A head teacher who took Halwin School from poorly performing to above the national average in less than three years has said goodbye to pupils one last time.

Vicky Sanderson joined the school in September 2014 when it was falling 15 per cent below the standard for attainment, and leaves it performing above national average in reading, writing and mathematics for key stages one and two.

On Friday, the school thanked her for everything she had done, before she moves on to take up a role at Mylor School.

The school held an open assembly to which parents were invited, with the children putting on a play for their outgoing head, before a leaving party, and Mrs Sanderson was also given goodbye gifts from the pupils.

She said: "It's been an absolute pleasure to be here.

"There has been a lot of change, we've entirely changed everything from the school building, uniform, lunches, to the curriculum, taking the children with us and providing the best for them.

"The families have been amazing, and I had amazing staff and governors, our PTA have raised more than £10,000 to support the school.

"It's indicative of how supportive parents and the community are of this little school - we only have 81 on the roll, and it was 76 when I started."

In the time that Mrs Sanderson was at the school, its Ofsted performance went from 'requires improvement' to 'good,' but she says she was not on her own, and was helped by "a big team of people, they just needed somebody to inspire them."

She added: "The children here are incredible. So compassionate and supportive of one another. It's what makes this school what it is."

Mrs Sanderson also offered a "really, really big thank you" to the governors, staff, parents and community, and "the biggest thank you of all to the brilliant children, because they have made my time here wonderful."

Asked about her favourite memories of her time at Halwin, Mrs Sanderson said most of them were about the children working together.

But one of her favourite memories was a time the children and staff were out on a coasteering trip with Elemental, and she was listening to the children supporting each other as they jumped off a cliff into the water below, "and they all did it... it was a team effort."

"One of the boys said 'I'll only do it if you do it,' and then I had to, I was expecting it to only be the children. And it was great fun."

Mrs Sanderson said while she feels sad to be saying goodbye to Halwin, she is also "excited" to be moving on to her new job at Mylor Bridge, and knows that the school "is in a really good place... to keep the momentum forward."

She added: "It's time to go."