Cwmbran New Town was developed on the neighbourhood system, with a series of residential neighbourhoods each served with a Primary or Junior & Infants school. In each case these schools were located as close to the centre of the neighbourhood as possible, ensuring schools would be easily accessible from local homes and the neighbourhood shopping centre, allowing school drop-offs/pick-ups and shopping to be combined, and keeping schools away from larger roads encircling the neighbourhoods. Their prominent locations within local communities would both highlight new architect-designed buildings and encourage use outside school hours for adult education classes and other social uses.
The school at West Pontnewydd, originally know as the Mount Pleasant Primary School, was the first new primary school in Cwmbran, opening in 1955. It was designed by the Monmouth County Architects department chief architect, Colin Jones, and closely followed the style of the Llantarnam Secondary School (also by Jones) opened in the same year. Built of light, caramel coloured, brick work with expansive bands of glazing, the two storey structure has a light and airy feel that was enhanced by its open, grassy, surroundings.
S Fielding RCAHMW July 2021
Cwmbran New Town: An Urban Characteristaion (RCAHMW, 2021)
Newman, John, 'The Buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire' (Penguin Books / University of Wales Press, 2000) p. 82