Stanwell School
Stanwell School is a co-educational foundation status comprehensive school and Sixth form college located in Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales for children aged between eleven and eighteen. The school is located 5.2 miles (8.4 kilometres) south west from the Welsh capital city of Cardiff.The school currently has approximately 1,800 pupils on the roll in years seven to thirteen with a thriving sixth form. The school benefits from excellent facilities, with all the school's buildings either newly built or recently refurbished.Specialist teaching accommodation has been provided for science (featuring eleven modern laboratories), drama, music, media studies, P.E. (including sports halls and a playing field), Information Technology, Art and Design TechnologyStanwell School was previously Penarth County Grammar School prior to becoming a comprehensive.HistoryA Victorian beginningThe school originally opened in 1897 as Penarth Grammar School during the rapid Victorian expansion of the Penarth, Cogan, Llandough and Dinas Powys areas following the building of Cardiff and Penarth docks to handle the burgeoning South Wales coal trade. Between 1891 and 1901 the population of the town expanded from 12,000 to over 15,000 people and the need for a new school was paramount.Unusually the school was established for both boys and girls at a time when most British grammar schools were single sex establishments and few girls were even expected to complete a grammar school education. However, within the school the sexes remained segregated during the working day with separate school entrances, classrooms, teaching staff and playground areas. The girls' curriculum included only reading, writing, arithmetic and sewing, but the boys instead studied the sciences, Latin and ancient Greek. All children left school at the age of fourteen until the educational reforms introduced by the Conservative government's Education Board President Rab Butler in his Education Act 1944.
