Rydal Penrhos is a private co-educational boarding school in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. It is located on multiple sites around the town including a site in the neighbouring village of Rhos-on-Sea where it keeps its watersports equipment for easy access to the beach.

The school, as it exists today, started life as two separate institutions ? Rydal (incorporating the then Rydal Preparatory School, situated on the Erskine House campus and surrounds) has occupied the current school site as, firstly, a boys-only school and later, from the 1980s, a co-educational school. Penrhos College was a girls-only boarding school located near Rhos-on-Sea. The schools were merged in the mid-1990s and became known as Rydal Penrhos School, initially being run as three separate "divisions": "preparatory", "girls" and "co-educational", reflecting the three formerly separate incarnations. The Penrhos College campus was eventually closed down and sold for re-development, and its pupils moved to the main Rydal campus, with the divisions being amalgamated into a single entity. As with any major institutional reform, the merger and integration project was not without its controversy, not least over the sale of the former Penrhos site and the restructuring of the staff.

Rydal Penrhos has a strong tradition in sports and the arts. The school's 1st teams in both hockey and rugby have, in recent years, been a strong selling point for the school, which thrives on their successes. The 1st XI hockey team, along with the U-16 team, have been exceptionally successful in the Welsh Nationals, claiming several titles in the past 5 years. In 2007, the U-16 boys team won the North Wales Final at hockey, only to go on and lose in the final on the Nationals.

In 2004, the school began to offer the International Baccalaureate programme of study in its sixth form years, as a parallel alternative to the A-Level programme that was already being offered. This led to an increase in the number of pupils attending the school from overseas countries such as Germany and the Czech Republic.

Introduction of the I.B.

In 2004, the school began to offer the International Baccalaureate programme of study in its sixth form years, as a parallel alternative to the A-Level programme that was already being offered. This led to an increase in the number of pupils attending the school from overseas countries such as Belgium, Canada, Germany, France, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, Russia and the Czech Republic.

The average score of their first year group taking IB was 34, and it is expected to improve over the years.

External links

• Official website