By REBECCA DIXON rebecca.dixon@hexham-courant.co.uk

Last updated at 20:33, Friday, 05 March 2010

AFTER a turbulent year of management and leadership problems, Allendale Middle School has welcomed a new headteacher to the post.

Looking to the future: Allendale Middle School’s new headteacher Susan Hickey is pictured with, left, vice chairman of the school council Francesca Barnes and, right, chairman Nina Mitchell-Thorburn.

Susan Hickey took over last week at the helm of a school recovering from a tricky year.

After the school received an Oftsed report in March last year branding its management as “exceptionally low” and “inadequate”, the chairman and vice chairman of governors, Hilary Robson and Ed Brown, were ousted and headteacher Ruth Bradley took immediate retirement.

Since then, the school has been progressing well under the leadership and guidance of a joint acting headship team.

School deputy Julie Howard stepped up to the role with Gail Wade, who was seconded from Hexham’s St Joseph’s Middle School.

The pair worked hard to ensure that the school started to improve and, at an Oftsed monitoring inspection, they were rated as having made satisfactory improvement.

Now Mrs Hickey has the task of continuing to raise the standards at the school and gain the trust of parents.

For almost three years, she has worked as deputy head and maths lead at Westoe Crown Primary School in South Shields, which was criticised for its leadership, management, and maths delivery at its last Ofsted inspection in March.

But she is confident that her past experience on the school improvement team in South Tyneside and her role as a deputy head will give her plenty of experience to draw on in her new role.

She said: “I’m excited about moving forward with the school and making Allendale become the good school it is.

“A lot of positive input has gone into the school in the recent past and I just need to support the school and staff and help them move forward even more.”

Mrs Hickey’s appointment comes in time for the next Ofsted progress monitoring visit, which is expected within the next few months.

She said: “In the coming weeks and months we will be getting the school ready for the re-visit from Ofsted and I will be making sure the school is moving forwards in the right direction.”

But management and leadership are not Mrs Hickey’s only priorities at the school.

As a maths specialist, she hopes to be able to keep her hand in with day to day teaching and has already taken on the role of tutoring pupils who need extra support.

Mrs Hickey said: “I love teaching and it’s great to see that light bulb moment when it clicks in place for the student; it makes your heart skip a beat.”

And outside of the classroom, Mrs Hickey hopes to build on the links already established within the local community.

Having moved to the Allen Valley herself last year, the headteacher has first hand experience of the close-knit community spirit in the area.

She said: “People are very friendly and welcoming here and this is a lovely community to live in.

“After surviving this winter, our neighbours said we will survive anything and we have got to know our snow plough driver very well!”

Although Mrs Hickey admitted she would miss her friends in South Shields, she said: “Friends and family are already asking to come and visit us up here and the country life is something we have wanted for a while.

“When we first came out here, I visited the school and I knew straight away from the vibe about the place, that it was somewhere I would love to work.”

First published at 09:46, Friday, 05 March 2010
Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk