A HEAD teacher has said goodbye to her Downend junior school after ten years in charge.
Dr Pippa Osborne joined Christ Church C of E Junior School 12 years ago as deputy head, before taking over from Alex Wilkinson, who had been the head for 19 years, in 2016.
Having helped guide the school in Pendennis Road through a decade of change and challenges, Pippa is moving away from the front line.
She said: “I know that it’s the right time. I want to end this chapter with my head held high, knowing the school is in a great place.
“The school has grown and developed and evolved so much over the last 12 years, I’m so proud of where it is.
“It’s right for me and my family to have a new challenge.
“I’m not sure what the challenge will be yet but I know I want to step away from frontline head teaching.
“It’s all-consuming, with typically 70-hour weeks – the amount of time and pressure it takes is phenomenal.”
Pippa said that since the pandemic the “level of need” schools face in child safeguarding, behaviour, mental health and special educational needs, has massively increased.
The emotional strain placed on head teachers – and the need for them to be given right professional support and supervision to protect their own mental health – was the subject of Pippa’s thesis for her recent Doctorate in Education degree at the University of the West of England.
She has been asked to write a chapter for a book dedicated to the issue, and hopes to be involved in the national dialogue about bringing about change, which the National Association of Head Teachers is pushing for.
Pippa said: “To offer support at the point of crisis is too late. Like a seatbelt, you don’t wait until you crash to put it on.”
During Pippa’s time at Christ Church Juniors, the school has had three visits from Ofsted inspectors, who have judged it to be ‘good’ under previous rating systems, most recently last year.
It has also just had its latest Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) report, which said the school “is living up to its foundation as a Church school and is enabling pupils and adults to flourish”.
Pippa grew up in London and Hong Kong, and became a teacher after working with young people in India and Africa on a gap year. She worked as a Key Stage 2 leader in North Somerset before coming to Christ Church.
As she prepared to step down she said: “I’ve no regrets about doing it but I do have a great sense of sadness and loss – this place has given me a sense of belonging, identity and purpose, and I love the team, I love the community and it’s hard to walk away from that.
“The school is in a very strong place for a new head to come in.”
The new head teacher is Edward Huxley, who is coming from Fonthill Primary Academy in Southmead.
Pippa said: “He will continue what’s been happening – our culture and ethos is so much bigger than me, and it’s lived by my whole team.
“I have every confidence that the school will continue to go from strength to strength.”