GOWERTON: Old grammar school building to come down in £47m school rebuild

The oldest building at Gowerton School, the former girls’ grammar school on Cecil Road, is to be demolished under a rebuild costing more than £47m.

Swansea Council‘s cabinet is asked on Thursday 15 October to approve a change of plan: instead of refurbishing the old block and rebuilding two others, all three come down and a single new building goes up in their place.

The council’s announcement on Thursday said some older buildings would need to go but that historic elements would be retained “wherever possible”. The report to cabinet names the block, and explains why refurbishing it is off the table.

Block A: the 1940 grammar school that cannot be saved

Block A was built as Gowerton Girls’ Grammar School, officially opened on 3 May 1940 on land that had been part of Cefn Gorwydd Farm, the Gowertonian Society’s history records.

The boys stayed at the 1898 Talbot Street school until the two grammar schools merged into a comprehensive in 1973, and every pupil was housed at Cecil Road from 1987. The Talbot Street building is now Ysgol Gyfun Gŵyr.

The plan cabinet approved in July 2025 was to rebuild Blocks B and D and refurbish Block A. That meant a “fabric first” overhaul of its failing heating, wiring and plumbing to meet the Welsh Government‘s net zero carbon standard.

Then the contractor, Morgan Sindall, carried out visual surveys as part of the concept design. The report says the condition, risks and likely redevelopment needs of Block A were “materially greater than previously understood”, with “significant further scope creep and increased costs” likely over the life of the project and beyond.

Three options were then weighed: the original plan, one new building replacing all three blocks, or two new buildings. The project board and the council’s schools programme board chose the single block.

The report says it is the cheapest route, with lower capital costs than refurbishing, cuts project risk “by at least £5.3m”, shortens the build and causes less disruption, and takes the running and maintenance bill for the old block off the council’s and the school’s books.

What happens when

The report gives a timeline the announcement did not. A public consultation runs in November, with a planning application to be decided between February and May 2027 and the full business case going to the Welsh Government in April 2027.

The building contract would be signed by November 2027, work would start on site in January 2028, the new buildings would be in use from September 2029, and the whole project would be finished in October 2030.

The work is described as phased, and nothing in the report suggests pupils moving off the site. The first intake to start secondary school in the new block would be the children now in Year 4 at the village’s primaries.

The money, and a warning for other schools

The approved total for the project is £47,202,967, which the report says “will be subject to change” as the business case develops. It warns that “significant construction cost increases are being experienced nationally” and that there is no cost certainty until the construction-stage figures come back.

Cabinet is also asked to cut the money set aside for the pre-construction phase from £7,080,885, agreed in July 2025, to £2,523,285. That is a refinement after the contractor tender rather than a saving on the project, the report says.

It is council money that counts towards the council’s share once the Welsh Government signs off the grant. If the scheme does not go ahead, it is written off.

There is a line in the report for every other school waiting in the queue: as project costs increase, “there will inevitably be some slippage of later projects in the programme”.

Gowerton and Olchfa were the first secondaries named when the council set out its £400m school building programme in February 2024. Most of the money comes from the Welsh Government through what is now Sustainable Communities for Learning.

School on board

The school’s senior leaders were shown the revised option on 1 September and its governors on 8 September, the report says, and both support it.

Cllr Robert Smith, the council’s cabinet member for education and learning, said the priority was “to give young people in Gowerton the best possible place to learn”.

He added: “This investment will provide modern classrooms and facilities that support pupils every day, helping them to feel confident, comfortable and inspired to reach their full potential. This project will make sure the school is ready to support pupils for many years to come.”