After all, it was twenty years ago. I often talk about the Porth County opportunity for socially deprived pupils from working / lower working class homes and what it did for them. Admissions Tutors at Oxford and Cambridge werent minded to admit that any good thing could come out of a Welsh mining valley. John On The Rhondda is broadcast at about 3.15pm as part of David Arthurs Wednesday Afternoon Show onRhondda Radio, All episodes of the John On The Rhondda podcast are availablehere, John Geraints debut in fiction, The Great Welsh Auntie Novel, is available from all good bookshops, or directly fromCambria Books. Year after year, exceptional candidates with exceptional results were rejected out of hand. I chose Cymraeg. Born in Llwynypia, the son of Daniel Thomas and Violet, with a younger brother Norman, Vernon attended Tonypandy Grammar School. Jammy to come under the sway of Santos and his staff and their ambitions. Continuing our series written by John Geraint, author of The Great Welsh Auntie Novel, and one of Waless most experienced documentary-makers. [1], The origins of the school dates back to the creation of Porth Higher Elementary School in 1904. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. The school was built to cater for pupils between the ages of ten and fifteen years-old, but there were many problems from the start. Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Glamorgan, Wales. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. View the catalogue description for. Many of them excelled, too, on the rugby pitch. [7][8] The school was formed in 1973 by the amalgamation of two leading grammar schools, Porth County Girls and Porth County Boys, along with the amalgamation of the Secondary Modern Schools of Llwyncelyn, Trealaw and Ynyshir. Her enthusiasm for world cinema and opera were also transmitted to friends of all ages. So, in 2002, this crazy idea came to me how about making a film where that favourite poem of mine, Y Ffynhonnau got recited by every child who was at Welsh school in the whole Rhondda? Paul Kelso, Duncan Mackay and Matthew Taylor, "Headteacher dedicated life to his pupils", 'Porth County Community School' 2003 Demolition, "From gym to club to school: the shock spread of steroid abuse", "Actor Michael Sheen to visit local school", "Michael Sheen hits out at lack of drama funds", "Eleven schools could shut in 75m Rhondda education shake-up ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Porth_County_Community_School&oldid=1096285706, Educational institutions established in 1973, Short description is different from Wikidata, Infobox mapframe without OSM relation ID on Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 15 out of 212 secondary schools in Wales (as of 2014), This page was last edited on 3 July 2022, at 13:37. A true education, as those early pioneers of schools in the Rhondda knew, makes the very best in human learning and human experience accessible to all. [7][8]The school was formed in 1973 by the amalgamation of two leading grammar schools, Porth County Girlsand Porth County Boys, along with the amalgamation of the Secondary Modern Schoolsof Llwyncelyn, Trealawand Ynyshir. And even if you left school at 14, as my dad and others like him did, there were still a lotof decentlypaid blue-collar jobs to go to. Porth County Porth County Grammar School for Boys Porth Grammar School. From The Very Beginning.. Enter your email address to receive instant notifications of new articles. [10][11] He retired from the school in 1984, and after retiring, he wrote a number of books about Porth, including one about his experiences as headmaster at 'Porth County'. Porth County Grammar School badge and report card images by John Geraint The Ranch But, like Santos, Porth was a school with something of a split personality. Her first teaching posts were in the private sector, at Wycombe Abbey school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and then at the City of London school for girls in central London. Porth County Grammar School for Girls Websites Websites Friends of Sorrento http://www.friendsofsorrento.co.uk Friends of Sardinia http://www.friendsofsardinia.com Company Website. The Wild West had nothing on it. Children of various ages attend the school, ranging from 316 years old. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. It is not a new language nor is it an accent of English. Theresa May has also said Britain needs an industrial strategy and to be a world leader in trade. Porth Community School is a Community School located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. The curse of every childs life. The secondary modern boys wore plain jumpers and would try to throw stones at you, but you knew you were the superior race. Or, you can request a quotation for a copy to be sent to you. Enter your email address to receive instant notifications of new articles. I was lucky in Porth County: I had a succession of brilliant and committed Welsh teachers Berian Davies and Delyth John, Olwen Peters and Eleanor Aubrey. It was The Way Out the means of escape from the drudgery of the pits. On St. Davids Day, the girls would get dressed up in Welsh hats and shawls, the boys might wear a small cloth leek, wed have a short Concert and sing Calon Lan maybe, and then wed dash out of school for our half-day off and that would be that, as far as Welshness was concerned, for the rest of the year. We did think of Welsh like that, but it was our language too. We place some essential cookies on your device to make this website work. The compulsion to fit in, the desire to stand out. And loads of other top-class talents from the Rhondda: the actors Daniel Evans from Cwmparc and Judith Roberts from Ferndale; the wonderful folk singer from Treherbert, Siwsann George; and the legendary Penygraig rock guitarist, Tich Gwilym. And its still one of my proudest achievements that we did it, we won First Prize in the Eisteddfod we beat Rhydfelen at their own language their own language there you go, another strange phrase. Vernon had also recently prepared for publication his own collection of poems entitled Rhondda Recalled in Rhyme, an account of what he describes as our often forgotten precious past.. Miners put pennies aside, built schools for their sons and daughters, and when universal secondary education became a right, the Rhondda Borough Council invested heavily in it. The sheer torture of the whole deal. Cilla recalled telling Ringo to "post the [wedding] bands in 48 hours and I'll do it". My friend Richard Lewis, who has died aged 78, was a distinguished television producer and director, who worked for BBC Wales for more than 25 years. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. The fights, the boredom, the worry. Maybe the maverick in him was attracted to a degree of anarchy. There were lots of jobs for grammar-school boys - and we were all boys - and no one worried about the future. During his time at the school, Jones was affectionately known as 'Santos' by the pupils, due to his Mexican "demeanor" and "moustache". The teachers you hated. John On The Rhondda is based on John Geraints popular Rhondda Radio talks and podcasts. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Hugely interesting! Are they definitely Rhondda grammar schools? I started in a grammar school that turned into a comprehensive school. But I was a contrary so-and-so. Much as the British voter may be nostalgic forMalory Towersand dreadGrange Hill, we need to look beyond the promises of boaters, blazers and extra Latin prep which will send only a tiny handful of our children to Oxbridge to read PPE. It seems to come from a macho gym culture. There was a row of big sliding, folding windows that could fully open on the south side of the building. Promoted to studio director in 1963, when I first met him in the news department, Richard worked on innovative news programmes including Wales Today and the first Welsh-language magazine programme, Heddiw. Gill Rowlands has died at a hospice near her home in Hemingford Grey, Cambridgeshire. Porth Community School is located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. You might well have had a Porth County boy as a teacher or even as a headmaster - well-educated Welsh school boys went on to many such roles. The place was packed out. Jammy that our time happened to be the very time when the Boys began to meet the Girls in class as well outside of school. This information will help us make improvements to the website. You can order records in. Get this The Spokesman-Review page for free from Thursday, May 15, 1919 SMAN-REVIEW. On the first Monday in September, 1956, fifty or so scholarship girls travelled from all over the Rhondda (on the red Rhondda Transport buses) to attend their first day at Rhondda County Grammar School for Girls (known as Porth County). We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. In Porth, we were given the choice of two languages to learn Welsh or French. This information will help us make improvements to the website. The school wasn't opened to the public until 19 January 1905. [11], After six to seven weeks of preparation, a demolition team reduced parts of the 'upper school' to a pile of rubble during the weekend of 31 May to 1 June 2003, with site clearance taking place within the subsequent weeks following the demolition.[12]. During lessons, it was a crammer: the masters dictated, and the pupils filled their notebooks with the formulae and theorems that would secure outstanding grades from the WJEC. Richard avoided it by qualifying as a biology teacher, but found his creativity stifled. Read tagging guidelines. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. He was given the affectionate nickname of Santos because of his black, curly hair and moustache. We could bring back every damn aspect of my grammar School, and some of it would be heaven to someone like me. There followed a succession of compelling network dramas in close collaboration with the writer Paul Ferris, most notably Dylan: Life and Death of Poet (1982), Nye (1981), about Aneurin Bevan, the founding father of the NHS, and The Extremist (1984), on the attempted bombing of the Prince of Waless investiture in 1969. Between lessons, when the teachers retreated to the Staff Room, it could be bedlam. The falling out and the falling in. 15 out of 212 secondary schools in Wales (as of 2014). Porth Community School is a Community School located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. She is survived by her siblings, Myra and me, and by a large extended family of nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews. Support our Nation today - please donate here. BREVITIES-11 I cJ LOG RIDE FATAL 1 i MORE , MEN REGAIN JOBS! Help us improve catalogue descriptions by adding tags. If you would like to donate to help keep Nation.Cymru running then you just need to click on the box below, it will open a pop up window that will allow you to pay using your credit / debit card or paypal. Smells. Porth Community School is a Community School located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. May be an image of 1 person and text that says 'WIKIPEDIA Mako Vunipola Article Talk A Vunipola (born 14 January 1991) professional rugby union player who plays loosehead prop English club Saracens and the England national team. Paula Bailey Butlins Holidays Wales Beach Porthcawl Nostalgic Pictures Hartlepool London History Seaside Resort Worlds Away Want the latest Rhondda news sent straight to your inbox? There are adverts for jobs in banks, building societies and local industry, because most boys went straight from school to professional careers. . More disturbingly, The Guardian discovered that the use of steroids was "spreading" from the gym to the playground. His collaboration with writers continued with William Nicholson, on the Bafta-winning, original television film Shadowlands, in 1985. Let us know. If not, be warned We waited for the terrible threat. [13] Steve Bowden (the school headteacher at the time) commented: "It is becoming more apparent now. Its fair to say that many Rhondda people thought that sending your child to Rhydfelen was posh, and a bit snobby. l For further information on this annual event please ring Pearl (nee Jenkins) McCabe (01834 871733) or Diane (nee Davies) Coombs (01443 227148). The group is for ex pupils to get in touch with fellow pupils and share memories Private Only members can see who's in the group and what they post. We also may change the frequency you receive our emails from us in order to keep you up to date and give you the best relevant information possible. He adored his own boys his grandsons, Greg, Alex and Owen and his great-grandchildren Rowan, Sadie, Sebastian and Poppy. At the same time the school was merged with the Pupil Teachers College, where once a week students would take turns in teaching their peers. And this fact is what nobody is mentioning now. Porth County proved it! This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. For me, because poems and plays were my thing, that last piece of luck was the best of all: because I fell under the spell of someone who would never have taught me otherwise, one of the Girls School staff: an inspirational English teacher who knew how to conjure life out of words on a page, how to spark magic on stage, how to work the alchemy that brings poetry alive in young minds. Nothing to do with the above school, entirely different schools in different areas. So the education I experienced gave a phenomenal boost for the careers of a fewanda good boost to many because of the range of middle-class jobs on offer. Its architect was Rowland Lloyd Jones, who also designed most of the other Caernarvonshire schools. This is still recent folk memory, Connect with Nation.Cymru on Facebook and Twitter. The grammar school I entered was a tough rugby-playing place too. Community school in Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. This local democracy/ Senedd is not working.Read more , Rhondda in the early 1800s had a higher percentage of Welsh speakers than the most Welsh speaking parts of Gwynedd. Porth Community School is a Community School located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. I reckoned I'd have a flying start with Welsh. The Process of making this has already starting at the start of 2017 and should be finished mid 2018. But the really important story about my school and others like them was not blazers, test results or even the teaching. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! For too long the UK has separated education into a world of class and possibility. The classmates you despised. There was less emphasis on the Arts. I am tracing my family tree and my grandfathers family are all from the Porth, Ferndale, Dowlais Area. ), Italian caf owners and a man who kept champion racing pigeons. Some of my schoolmates were later imprisoned for running an extortion racket that began at school. 63, 523, 2011 issn: eissn: doi: construccin con tierra en el siglo xxi earthen construction in We could gather them all together on top of Penrhys where the poem begins and get them to recite it there. Upcoming Lectures; Lecture Archive; Projects . In November 2003, an investigation found that steroid use in South Wales was on the rise in teenagers. He was also a mentor for many young people joining the corporation at that time. Porths academic strengths were in the Sciences. The UK can be stronger but we do not have proper leaders who er, lead !! Porth Community School is a Community School located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. During his tenure, an unprecedented number of boys entered university and there were an average of eight scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge each year. Alsatian (Alsatian: Elsssisch or Elssserditsch "Alsatian German"; Lorraine Franconian: Elssserdeitsch; French: Alsacien; German: Elsssisch or Elssserdeutsch) is the group of Alemannic German dialects spoken in most of Alsace, a formerly disputed region in eastern France that has passed between French and German control five times since 1681. "Poor so-and-so, and his dad is so clever, they must feel terrible". Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Publisher: ISBN: Category : Broadband communication systems Languages : en Pages : 180 View Im told that when that college researched its own past to mark its 500th anniversary recently, it found that, in all that time, over any ten-year period, no other headmaster had secured more admissions. 04-06-08 Good Morning Porth. Porth county school for girls, Rhondda Mid Glamorgan, Have you found an error with this catalogue description? And the Cory Band. If you don't have an account please register. Jammy to pass the Eleven Plus. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. Being from Rhondda, I obviously played a lot of rugby at school level. The former pupils of that intake have been meeting in October for the past three years and, while the organisers have managed to track down most of their fellow pupils, some are still missing. Sian is passionate . If you provide contact details, we will be in touch about your request within 10 working days. 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Porth Community Schoolis a Community Schoollocated in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. The local schools did not encourage the speaking of Welsh and he was forced to learn English. [7][8] The school was formed in 1973 by the amalgamation of two leading grammar schools, Porth County Girls and Porth County Boys, along with the amalgamation of the Secondary Modern Schools of Llwyncelyn, Trealaw and Ynyshir. The hours, the days, the weeks, the whole terms when you were sick and tired of it, simply ached for it to be over, for the summer holidays to be here. I saw it when I looked at a copy of the school magazine from the 1960s. Please ensure the tag is appropriate for the record. If you provide contact details, we will be in touch about your request within 10 working days. At the time, so its pupils boasted, with schoolboy exaggeration, there were only three such computers in the whole world in the Kremlin, the Pentagon and Porth County. You need to sign in to tag. Y Goedwig Since retirement in 1984 he has written many books on Rhondda including Porth County: The School and Its Boys and William Evans: The Prince of Porth. He wrote the foreword and edited A Rhondda Boy by Ivor Howells and the foreword to books of Rhondda photographs by David Carpenter. Corpus Christi, Oxford had quite a few students from the Rhondda because of that school, and even Nasa drew on talent from Porth County. Pressure, pressure, pressure from parents to excel, from peers to be normal, from yourself just to be yourself, in spite of them all. The unfairness of it all. Jammy to be born in the Rhondda where education was valued. At the time the vast majority of children in the Rhondda were born into poverty. Once a year, a Trio of stiff classical musicians were summoned up from Cardiff to bring us the delights of Mozart and Beethoven. [17], Along with eleven other schools (three secondary and eight primary schools) in the surrounding areas, 'Porth County Community School' could face closure.