'No more pencils, No more books, No more teacher's dirty looks...' (Alice Cooper)
Perhaps you shouldn't judge a school text book by its cover but I reckon that Brynhyfryd's retired-at-Easter headteacher Geraint Parry might well be a fan of Alice Cooper.
Ar gau tan yr hydref
Our secondary school finished for the academic year on Wednesday. It was a transitionary year. Out at Easter went Mr Parry. Judging by the teachers' strike at the very end of his tenure, there were elements within the school who disliked him. He created more work for teachers when compared to other secondaries, teachers said. It enabled Brynhyfryd to catch those who were slipping academically earlier than other local schools, Mr Parry said.
Mr Parry joined in 2014. He introduced a smart uniform policy, replacing those dreadful polo shirts and sweatshirts. Some parents complained bitterly in the press about the associated costs. Ironically, the Welsh government now seems to favour a return to such plain, disagreeable and scruffy attire.
So, how has the school performed under Mr Parry? That's now difficult to interpret. Gone are the colour coded categorisation of schools. In 2019, these were replaced by literacy, numeracy and science scores. These are now four years out-of-date and somewhat meaningless, thanks to the coronavirus disruption. Not even the Daily Post has published its usual annual assessments since 2019, presumably because there's no meaningful data. And, there's no inspection to consider, not since 2016. The Estyn site says Brynhyfryd is 'not in follow-up' and that's encouraging.
So, all we can say is that Mr Parry inherited a school categorised as 'red'. After one-and-a-half academic years, it was back to where it should've been in the first pace: 'green', having leapfrogged 'amber'.
And, in an article in the spring 2023 edition of Town and Around, he said that his changes directly resulted in 250 pupils having far better life chances because of a 20 per cent improvement in GCSEs resulted in more A level entrants and subsequently more university opportunities.
He also felt he had stabilised the school's finances. As Alice Cooper said,
'Now that I'm a man, Every penny has been planned, I'm financially grand'
We're sure that both Messrs Cooper and Parry's pension pots are grand, too! One if not both have probably earned it.
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Brynhyfryd