Rhosafan New Welsh‑Medium Primary School: Port Talbot’s £29m Net‑Zero Campus in the Making
- Mar 18
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 24
Construction has begun on a £29 million Welsh‑medium primary school in Port Talbot, replacing the existing Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Rhosafan and the Tir Morfa training centre with a modern, learner‑centric campus aiming for net‑zero‑aligned operation and strong community use. The project is a flagship part of Neath Port Talbot Council’s Strategic Schools Improvement Programme and one of the first schools selected under the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Schools Challenge.
Project Overview
Location: Marine Drive, Port Talbot, Neath Port Talbot, South Wales.
Client / procuring authority: Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council.
Contract value: Approximately £29 million.
Procurement route: Morgan Sindall Construction appointed via the South West Wales Regional Contractors Framework.
Capacity: 420 school places for pupils aged three to 11, including 90 nursery places, 12 additional learning needs (ALN) places, and 16 places in a Welsh Immersion Unit.
Programme: Two‑phase delivery, with enabling and civil works first, followed by main school and community‑hub construction; targeted completion in 2028.
Sustainability ambition: Targeting BREEAM “Outstanding”, “Secure by Design”, and net‑zero‑in‑operation standards, with Building with Nature‑aligned external spaces.
Delivery Partners and Key Stakeholders
Morgan Sindall Construction’s Wales business is the main contractor, responsible for enabling works, structural frame, internal fit‑out, and external landscaping. The scheme is procured through the South West Wales Regional Contractors Framework, which gives Neath Port Talbot Council access to a tier‑one contractor while supporting local‑supply‑chain and workforce‑development objectives.
The design team is led by Arcadia Architects, supported by Stantec for civil, structural, and MEP engineering, and Fenton Reece for landscape architecture. Specialist consultants include Arda Sustainability, Asbri Planning Consultants, Part B Fire Consultants, and Formant Acoustics, reflecting a high‑specification approach to energy, safety, planning, and acoustic performance.
For Neath Port Talbot Council, the new Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Rhosafan is a core element of the Strategic Schools Improvement Programme, designed to replace ageing facilities and accommodate rising demand for Welsh‑medium education in the Sandfields area. The Welsh Government underwrites the wider Sustainable Schools Challenge, of which Rhosafan is one of the early pilot schemes, linking the project directly to national policy on low‑carbon public buildings and inclusive education.
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Construction and Technical Details
The new campus will be a 14‑classroom primary complex, with dedicated spaces from Reception to Year 6, plus two ALN classrooms, childcare and nursery provision, and staff areas. A separate community‑hub element will house two training rooms, a community room with kitchen access, five meeting rooms, and a dance studio, intended to support adult education, youth activities, and wider community use outside the school day.
Externally, the scheme will include three external multi‑use games areas (MUGAs), landscaped “quiet” zones, a Forest School area, and a “mile walk” that loops these spaces into a continuous learning and play route. A 110‑space car park will be surfaced with permeable materials and integrated bio‑retention rain gardens, aligning with sustainable‑drainage and SuDS‑led site‑design principles.
Structurally, the project will combine a two‑storey, 810 m² steel‑frame building with companion single‑storey timber‑frame elements, including a winter garden that works as a covered, unheated outdoor‑learning space. The timber‑steel mix is framed around reducing embodied carbon compared with all‑concrete alternatives, while still allowing for future adaptation and long‑term durability.
Energy‑wise, the project is being developed under the Sustainable Schools Challenge, which points towards a highly electrified thermal system (such as ground‑source heat pumps) and on‑site renewables like photovoltaics, though the detailed technical specification has not been fully disclosed in early‑stage reporting. The broader design ethos emphasises low‑embodied‑carbon materials, recycled content, and locally sourced supply‑chain inputs where possible.
Timeline
Planning approval for the new Welsh‑medium primary at Marine Drive was granted in mid‑2025, following a planning statement that set out the demolition of the existing Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Rhosafan and the Tir Morfa training centre and the construction of a completely new school, sports pitch, play areas, and associated highways and access works.
Formal construction commencement was marked in March 2026 with a site launch event attended by council leaders and senior representatives from Morgan Sindall. The project is being delivered in two phases: an initial phase of enabling works, demolition, and ground‑level infrastructure, followed by the main academic buildings, community hub, and external landscaping. The council’s current target is practical completion and handover by 2028, allowing the old buildings to be fully demolished once the new campus is operational.
Strategic Importance
At the local level, the Rhosafan scheme responds directly to housing growth and demographic pressure in the Port Talbot Sandfields catchment, where demand for Welsh‑medium places and dedicated ALN provision has repeatedly outstripped existing stock. By consolidating nursery, ALN, and Welsh Immersion units within a single, modern campus, the council is aiming to create a more coherent and inclusive education pathway for families while concentrating capital investment on a single, higher‑quality asset.
Regionally, the project sits within Neath Port Talbot’s Strategic Schools Improvement Programme, which seeks to replace ageing, carbon‑intensive school estates with fewer, better‑performing, more sustainable facilities. As one of the first three schools selected for the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Schools Challenge, Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Rhosafan is effectively becoming a test case for how low‑carbon construction, community‑centric design, and inclusive learning environments can be embedded in mainstream school capital programmes.
For the wider UK construction sector, Rhosafan illustrates how devolved education and sustainability policy is translating into on‑site procurement choices: a tier‑one contractor, regional‑framework routes, multi‑specialist design teams, and a clear emphasis on low‑embodied‑carbon structural systems and SuDS‑led site design. If the project meets its BREEAM “Outstanding” and net‑zero‑in‑operation targets, it could serve as a reference model for future school‑build programmes across Wales and, potentially, the wider UK public‑sector education estate.
Writer’s Opinion
What makes Rhosafan stand out is that it is not simply a like‑for‑like rebuild but a deliberate attempt to rethink the primary‑school campus as a hybrid learning and community space. The inclusion of a winter garden, Forest School landscape, and a full‑sized community hub with adult‑education capacity signals that local authorities are beginning to treat schools as nodes of social infrastructure, not just as curriculum‑delivery shells.
From a construction‑industry perspective, the project also reflects a tightening alignment between policy and delivery. The push for BREEAM “Outstanding”, “Secure by Design”, and net‑zero‑in‑operation standards, combined with a timber‑steel structural palette and SuDS‑aligned site design, means contractors and designers are being asked to move beyond the “code‑minimum” model that has often dominated school projects. If this can be delivered within the £29 million budget, it may help shift the perception that high‑performance public‑sector schools are inherently unaffordable.
However, the real test will come in operation. Designing for net zero on paper is one thing; ensuring that the school’s energy systems, indoor comfort, and maintenance burden remain manageable over several decades is another. For Emilecon readers, Rhosafan offers a useful case study in how policy‑driven pilot schemes can stimulate innovation, but it also underscores the need for the construction sector to increasingly design with long‑term operational realities in mind, not just with headline‑grabbing sustainability targets.
