A HEAD TEACHER is set to bid an emotional farewell to a primary school after a decade.

Sharon Buckland has overseen the move to a new site and getting some of the best SATs results in the country in 2016.

She has been head teacher at Lulworth and Winfrith Primary School since 2007 but will be retiring at the end of the summer term.

Despite the plans to say goodbye, Mrs Buckland will be leaving the school on a strong foundation after a successful 2016.

In February, the school made the long-awaited move to its new junior site in West Lulworth, with a range of representatives gathering at the school in August for the official opening.

The building came as a result of a four-year process after Lulworth and Winfrith First School became a primary school for 140 pupils aged between four and 11. Younger pupils are based at the Winfrith site with the juniors based in Lulworth.

Mrs Buckland said that the move had been “brilliant and described the new building as “fantastic”.

The new site boasts a greatly-enhanced school environment to help accommodate the additional year groups.

Then, as much of the county struggled with new SATs exams, with Dorset being placed in the bottom five local authorities meeting standards in reading writing and maths, Lulworth and Winfrith celebrated very strong results. While just 45 percent of pupils in Dorset met the required standard in reading, writing and maths, 89 percent at Lulworth and Winfrith hit the standard in all three subjects, the best in the area.

Mrs Buckland said: “The results were absolutely exceptional, and we’re expecting similar results this year.”

She paid tribute to “incredible” staff for making all the results possible and added: “After 10 years as head, I’m retiring. I’m leaving it in a good place and it’s time for whoever comes in to help it make that next step forward. The last 10 years have been a challenge but every day here has been a really happy day.”