Ysgol y Gader is a naturally bilingual community comprehensive school for pupils aged between 11 and 16 years, which is maintained by Gwynedd local authority. It has 382 pupils. The majority of pupils come from the town and from the nearby villages or rural area. Ten point nine per cent (10.9%) of pupils are eligible for free school meals, which is lower than the national percentage of 17.5%. No pupils live in areas that are among the 20% most underprivileged in Wales. Three pupils are receiving support to learn English as an additional language. The school admits pupils from the full ability range. Three point four per cent (3.4%) of pupils have a statement of special educational needs. In addition, 26.3% of pupils are on the school’s additional learning needs register. These figures are higher than the national percentages. ‘Tŷ Meirion’, a unit for pupils who have profound and complex needs and disabilities, is part of the school site. Twenty-nine per cent of pupils come from homes in which Welsh is the main language and the remainder come from homes where English is spoken. Ninety-four per cent of pupils are able to speak Welsh to first language standard and all pupils who took Welsh as a first language in the primary school continue to do so. The senior leadership team includes a headteacher in charge, a deputy headteacher and an assistant headteacher. Since May 2014, the headteacher of a local school has been in post as a strategic headteacher. The individual school budget per pupil for Ysgol Y Gader in 2014-2015 is £5,070. The maximum per pupil in secondary schools in Gwynedd is £5,517 and the minimum is £4,066. Ysgol Y Gader is in fifth place of the 14 secondary schools in Gwynedd in terms of the school budget per pupil.