A SUCCESSFUL head teacher has been asked to leave shortly after handing in her notice.

Heather Barraclough was said to be surpised when governors at Thurlbear Primary School told her she would not have to work out her notice.

Mother-of-three Mrs Barraclough had expected to continue until next April, but the governors felt it would be too disruptive for her to quit part way through a school year.

She is leaving after almost five years at Thurlbear to take up the reins at the Levels Academy, in Langport.

Deputy head Steve Gillan has been installed as acting head teacher for the academic year starting in September and is being encouraged to apply for the post full time at the 212-pupil school.

Thurlbear chairman of governors Vic Freir said: "Heather handed in her notice several weeks back as she's moving to another job.

"She gave plenty of notice and was due to leave in April.

"But the governors didn't want to have a disruption during the course of the academic year so chose to appoint an acting head for a complete academic year without the disruption of a change of headship.

"We said, 'You can leave before' - it's fairly unusual in the teaching profession and came as a bit of a surprise to her, but she accepted the decision."

Mr Freir declined to say whether Mrs Barraclough will be paid up to April, saying it was confidential information.

He added: "We had no difficulty in respect of Heather continuing as head teacher.

"She's done an exceptional job over the last almost five years, with some excellent achievements and really good Ofsted results.

"She's really brought the school up and we're very grateful for her achievements. We're sad she's decided to leave.

"The school has made great progress from the position it was in five years ago to the position we're in now."

The governors will now start the recruitment process to find a permanent replacement from September 2017 for Mrs Barraclough, who lives in Castle Cary.

Referring to Mr Gillan, who has been at Thurlbear for four years, Mr Freir said: "Steve is well respected within the school and we'd hope that he would apply for that role.

"But we're not going to rush into an appointment for the sake of it."