SCHOOL’S MULTI-MILLION POUND WINDFALL - TWO YEARS ON

A mid Wales independent school, left a multi-million pound fortune by a former pupil, is to receive nearly £1 million more than first thought.

Christ College Brecon was expecting to receive £3 million from the legacy of former pupil David Hubert Jones, of Glanaman, a successful pharmacist. But now the school has been told to expect about £4 million from the man who never forgot how his school helped establish himself in life.

Said Christ College headmaster, Phillip Jones: “We sense that David Jones was a quiet, hard working and professional pharmacist who ran an exceptionally good business. He obviously felt a sense of gratitude to Christ College for teaching him chemistry in the first place”.

The money is enabling the funding of a number of science scholarships and bursaries at the school, which is continuing to buck the national trend which is seeing a decline in the number of pupils studying science subjects across the UK.

But at Christ College, as a result of the science awards, there has been an increase in demand for boarding places, with one boarding house already refurbished and another extended to meet the demand.

The increased funding will also allow Christ College to build a new science centre on which development is hoped to start later this year.

Said Phillip Jones: “The school has built a reputation for excellent science tuition. More than 30 per cent of leavers each year go on to study the ‘hard sciences’ at university. In 2006 we achieved 100 per cent pass rate in A Level examinations, with 59 per cent of grades being at A or B. Pride of place went to the chemistry department with 86 per cent A or B grades”.

Christ College Brecon is committed to the advancement of science in education. In recent years, the school has hosted the National Conference for Welsh Physics teachers organised by the Institute of Physics in Wales, and it was the only school in Wales that attended the recent Institute of Welsh Affairs consultative meeting on the proposed ‘Science Policy for Wales’.