Ysgol Rhiwabon is celebrating Welsh history and culture by holding yearly Eisteddfod competitions for its students.
A Celebration of Culture
Ysgol Rhiwabon has held numerous student Eisteddfod events over the past years, which are a celebration of Welsh culture through music, song, poetry and language. Ysgol Rhiwabon’s most recent Eisteddfod was in July.
The historic ceremony was with the school’s sword and chair, which date back well over 100 years, keeping the tradition alive. The four competing houses Wynnstay, Madoc, Offa and Glyndwr, entered offstage and onstage competitions to win points to secure the house cup.
Reciting Pi!
Competing students are grouped into diverse categories, from Welsh poetry and script recital, drama, challenge solo, piano solo to even designing their own castles and recital of mathematics Pi!
The school’s Curriculum Leader for Welsh, Miss R Williams said: “The Eisteddfod is a fantastic experience for younger learners at the school who really embraced the Welsh language and the long standing Eisteddfodd traditions”. “It’s important that we grow these school cultural events and we look forward to building on the success of this year’s Eisteddfod”.
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History of Ysgol Rhiwabon
The school was founded in 1575 (the earliest recorded mention is from 1618) by Doctor Lloyd, Vicar of Ruabon. Back then, people referred to Ruabon Grammar School as an endowed grammar school due to its reliance on wealthy endowments to educate a select number of boys in the Ruabon parish. The School was in a building in the Churchyard that still survives to this day.
Alfred Lee Taylor
Although technically a county school, people still called it a grammar school. Remaining under the headship of Alfred Lee Taylor, the School became particularly renowned for its reputation and strong traditional values. Later, under the headship of JR Roberts, the school numbers swelled to almost 100, and the demand for an extension grew. However, the outbreak of the First World War put paid to these ambitions as the school mourned the heavy loss of its “old boys”. It lost 10 ex-students during the First World War and the school erected a monument in the hall.
Founded in 1922, the parish surprisingly provided no secondary education for girls, and even those who could afford it would have to travel to Llangollen. The proposal was to create a separate girls’ grammar school on a different site. With financial restraints hampering all efforts, an agreement decreed that the girls’ school could use land at the back of the boys’ school for a yearly rent.
In 1967, following the abolition of the 11-plus examinations, the county education committee decided to create a Comprehensive school out of the old Ruabon Grammar School. It placed Mr Eifion Ellis as the headmaster of the whole school site (both sides of the road). The quick succession of amalgamation and abolition of the Grammar schools led to the creation of Ysgol Rhiwabon, a mixed 11-16 comprehensive school with 6th form.
