Fitzalan High School - Organisation and Communications

Organisation and Communications

Before pupils join Fitzalan, profiles are produced using their primary schools information. Pupils are grouped according to their abilities and progress is reviewed each term. More able pupils are placed in an express set, receiving extension work and study Latin as an additional subject. Pupils with special educational needs receive specialist support in class to ensure that they can access the curriculum fully. The school has four Houses: DEWI, LLEWELLYN, GLYNDWR, and HYWEL.
The school has a website, and issues a regular newsletter on school activities. A School Council exists for pupils to raise any issues through this forum. It has many community links and local residents and interest groups, who are allowed to use the extensive facilities. The school has an established and published policy on 'anti-bullying' for all pupils. A Parent Teacher Association (PTA) was formed in 1978 called the ‘Friends of Fitzalan‛. It supports the school, raises funds, and helps organise social events. In 2007 the school embarked on a program to reduce its carbon footprint after an audit by the Carbon Trust. Steps taken included installing "eco-quiet" computers, one of which was to be powered by a demonstration wind turbine.

Fitzalan now has the highest ratio of interactive whiteboards to classrooms of any secondary school in Wales and is at the cutting edge of its use of ICT in education. The school was awarded the NAACE Mark for excellence in the use of ICT in November 2005. Six new thirty station ICT suites have been installed since 2006 with state-of-the-art computers and software.

Organised Sports and Arts The school campus includes 2 gymnasia, a multi use dance studio, 2 indoor multi use halls, 2 fitness suites, a sports hall, a swimming pool, 4 grass football/ rugby pitches and an artificial cricket square. In addition daily access to the Gol Centre, comprising 12 five-a-side artificial football pitches, the Welsh International Athletics Stadium and artificial sports pitches. BTEC sport lessons take place in both school and in Cardiff City Football Club.

• In 1982, the school football team won the English Schools Football Association Cup, the first time that this cup had been taken out of England.

• Fitzalan has traditionally had a strong chess team, winning the Welsh Schools Championship in 1984 and 1985, and in 2001 and 2002.

• The school hall was used during filming for "School Reunion", an episode of the long-running British science fiction series Doctor Who, first aired on 29 April 2006. A BBC2 documentary called “Fitzalan — School of Dreams” was filmed in March 2006, showing how well pupils achieve at the school.

• The school transformed one of its gyms into a drama studio complete with brand new apparatus