Gareth is youngest headmaster

A "likely lad" who left school with four GCSEs has turned his life around and become the youngest head in Staffordshire.

Though he has only been teaching for seven years, late developer Gareth Morris has taken on the role at Stafford's Flash Ley Primary in an impressive homecoming move.

The 32-year-old admits he was a "likely lad" with little interest in his studies when he was a teenager growing up on Stafford's Highfields estate. A pupil of King Edward VI High School, he missed lessons, didn't listen to his teachers and couldn't wait to leave at the age of 16 so he could join the army.

Mr Morris did sign up for the Intelligence Corps but his career as a soldier was cut short when he badly injured his knee in training. After that, he came home to Stafford and decided to re-take his exams at Stafford College.

He achieved his GCSEs and A-levels and went to work in sales for a year, but it was during a stint as a teaching assistant in Crewe that Mr Morris found his true calling in life. He then went on to train as a teacher, first at Staffordshire and then at Keele University. Once qualified, the father-of-two rapidly climbed the ladder at several Cheshire schools and rose to be the deputy head at Wheelock Primary in Sandbach. In between all this, he also managed to raise a family, graduate as an officer in the Territorial Army and gain a masters degree in management from the Open University.

And when Flash Ley needed a new head following the retirement of David Lewis, Mr Morris says he saw an ideal opportunity to return to his hometown and further his career goals at the same time.

He said: "It's an area I'm used to and I wanted to give something back – I saw it as a good way to put back into my local community. I think Flash Ley is a very good school that can be an outstanding school. It's my job to see that by the time our children leave in year six, they will have the belief in themselves that they can do whatever they want in life." Mr Morris added he hoped his own personal story, together with the glamour of being a real-life soldier, would help to inspire youngsters at the Hawksmoor Road school.

"It's all about attitude, and coming from my own background I think education is the way to give those children life chances," he said.