The Times: School woos 26 ex pupils to teach

Rhian Morgan Ellis looks after school in deprived area, but has inspired generations to do the best they can achieve

Many youngsters cannot wait to leave their schooldays behind — but one head teacher is so inspiring she has convinced 26 of her former pupils to return as teachers or other staff at their old school.

Rhian Morgan Ellis has formed her very own old boys’ and girls’ club at a secondary school in the Welsh valleys. It includes a former head boy and head girl in her senior management team, as well as a former pupil who started as a dinner lady and is now a support teacher for vulnerable pupils after Morgan Ellis spotted her gift for working with children. All 26 are on the 77-strong staff simultaneously.

“I don’t go out with a lasso drawing in former pupils, they get the jobs because they are the best at interview,” she said this weekend. “That’s what we teach at the school — to be the best. I have high standards, and only the best is good enough. Be the best you can be, that is my mantra.”

The tally is all the more remarkable because the 750-pupil Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhondda is in Porth, at the gateway of the valleys, in one of Britain’s poorest areas, where jobs are scarce and the illegal drug trade has scarred communities.

It is the only secondary school in the Rhondda teaching all subjects through the medium of Welsh. Pupils leave at the age of 18 fully bilingual in both Welsh and English.

The full online article can be found here.