THE new headteacher of a Barnsley primary school that dropped from ‘outstanding’ to requiring improvement is committed to raising standards to get it back where it belongs.

In its most recent Ofsted inspection, Worsbrough Common Primary School was judged as requiring improvement amid declining teaching standards, high absence rates and the development of a ‘culture of low expectations’.

But incoming head Rebecca Paddock, set to start in September, is dead-set on stabilising the school after what inspectors called a ‘period of turbulence’.

“Ofsted have said it needs to be improving outcomes, and for me that means Worsbrough Common and the community around it all being set on making the school the best it can be - for the children and their families,” said the teacher, originally from Surrey.

“It really is a great community, and there’s a sense that it is the community’s school.

“That’s something very important to me, that there is a clear vision for everybody of what we want the school to be.

“There has been a period of change, but having a full-time headteacher is going to help, especially with regards helping relationships with parents and getting them involved where we can.

“We’ve got an amazing team of teachers, so I know whatever I do is going to be supported. It’s definitely a team effort - you can’t run a school on your own.”

One thing noted in the school’s last inspection, in December, was a strong relationship between pupils - 448 of them - and adults.

And 38-year-old Rebecca, a mother of two young children, says being a parent herself has been a huge help in her work.

“It definitely gives you an insight,” she said.

“I’ve got an understanding of it from a parent’s point of view, I know what I’m talking about.

“You can’t teach passion, and that’s something we all have here.”