A Welsh former head teacher has been awarded an MBE for services to education. Meredydd James, now employed as a business development officer for New Directions Education Ltd spent over seven years as head teacher for Rhymney Comprehensive School, having previously been deputy head at the school for 14 years.

Mr James retired from his head teacher post in August 2011. He left the position having led the school to an 11% improvement on GCSE grades from 2010.
Upon receiving the honour he comments “I am obviously delighted at receiving this award, it has been a truly humbling experience. Whilst I am privileged to receive the MBE, I have worked alongside many wonderful people throughout my career who have been continuously supportive. I hope to continue my work within the sector with my role at New Directions”.

Gary Williams, Managing Director for New Directions Education Ltd adds “We were delighted to welcome Meredydd to the team. With his knowledge, passion and commitment to the education sector we knew he would add great value. The MBE is thoroughly deserved”.

The MBE award was established in 1917 by King George V. It acknowledges and recognises individuals work within their communities. Mr James has dedicated over 40 years of his career to the education sector

Gerald Lyons, Chief Economist for Standard Chartered remarked “the UK has already slipped back into recession this quarter, and firms are thinking twice about making investments”.

In direct response to the report John Andrews, Group Director of Operations for New Directions Holdings Ltd says “As one of Wales recognised fastest growing companies, we continue to thrive despite the reported downturn. We acknowledge any change within the country’s economy cannot be ignored; so as we look to the future we try to develop new markets to keep Wales buoyant.”

New Directions Holdings Ltd continues to diversify into new markets. In recent years they have expanded into the rest of the UK with offices in Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham and London.

For more information contact Ruth Dalton on 07807617905 or

ruth.dalton@new-directions.co.uk

Notes to editor:

New Directions Holdings has head offices in Cardiff and controls diverse recruitment companies that service both public and private sector clients from across the UK. Its companies recruit within the education, social and domiciliary, pharmacy and corporate sectors and are widely regarded as market leaders in their fields.

Our subsidiary companies employ in excess of 70 full time staff that maintain up to 2,000 temporary employees each week.

The New Directions Group of companies’ experiences annual increases in turnover in excess of 30% and is regarded as one of the fastest growing recruitment brands in the UK.

Cardiff Bus has been advised by the two Trade Unions representing its employees, UNITE and UNISON, that, following a ballot of its members, their members intend to take part in strike action on the 30 November in relation to proposed changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

The strike action means that insufficient employees will be attending work to allow Cardiff Bus to safely run a bus service. As a result, the company has confirmed that all of its services are cancelled on 30 November.

Managing Director of Cardiff Bus, David Brown, says: “It is with regret that we confirm that bus services on Wednesday will be withdrawn as a result of strike action. We had hoped to have sufficient staff numbers to be able to run a limited service but, unfortunately, this is not possible. We will, however, be operating a full service again from Thursday 1 December.