Rhiwbeina Mixed and Infants School was officially opened on Tuesday 30 April 1929 by the Rev. D. M. Jones, Senghenydd, chairman of the agricultural committee of the Glamorgan County Council. The school was built from 1928 to meet the requirements of the growing neighbourhood of Rhiwbeina. The school was designed by County Architect for the education committee, D. Pugh Jones of Tonypandy and built by John Makin of Cardiff, with an open corridor on one side of the classrooms enabling all the classrooms and the hall to be lighted and ventilated from two sides.

Brick built with Portland stone dressings and slate roofs in a modern idiom with some neo-classical influences, accommodation was for 360 pupils (264 mixed and 96 infants) in eight classrooms, with a play room for smaller children. Arched windows and entrance from the reception to the main corridor greets the visitor, with stairs either side to first floor administrative offices. The hall is central to the plan with two entrance doors from the boys' and girls'/infants' wing. Central heating system was installed by J. C. Hitt & Sons (Bridgend), with 'Robin Hood' boilers and 'Beeston' radiators.

The school was designed in an 'E' plan form ('finger plan') like many other inter-war schools, Rhiwbeina School was one of many schools in Glamorgan designed by County Architect D. Pugh Jones, who it is believed had built 30 schools by 1912. The south (front) elevations includes a large traingular pediment above the entrance with the date 1928 inscribed along with the motto: 'Goreu Tarian Cyfiawnder' and a segmented pediment above the doorway with 'Ysgol Y Cyngor Rhiwbina'. Above the entrances to the Boys' and Girls'/Infants' departments on either wing are triangular pediments with Welsh language inscription ('Bechgyn' / 'Merched a Babanod') along with 'Pensaer D. Pugh Jones' and 'Adeiladydd John Makin Caerdydd'. The south-east and south-west gable ends to the front display a ribboned laurel wreath relief with 'G.C.C'.

An infants' block was built to the north of the original building in 1955-56, designed by F. R. Bates & Son, Chartered Architects of Newport, and built by Frank Baty and Smith Ltd at a cost of nearly £55,000. Following a large fire to the infants' block to the north, a large extension was built in 2002 which now connects to the original building.

M. Powel, RCAHMW. December 2023.

Sources: 'New School: Opening Ceremony at Rhiwbina', Western Mail, 1 May 1929, p.7; 'Central Heating', Western Mail, 4 May 1929, p.10; 'Caerphilly', Merthyr Express, 4 May 1929, p.18; Investigator's photographs; Index of Architects, Engineers, Surveyors, Builders, Working in Wales' (2009); Fifth Annual Report of the County Architect, 1956 (Glamorgan County Council County Architect's Department). GD/CA/11/5. Glamorgan Archives.