AFTER a year of being 'interim head' the appointment has been confirmed of Sally Feeney as the new headteacher of Stanford-le-Hope's Ortu Hassenbrook Academy after passing her National Professional Qualification in Headship.

Ms Feeney, who lives in the town, is well-known to generations of local students, having spent 31 years as a teacher, including a number of years as a French and German teacher at Corringham's Gable Hall School, where she became hed of languages.

More recently she has served at Hassenbrook as assistant headteacher and senior vice principal and last year took on the role of interim head. During the last year or so, Ms Feeney has been working on key areas of school improvement, including broadening the curriculum in the school significantly.

After receiving feedback from parents wanting more option choices for KS4 pupils, Ms Feeney rapidly introduced five new subjects that year for Year 9 students, including construction.

Ms Feeney said: "I've always been passionate about providing opportunities for pupils, and the first thing I told my staff is that I wanted to make the Academy alive with these opportunities – clubs, trips, visits, volunteering, overseas trips, links with employers and universities – letting pupils know there's a whole world out there at their fingertips, particularly post Covid, where we had missed all those opportunities.

"That's why I booked a New York trip within weeks of becoming head with our pupils!"

She added: "I also overhauled our assessment system to boost pupil's self-esteem and self-worth – so, we focussed on what pupils know and can do, and not just what grade they are at; education is more than numbers.

"I have also been meeting with all the parents and pupils in year 11 individually to establish those relationships with them in this very important year for them."

As someone who has lived in the Stanford-le-Hope community her whole life, with her children also attending school locally, Ms Feeney says her aim is to establish fantastic relationships with both students and their parents at Ortu Hassenbrook Academy.

She added: "I try to always take time to make that phone call to either praise or support a pupil, even before taking on the role of head teacher at Hassenbrook Academy. I didn't know I would still be teaching in the community all these years later and I love that I teach the children of pupils I taught all those years ago - and as I live in the community, it is so lovely to bump into those ex-pupils and find out what they are doing now and how successful they are."