Nose and Throat Surgeon to St Bartholomews Hospital London and to the Queen Mother

Thomas George, Professor of Geology at the University of Glasgow 1947–74, President of the Geological Society of London 1968–70 and the Palaeontological Association 1962-4

Sir Alex Gordon, CBE, architect and President of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) 1971-3

Sir William Grove, chemist, barrister and judge

Rt Rev Llewellyn Henry Gwynne, Bishop of Egypt and the Sudan

Prof John Howell CBE, Professor of Medicine at the University of Southampton 1969–91, and Dean of the Medical School 1978–83, and President of the British Thoracic Society 1988-9, and President of the British Medical Association 1989–90.

Alfred Janes, artist

John Gwyn Jeffreys, FRS, conchologist

Daniel Jones, composer

Ernest Jones, founder of British Psycho-Analytical Society, biographer of Sigmund Freud

John Jones, Professor of Economics from 1919–46 at the University of Leeds

Mervyn Jones, Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands 2000-2

Peter Jones, BBC Sports Announcer

The Kardomah Gang, 1930s Swansea literary and cultural circle

Prof Godfrey Keller, Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford

Prof Gail Kinman, Professor of Occupational Health Psychology at the University of Bedfordshire

Timothy Knowles, Group Managing Director of HTV Group 1986-8

Sir Archie Lamb KBE CMG DFC, Ambassador to Kuwait 1974-7, and to Norway 1978–80

Mervyn Levy, artist and critic

Prof Patrick McGorry AO, Professor of Youth Mental Health University of Melbourne; 2010 Australian of the Year.

Prof Leonard Maunder OBE, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Newcastle University 1967–92

John Metcalf, composer

David Miles, chief UK economist at Morgan Stanley, author of the Miles Report for HM Treasury

Hugh David Morgan, philosopher, raconteur and wit

Sir Gwilym Morris CBE, Chief Constable of South Wales Constabulary (since 1996 known as South Wales Police) 1971-9

Sir Douglas Owen CB, Commissioner of HM Customs and Excise 1949–65

Prof Dewi Zephaniah Phillips – Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Swansea University and Claremont Graduate University California, author and minister

Colin Phipps, petroleum geologist, Labour MP for Dudley West 1974-9

Prof William Price, Wheatstone Professor of Physics at King's College London 1955–76

Sion Probert, actor

Prof Lewis Roberts CBE, President of the British Nuclear Energy Society 1985-7

Sir Melvyn Rosser, Chairman of HTV Group 1986–91

Dylan Thomas, poet, playwright and author

Edmund Tucker, headmaster of Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe 1933–64

Prof Leslie Vaughan, Professor of Veterinary Surgery at the Royal Veterinary College 1974–91

Wynford Vaughan-Thomas, World War 2 war reporter, journalist, founder of HTV

Prof Dominic Welsh, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford 1992–2005

Prof Rhys Williams, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Swansea University

International Rugby players

Several Old Goreans have played international rugby, for the Wales national rugby union team or the Wales women's national rugby union team

Paul Arnold

Roger Blyth

Stuart Davies

Alun Wyn Jones, captain of Wales

Haydn Mainwaring

Richie Pugh, Wales Rugby sevens captain at the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Idwal Rees

Belinda Trotter, played in the first Welsh woman's team in 1987.

Geoff Wheel

References

Bishop Gore School Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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