A HEADTEACHER will take an eight-month sabbatical after nearly ten years at her post.

Seaford Head School’s Lynton Golds will leave her post on Monday to join Ofsted and train up as a lead inspector until the end of the academic year.

Once trained, Mrs Golds will go back to her post as and will be able to act as Ofsted inspector. Her replacement will be Helen Key, who has been promoted from deputy headteacher to acting headteacher.

Mrs Golds said: “I am immensely proud to have led SHS so successfully for such a long time, during which, we have achieved so much.

“By this, I mean everyone, the staff, the parents, the students and the governors.

“Where we are now, has been a team effort and I have every confidence that the school will continue to make progress during my absence. “I am looking forward to returning for the start of the next academic year when the school will be over-subscribed for the first time, with 236 first preferences.”

Mrs Golds joined Seaford Head in 2005 when the school was in Special Measures.

And chair of governors Sally Laidlaw said the head had worked “tirelessly” to make the school an outstanding school, “a school the community of Seaford has every right to be proud of”.

She added: “Lynton and Helen have worked very closely together for almost ten years and share the same fundamental principles for effective school improvement.

“I am confident that Seaford Head will continue to make progress.”