A SCHOOL teacher who grew up in Flintshire before moving to Thailand has just released his third book about his profession.

Richard James Rogers, originally from Flint, moved to the Far East in 2008 to teach Chemistry at an international school in Bangkok, having previously taught for a couple of years at the Catholic High School in Chester.

And such has been his success, he has written books which provide teachers with a range of tips and techniques that are vital for being a good school teacher.

On inspiration to write the books, Richard, 38, said: "For some reason, I was always a natural at teaching high school students.

"The kids just seemed to 'click' with me - both in the UK and here in Thailand later on. I seemed to be having fewer behaviour management challenges than a number of my colleagues - but I was by no means immune to dealing with such challenges.

"I realised that I had a message to tell the world when one of my former students here in Thailand graduated from a UK university with a degree in German language. That student had started learning German with me at an after-school club for only an hour a week, and was so inspired by the subject that she went on to study the language at degree level, years after I had left that school.

"I tried to figure out what I was doing that worked well, so I wrote everything down - from using ICT in the classroom all the way to how I communicate with parents.

"Later, I decided to publish all of this information in a nice book-format: mostly as a way for me to remember the clumsy mistakes I had made over the past 10 years as a teacher, along with the many victories in the classroom that I was lucky to have had."

Richard says the first book, titled The Quick Guide to Classroom Management: 45 Secrets That All High School Teachers Need to Know, was originally designed to be more of a memory-jogger for himself than anything else.

But the book has proved a huge success, with tens of thousands of copies being sold worldwide and Richard being awarded the prestigious Readers' Favourite Bronze Medal - even being invited to an awards ceremony in Miami, which was sadly cancelled due to pandemic.

Richard admits he has been taken totally by surprise by the success of the book.

"The idea that I might be able to help a few teachers here and there with my information was more of a 'bonus' aspiration for the book. I had no idea that it would become as successful and as popular as it eventually did," he said.

And Richard's third book, inspired by the effects the coronavirus pandemic has had on teaching and tips and tricks of teaching remotely, was released on Saturday.

It, like the award-winning Quick Guide to Classroom Management, is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Abe Books and all good retailers.

Richard says he plans at some point to return to the UK to give back to the community he grew up in.

He said: "I have big plans for Flint, for example, which I hope I can bring to fruition one day. Flint gave me the best friends a man could ask for, jobs when I really needed some, money to get by and a great education - I went to St. Richard Gwyn High School and St. Mary's Primary school and was taught by many excellent teachers.

"Also, Flint has one of the best libraries in the region and this was a godsend for me - my home life wasn't very stable during my GCSEs and Flint library gave me a quiet place to study when I needed it the most."