Chipping Sodbury School has announced that it has appointed a permanent headteacher.

Katherine Turner, who has been a member of staff at the school for a number of years, was appointed after taking charge of the school on an interim basis since October of last year.

The announcement was made after a letter was sent home to parents of the students at the school.

The letter, from Robert Owen, the chaimanr of governors, revealed the delight that a decision had been made on the permanent successor to Gareth Millington who left late last year.

“I am delighted to let you know that following a national advert and rigorous two-day selection process, the governing body has appointed Katherine Turner in the permanent role of headteacher with immediate effect,” he said in the letter.

“The governors have great confidence that Katherine will continue to build on the huge strengths of the school whilst ensuring that the improvement areas identified by Ofsted in June earlier this year are rigorously progressed.”

The school is also celebrating fantastic results from the summer as the classification of results come in across the region. The A-level results have been found to be the best in South Gloucestershire and St Brendan’s.

Their English and Maths scores at GCSE are also the best in the area, as the school and Ms Turner looked to act upon feedback given from their Ofsted report.

In the inspection earlier this year the organisation graded the school as ‘requires improvement’, however the overall judgement showed that remarkable progress had been made with Ms Turner at the time stating that ‘the inspectors described the school as being on the cusp of something brilliant’.

Chipping Sodbury will now prepare for a visit from Ofsted at some point before July, but Ms Turner is delighted that they can now look forward.

"It is a great honour to have been appointed as permanent Headteacher at Chipping Sodbury School," she said.

"We have a school community full of delightful, hard working and well behaved students.

"The strong results in the summer exams demonstrate the successes of our determination to further improve outcomes for our students; with the best scores for English and Maths grade 4+ in the area and sustained positive value added for post-16.

"Again, some of the best results compared to other colleges and schools. This is a reflection of our continued display of excellence and the hard work of students and staff.

"I remain committed, along with our governors and colleagues from the local authority to be a truly outstanding school. We are well on our way!"