Great expectations of pupils key, says head

A HEADTEACHER at a top-performing primary school in Yorkshire where pupils speak no fewer than 28 languages has been awarded an OBE for services to education.

By The Newsroom

Published 14th Jun 2013, 23:30 BST

Pauline Gavin has run St  Bartholomew’s CE Primary School in Armley, Leeds, for a quarter of a century.

Despite the challenges of teaching at a school in a deprived community where the numbers of youngsters who qualify for free school meals is well above the national average, it has emerged in league tables as the best in the country in the value added to its pupils’ performance.

Mrs Gavin has attributed the outstanding success of the school to hard work and having high expectations of pupils, with the school team working together to improve every youngster and identifying those needing extra support.

The school operates a non-exclusion policy and has seen numbers of pupils on its roll increase from 300 to 500 in under three years.