ONE of the county’s youngest headteachers has spoken of her happiness at completing her first term in charge of a village primary school.

Alison Ashcroft began her first headship at Sutton Courtenay All Saints Church of England School in September.

The mother-of-two from Didcot said she has had to adjust from her role as deputy head at Chilton Primary School, which she held for 10 years.

But the 38-year-old said: “I suppose I am relatively young for a headteacher and I feel that has given me a different approach to the job.

“When I came here I knew it would be a challenge, but I like that, and it certainly has been, especially with having two small children.

“But the help I’ve received since I’ve been here has been amazing, I’ve got a great teaching team and the children are great. They’re the reason I came here in the first place.”

Mrs Ashcroft began teaching in 1995 and became one of the county’s youngest deputy headteachers when she took on the role at Chilton Primary School in 2000.

Of her new school she said: “The previous head had done a huge amount of work in developing a positive ethos and that is something I really want to keep going and improve upon.

“We are just about to go wireless, so children will be able to access the Internet from laptops wherever they are in school, which means we can use the computer suite for something else.

“Also, I’ve been given the go-ahead for a new adventure playground at the school, which is something that will be built over the next few months and is very exciting.”

Governor Alison Bampton, 41, of Lady place, Sutton Courtenay, said: “She has worked really hard and she’s brought in some new interesting ideas.

“You feel like you can always knock on her door to have a chat.”